Critical thinking and appraisal

You cannot take everything you find at face value. You must consider where it was published and by whom, and whether the information was created by an individual or group that was trying to present a certain message. You should ask where they got their facts. In recent years we have seen the spread of fake news, so thinking about what you are seeing, hearing or reading is essential.

Take a look at our critical thinking guide.

Next, take some time to go through the ‘Skills for Study’ critical thinking section below; you will be able to test your knowledge and think about how to apply your critical thinking skills. You will need your university username and password to login.

Critical Thinking module from Skills for Study Campus — Critical Thinking module from Skills for Study – click image.

Watch these LinkedIn Learning tutorials, the first describes scholarly vs. popular publications and the second describes how to evaluate information. You will need your university username and password. You do not need to connect your LinkedIn account.

LinkedIn Learning tutorials about evaluating information — LinkedIn Learning tutorials

Now take some time to work through this interactive learning activity about evaluating information to help you decide what is relevant and good quality. It will take about 7 minutes to complete.

By the end of this activity, you should be able to…

recognise the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ information
think critically and understand how to find good quality, reliable information
know how to get more help if you need it

Click on the image below to start the interactive (opens a new window):

You will find health specific resources below…

Critical appraisal for health and medicine
The concept of critical appraisal has emerged primarily within the health disciplines and especially the area of evidence-based medicine. This movement is founded upon the principle of establishing a close relationship between, on the one hand, the process of undertaking and reporting research and on the other, the practice of medicine or healthcare. Decisions about how to develop and implement effective and cost-efficient medical practice, interventions and applications are based on evidence which can be searched for and retrieved. It is necessary, however to establish that the evidence base being worked with is reliable, valid, relevant, as well as being of the appropriate kind and quality before it can be applied to the specific instance, or area of practice in question. The core of this approach is to understand how to analyse a piece of work in a systematic way and to make an informed judgment as to how that work matches up to other material you have analysed using the same criteria.

Take a look at the Critical Appraisal Learning Object produced by the University of Manchester (it will take about 10 minutes to work through).

Understanding Health Research is an excellent tool to get you started with your critical appraisal skills.

Please also consider Ramona Naicker’s Critically appraising for antiracism: recognising racial bias in research tool.

There are many critical appraisal tools available to help you evaluate the health literature; please find some suggestions listed below…
- Centre for Evidence Based Medicine checklists, University of Oxford (including Chinese, German and Spanish translations).
- Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklists.
- Joanna Briggs Institute checklists.
Some recommended reading…

Greenhalgh, T. (2019) How to read a paper: the basics of evidence-based medicine and healthcare. 6th edn. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell.. You will need to login with your university useraname and password, or have off-campus access connected.

The next section covers writing and structuring a literature review.

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