what are the 5 critical thinking skills

what are the 5 critical thinking skills

The Importance of Critical Thinking Skills

1. Introduction to Critical Thinking

In specific instruction, the extent of critical thinking students carry out will be different according to the quality of what is educated and the intelligence of the learners. Where most educating is at the lesser end of the cognitive domain, there is much stress on information, understanding, and application. These are the most fundamental levels of learning. However, if teachers long for student learning to take hold of high-level thinking skills, they must focus not only on cultivating these RFIP skills but also on pupils’ capabilities in the cognitive areas of investigation, critical thinking, and inventive thinking.

The attitude a critical thinker embraces is one of inquisitiveness, wonder, meticulousness, and more than doubtfulness. Critical thinking is extremely significant in a student’s learning. This is because critical thinking gives confidence to students to apply, examine, and examine information that they come across. During this process, students will build up their other considering skills. As a result, concept clarification, the assessment of beliefs, conclusions, concepts, alternatives, and problem-solving are all assessment of critical thinking and all contribute to students’ enlargement.

Critical thinking is an all-embracing term that involves a multiplicity of skills besides decisive assessment, such as thought, purpose, problem-solving, figuring out what to accept or do, and lastly belief formation.

To be a critical thinker is to be able to think independently, unforceful to reactions by mass opinion, to maintain one’s doubts and be ready to assess with new evidence. It entails looking into even the meanest of things to locate essential worth. Very differently about; it is the methodical strategy of subject, watchful without. Using knowledge and judgment to determine what to have faith or do to oneself or others. And at last, it’s the formation of view, managing through problem to reach carefully thought conclusions.

2. Analytical Thinking: Breaking Down Complex Problems

Analytical thinking is done with some goal or ideal in mind. It is more like specific thinking towards a particular end. It is purposeful thinking aimed at a goal. Any thinking that is not connected to a goal is of no value. You should prepare a checklist of the things you want to do and think if at all they are worth doing. Then continuously keep on evaluating the productive nature of those tasks by thinking on what finally helped you achieve. Coming to decisions, analytical thinkers should always take the decisions which help them move towards their goal and are best in that particular context. Analytical thinking most importantly involves the SWOT analysis for any decisions, meaning the evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the decisions taken. The analysis is the best method to get a best possible solution to any problem.

Suppose we want to cook a very good dish for dinner for some guests. Now this becomes a goal for us. To achieve this goal, we will have to take various steps and decisions. We will have to decide the dish or different dishes which we will make, check if we have all the ingredients. We will have to go and buy the ingredients if we don’t have them. Then we will start cooking the dish or dishes. This form of thinking involving a goal or an ideal and the various steps to achieve is usually known as analytical thinking.

Do you ever think hard why you feel that something is missing in your life, then are not able to get the point? Did you ever get the clear picture of your goal in your mind or of a successful person whom you wanted to follow in some field or the other? If the answer is no, then here is the solution. In this paragraph, we discuss the various aspects of thinking in relation to a goal or an ideal.

Analytical Thinking

3. Creative Thinking: Generating Innovative Solutions

However, it is obvious that there are problems in today’s society which have little or no existing solution. Thus, to find a solution, one has to creatively think up an answer. AIDS is an example of a problem with no immediate solution; it requires out-of-the-box thinking, research, and development in order to find a suitable answer for its eradication. It is surely better to train young adults to think creatively in the first place. Creative thinking is a skill 99% learn by experience. Those called upon to think up creative solutions often do poorly because they have had no prior training in creative thinking and thus revert to concretist thinking where the outcome is convenient and known. The skill of creative thinking can be learned, but it does require a conscious effort.

Creative thinking is a way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective in order to find an innovative or original solution. Creative thinking is out-of-the-box thinking. It is the form of thinking which is often not appreciated by management because it is thinking which leads to new, innovative, and original solutions. With PDP and education being thus focused on right or wrong concretist thinking, there is less and less opportunity to deviate from the norm in order to find an original and creative solution.

4. Problem-Solving: Applying Critical Thinking to Real-Life Situations

Having stated the importance of problem-solving, its importance for an individual and society should be discussed. At the individual level, an individual with strong problem-solving abilities will be a valuable resource in any workforce. The ability for this individual to make quick decisions, and weigh the positives and negatives of each solution is a consistent way to save time and effort. Effective decision makers will be able to clearly identify problems, reason through to solutions, and seldom waver from decisions that will be made. At the business level, a workforce full of effective decision makers will often find that complex problems are identified and solved rather than decision makers solving symptoms of the problems. Changing work conditions to problems solved will increase the morale of the workforce and let the workforce know it is making progress. Now what could be better for a prosperous society than groups of individuals identifying problems and creating solutions which will lead to progress?

Now that you know what critical thinking is and what its value to individuals, let’s focus on problem-solving. First, it’s important to understand that problems vary in complexity. Many or some problems have a single best solution, while others have multiple solutions that are either good or bad. Critical thinking on ways to solve problems is an activity that must always be met when there is a new problem on the horizon. By definition, a problem is any situation in which you don’t know what to do. The key to solving problems with critical thinking is ensuring that all solutions are well thought out and reasoned. When using critical thinking, you need to make sure that you have gathered an accurate set of information, a clear understanding of the problem, and identify solutions that must be based on the information that you have gathered. If there are too many solutions, and you have to decide which ones to discard to reach a viable one to pursue for the future.

5. Decision-Making: Making Informed Choices

Critical thinkers are better decision makers. Critical thinkers have the ability to understand and analyze a situation, then systematically and constantly evaluate the information and factors based on evidence. McConnell (2009) describes that evaluating options is a desire to understand an issue from all sides and wants to know the truth (cited by Burns & Sinfield, 2012). This, in turn, produces a more informed decision which can result in a positive solution. By challenging and questioning that it is the correct decision, it could result in finding a better solution than the first one. Phase three of Kruchten’s Property-based approach to identifying a Quality decision is defining the success or failure (Kruc14). This is very similar to the evaluation stage of the critical thinking decision-making model and is essential for improving future decisions by understanding and learning from the consequences of your implemented decision. An informed decision should come from learning and understanding the issue or topic. Tellingham, 1993 believes the decision to have a right or wrong choice is a problem that exists through one of the four kinds of an issue, the issue being a cause, the effect, an obligation, and value, being informed and educated of the issue lies close to becoming a good critical thinker (cited by Elder, 2007).

As humans, we are faced with a series of choices throughout our lives; from everyday choices to complex choices. This could be a simple everyday issue or a problem that requires a major solution. Understanding how to make the right decision is vital; analyzing the different aspects of the decision and the effects it will have. This is where critical thinking and decision making come into play. As McCall and Kaplan (1985) define critical thinking as the “deliberate, informed thought, with the conclusions and beliefs that emerge from such thought being subject to reevaluation and potential rejection” (cited by Burns & Sinfield, 2012). Quality decision making is crucial to advancing a situation.