elements of critical thinking

elements of critical thinking

The Importance of Critical Thinking

1. Definition and Overview of Critical Thinking

Define the term ‘critical thinking’ and present the thinking in your own words. The word ‘critical’ can have both negative and positive meanings. You can see this because it is a word with which we are all familiar in many contexts. For example, ‘he was critical of the government’s economic policy.’ This is a negative use of the word ‘critical’ because the person is using the word to show that someone is disapproving generally about the government’s economic policy. Another example of the word ‘critical’ being used in a negative way is ‘The illness had reached a critical stage.’ In this case, critical is being used to show that something is now at a very serious point. Conversely, the word can be used to describe a positive event. For instance, ‘Engineers adopted a critical approach to the design.’ This can only mean the engineer adopted a very thorough and careful approach to the design to ensure it was the best it could possibly be. Critical thinking has an unavoidable negative overtone to many people mainly because it often involves self-improvement.

Critical thinking is the ability to think about one’s thinking in such a way as to recognize its strengths and weaknesses and, as a result, to improve oneself.

2. Benefits of Developing Critical Thinking Skills

The benefits to developing your critical thinking abilities are endless. The ability to think clearly and rationally is important whatever we choose to do. If you work in education, research, finance, management or the legal profession, then critical thinking is obviously important. But critical thinking skills are not restricted to a particular subject area. Being able to think well and solve problems systematically is an asset for any career.

It is indisputable that critical thinking skills are crucial in today’s academic and business worlds. The American Philosophical Association has defined critical thinking as “the process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment assessing what to believe or what to do.” Put another way, critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally.

3. Key Elements of Critical Thinking

Analyzing: Breaking information down into parts to explore understandings and relationships. Evaluation: Judging the value of information for a given purpose. Inference: Drawing probable conclusions from the information at hand. Deductive Reasoning: Drawing a conclusion by logically considering the guises. Inductive Reasoning: Establishing the probable truth of a conclusion. The above elements of critical thinking are elements that can be used for all things in one’s life. It can be used for something as simple as a school research assignment, or it can be something major, such as making decisions about one’s future. By being skilled in the ways of critical thinking, a person can provide themselves with a more assured understanding of any situation and with this, they can likely make more informed and precise decisions.

4. Strategies for Enhancing Critical Thinking

The theme of this essay can be seen as the need for individuals to critically think about their decisions instead of taking them at face value, avoiding what opinion or decision is correct, and not making a judgment based on a biased conclusion. This essay takes an in-depth look at the above-mentioned conceptions and also offers critical thinking resources for application. This theme is shown through examining the various points of what critical thinking is, the phases of critical thinking, and the utilization of critical thinking in decision making.

In addition, strategies for use in learning and during everyday activities are offered, based on the conceptions of critical thinking. Utilizing resources from the various phases (stages) of the progression is considered. The relationship between critical thinking and learning styles is also discussed, as well as the application of critical thinking in learning and education. This essay talks about a lot of points, but mainly concentrates on the importance of critical thinking in every phase of the decision-making process, as well as the definite impact critical thinking has on an individual.

5. Application of Critical Thinking in Real-Life Situations

(1) Considering the vessel’s capsizing and sinking, the immediate scenario in the after cabin, including the quick resurrection of the skipper and mate from stupors or sleep into alert and effective action, is a striking application of critical thinking abilities, especially decision-making and clinical inference. It was approximately 1915 hours on a cloudy but not quite dark night in February, 20 miles off the coast of North Carolina. The skipper had gone off watch at 1800, leaving instructions not to be disturbed and to call him at 1930. “Tell a man to wake me if there’s any question about anything,” he added. This nearly got transformed into disaster a few minutes later when he turned in thinking that he was to take the boat at 2200. A question about the watch was first raised in the mate’s mind at 1930 when he wondered whether the skipper had meant that time to be the change instead of the appointment of a conference. A check of the ship’s time and a rumination on the skipper’s character convinced him he should go on deck and confirm. A colleague who tried to dissuade him was met with the response, “I’ve got to be sure,” and was then asked to question the skipper himself. A view of the man at strife with a makeshift job of shaving and a strong, sudden intuition that Shem had the wrong watch further convinced the mate to act. When Shem told him it was the same time he had asked to confirm and then called Captain O, there was a sense of hurried success and the change was narrowly effected. This very decision to confirm contained a double avoidance of possible serious error and an injury to self-esteem. Henceforth, in sickness and in his chastening by the race of seamen, the skipper should reflect with some gratitude on an unusual quality of mate. At this time, he has been held up not so much by the natural fatigue and depression as by the conscious and unconscious concealment and delaying of medical diagnosis and treatment due to a feeling that he was taking to submersion. Often since the pre-nervous tic stage, he was asked pointedly whether he were awaiting a rescue from someone else and Chev’s diagnosis came then as a shock in a realization of taken-for-granted escape.