Critical thinking is a vital task that must be done in our everyday lives. In “Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking” found at criticalthinking.org, Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul explain critical thinking as “the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances”. Even tough there are many different types of methods to achieve a better quality of critical thinking, Dr. Elder and Dr. Paul discuss four specific ones in the article. All strategies, however, force you to put yourself in an uncomfortable and difficult position to develop a better quality of thinking. The first strategy is clarifying your thinking. The main idea in the first strategy is to always have a very clear understanding of what others are saying to you and what you are saying to others. Until you can clearly understand what others are stating you should never answer them. The second strategy is to always stick to the point. Always ensure that your thinking is relevant to the issue. The third strategy is to ask as many questions as you can. You want to ask a question whenever you do not clearly understand everything. Also, asking questions that are not just on the surface to find deeper understandings. The fourth strategy is to be reasonable. Admitting your wrong is a big step in being more reasonable. Having the ability to hear what other people’s opinions are, and letting their opinions change your views is key in becoming a critical thinker.
1. Time Management- Relating back to what we have discussed earlier in the course the single most important strategy that I could implement in my test preparation, as well as my, course work in general is time management. I can sit here and preach about
In order to understand critical thinking better, you must first be aware of the process. There are three steps, or strategies, to the critical thinking process which are quite lengthy. They include “checking your attitude, checking for
Conciseness is the next of the strategies and one that I have spent a lot of time using myself. The main point of being conscious is to have key points when being any speech or writing for business. This can often be found in the opening of the article or speech to showcase what the key parts of
Critical thinking is a self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason in a fair-minded way at the highest level of quality. It involves skills such as analysis, clarification, evaluation, explanation, inference, judgement, objectivity, problem-solving and reasoning. Those who possess such critical thinking skills consistently attempt to live reasonably, rationally and empathically. They can efficiently solve a problem or make a decision by differentiating a useful set of information from a non-useful data. In other words, critical thinkers strive to be fair-minded by judging any situation in an unbiased and unprejudiced way. They constantly keep on improving their thinking and reasoning capabilities by skillfully analyzing, assessing and reconstructing it. Also, they aspire to develop the traits of a disciplined mind, i.e. developing the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, humility, sense of justice, perseverance, confidence in reason, courage, empathy and autonomy (Paul & Elder, 2012, p. 6). However, often strong emotions can interfere with the ability to think critically or remain fair-minded since emotions are strongly intertwined with our thoughts. Hence, in order to exercise our mind to be fair-minded, it is essential to foster valuable intellectual traits and inherent in strong-sense critical thinking.
Communication strategies, such as circumlocution, gesturing, paraphrase, or asking for repetition and explanation are techniques used by learners so as to keep a conversation going. The purpose of using these techniques is to avoid interrupting the flow of communication (Stern 1992:265).
Critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is used to describe thinking that is purposeful, reasoned and goal directed - the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihood’s, and making decisions when the thinker is using skills that are thoughtful and effective for the particular context and type of thinking task. Thus, critical thinking involves: following evidence where it leads; considering all possibilities; relying on reason rather than emotion; being precise; considering a variety of possible viewpoints and explanations; weighing the effects of motives and biases; being concerned more with finding the
My curiosity helps me a lot. Knowing what to do and how to act without being biased is very important, but so is not enough, knowing what not to do is also important, distinguishing what is good and what is bad reasoning, an example is to apply these principles in life beyond studies ([C02 Critical Thinking, nd), through small changes in attitudes. Mistakes are also valuable because to think critically is also to accept them, so often I learn a lot by accepting my mistakes, understanding what I did wrong, and why I did it, and trying to find solutions to these
The first strategy, passive, is when people observe people. This strategy is noticed when people stand back and observe from afar. The second strategy, active, is to go ask other people for their opinion. If someone has a crush on a person and they send their best friend over to talk to him or her this is an example of the active strategy. The third strategy, interactive, is engaging with a person that he or she wants information from and lastly, the fourth strategy is extractive research is when someone has a question.
5. Do individuals think in terms of strategies? Can they be taught to think in terms of strategies? Should they think in terms of strategies?
First, developing the habit of search. This entails communicating ethically and readily exploring the details and outcomes of any given situation or scenario. This rule focuses on being extremely educated of the subject you are speaking on in any context. You have to be open minded and be able to understand any opposing arguments made. Doing this prepares you for any debates, you are ready to answer
My strategies that I created were very vague, because shadowing and observing were the only ones. I should have produced more strategies, for example one of my strategies could have been to make a list of questions that I wanted answering; another strategy I could have used was to plan the physical and mental skills that are required and expected of me; I could also try to monitor my progress throughout the experience, with tests or reviews with the host. no effective planning During the preparation of my learning contract I should have increased the contact I had with my host and consulted my personal tutor as they would have given me some useful information and guidance; I should have also thought about my previous experiences so I could have applied them to the contract. I became conscious through this that I don’t ask enough questions to clarify things, and in the future will try to be more inquisitive.
Dr. Richard Paul (2006) defines critical thinking as the “disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances.” It is essentially using the best information available to make the best decisions possible. Critical thinking relies on one’s ability to ask themselves questions about a given topic or situation and be
3. State your problem with straightforward clarity without generalizations. Leedy and Ormrod (2013) point a difficulty researchers run into stating, “A researcher talks about the problem but never actually states what the problem is” (pg. 33).
Critical thinking occurs whenever someone uses analysis and objectively view a problem to come up with a solution. Critical thinking is highly important in today’s world due to an ever- increasing need of creative solutions to problems. Those who do not gain an ability to adequately use critical thinking skills, they will fall behind. According to Critical Thinking, “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. “.() Critical thinking involves many aspects to eventually improve one’s mind. Critical thinking is developed primarily due to effort on the person looking into new ways to