Essay on What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is described as unbiased, clear and factual thought process that helps any student with any decision-making process. Critical thinking is an essential tool that every student will need to master to continue academic success. There are multiple phases of critical thinking as described by Benjamin Bloom which include remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. The critical thinking process starts by remembering. If we can remember what we read and apply key facts we will be able to move forward to understand what decisions we need to make. From there we can then apply the facts to the decision we have to make and innovate, or create, as needed.

Critical thinking has an important role in learning and development because if properly executed it allows me to see the entire situation instead of the individual task. I plan to take the necessary actions to determine the task with open eyes and an unbiased approach. Remembering the facts about the situation can help in resolving the issue. Understanding by reiterating the problem can help me further comprehend. Applying then analyzing the tasks and or situations so I can prepare the steps to come to the evaluation. I can see if the resources are accurate and thorough. The last thing I should be able to do to assure my critical thinking skills are complete is a form of creating. I take all the information of this situation, and use it in my final resolution. These steps are crucial in the ability to think clearly and not be clouded by biased information.

Critical thinking helps me to make the right decision in my daily life. Every time that I have to decide something in my life, I first brainstorm to make the right choice. Every decision I make in life, it can make a change on it. One of the best ways I can relate it with my personal life is when I was going to move to Canada.

Personally speaking, critical thinking is an undervalued and underutilized tool. When confronted by a problem with another person, most people just react. In these situations, I have learned to take a step back, take an objective look at the situation, and make an informed judgment/decision. By applying critical thinking to my personal life, friendships, marriage, and my relationship with my children will have a greater chance of success and less negative confrontation.

Critical thinking’s meaning to me is a very well-disciplined thinking process of an individual who skillfully, analyzing and evaluating. A process from information gathered from information given to an individual. It also is coming from communication, observations and past experiences that the individual has experienced from the past. Critical thinking allows you to think and ask yourself the right questions so that you can reach the best conclusion.

Bassham, G., Irwin, W., Nardone, H., & Wallace, J. (2002). Critical Thinking. [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies Publishing. Retrieved August 25, 2004 from University of Phoenix, Resource, MGT/350–Critical Thinking: Strategies in Decision Making Web site: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/resource.asp

A personal experience that comes to mind when I used critical thinking to make a work-related decision happened about eight years ago. I was managing a photography studio, and we were having a problem increasing our sales for senior photography. We did mass mailings to seniors in our town and several surrounding towns but were still not exceeding the goals we set for the business. I had to brainstorm ways to increase our customers and our sales in this area.

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. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. (Critical thinking community, n.d.)

Critical thinking is not something that is foreign to our brain. We use critical thinking every single day, even if we don’t know it. Critical thinking usually involves a process of breaking down information in order to get a desired result.

Critical thinking is something I use on a daily basis as a nurse. To think critically, you recognize an issue, collect data, gather information to support it, analyze that data, evaluate it, and decide what to do about it. According to Creasia & Friberg (2011), “nursing education is shifting from a purely problem-solving approach to one in which critical reflection mediates the relationship between knowledge and action” (p. 215). As a nurse, you learn all of the “skills” throughout the years, but you also need to learn how to assess a situation and possibly make a quick decision, which is critical thinking. Critical thinking ability has been significantly correlated with nursing competence (Chang, Chang, Kuo, Yang, & Chou, 2011, p. 3228).

Critical thinking is imperative in this profession. It is my understanding that critical thinking looks at the whole situation and evaluates all contributing factors and dissects all angles. Critical thinking also allows for me to take into consideration who will be effected by the decision. believe critical thinking is a rational pathway to making informed decisions.

Critical thinking means accurate thinking in the search of appropriate and dependable knowledge about the world. Another way to describe it is sensible, insightful, responsible, and skillful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. Critical thinking is not being able to process information well enough to know to stop for red lights or whether you established the right change at the supermarket.

The concepts of critical thinking and creative thinking are both gaining increasing importance in the world today. Critical thinking allows people to understand difficult concepts in a manner that is clearer and more defined. They can more readily understand those concepts if they employ critical thinking. In all portions of everyday life, a person is expected to make independent judgments. Those judgments are based on experience and knowledge. Without the ability to think critically, every situation that a person comes across would have to be considered in isolation from all other situations. When a person encounters a problem that is a new one, he or she may be able to use critical thinking to solve those problems.

In the article “Critical Thinking: What Is It and Why It Counts” written by Peter A. Facione goes in depth on the topic of critical thinking, and reasons why it can be a beneficial in our everyday lives. Although one may think, “What does critical thinking have to do with my life?” the answer is simple. Critical thinking is thinking that has a purpose, liking proving a point, or an interpretation of an idea or thought, and solving problems. Now, all successful critical thinkers have these six abilities at the core for thinking skills: interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation. The first three skills usually try to identify, and comprehend the issue or idea at hand. The next three make a conclusion,

Critical thinking is something I don’t do very often, sometimes I just judge from looking or listening to what I see or hear but this is something I will learn with time. To learn critical thinking I will follow the steps that are required because critical thinking is something we have to learn because we are not born critical thinking. One is identifying what we are talking about. Then we have to gather information about the theme that we are talking about. The next step is to look for evidence and consider alternatives or other people points of view. Sometimes we do not want to accept what other peoples opinion is about something and that is wrong because we might learn from them. Finally we choose the best possible alternative after we have gone thru all this. Using critical thinking will allow you to make better decisions not only in the work place but also in our day to day lives. Maybe one day you will have to make a life changing decision in your job.