barriers of critical thinking

barriers of critical thinking

Importance of Overcoming Barriers of Critical Thinking

1. Understanding the Concept of Critical Thinking

Though there are many layers to the concept of critical thinking, and a good deal of the theory is abstract and difficult to apply concretely, there are many sub-skills that we consider critical thinking, such as evaluating evidence, being able to identify and diagnose issues within problems or decisions, recognizing the existence (or non-existence) of valid or invalid arguments, distinguishing the relevant and important from the unimportant, and distinguishing the general from the specific in considering or forming possible conclusions. All of these skills are helpful for problem-solving. But we should now try to understand its importance in the situation of problem-solving and decision-making. This is because the essay wants to fully explore an implicit, lesser-known application of critical thinking.

Thus, this essay is an attempt to elaborate on the concept of critical thinking and to explore its practical importance in the problem-solving process. The most generally accepted meaning of critical thinking is the attempt to assess arguments and actions by considering possible alternatives in an objective manner. In other words, critical thinking helps a person make a decision by evaluating different viewpoints and selecting the best one after making an in-depth analysis. Basically, critical thinking is the attempt to ask and answer questions in a systematic way in order to reach valid and justified conclusions. This involves using information and information processing skills as well as the reflective consideration of the merits and claims of an alternative with the purpose of rendering a conclusion that is logical and justified (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 1996).

2. Recognizing Common Barriers to Critical Thinking

Barriers to critical thinking can harm, and even severely damage intelligence and reasoning. An example of this damaged or impaired thinking is a theocracy. In its purest form, a theocracy is a government run by the leaders of a specific religion using the government to enforce the rules of the religion. Throughout history, certain forms of theocracy have been a barrier to critical thinking. This is most easily explained by contrasting the history of the loosely connected states that we now call Europe. Europe’s history is heavily inspired, to its benefit and its detriment, by religion. This contrasts heavily with the Middle East in which today many groups still long for a new era of various forms of theocracy. Europe adapted and evolved because times of religiously inspired rules often led to disaster and the Europeans were quick to learn from their mistakes. Many Middle Eastern areas do not have the “luxury” of historical trial and error, learning from mistakes with the concept being that an error in implementing religious rule always stems from a failure to be pious enough. Failure to learn from mistakes will damage intelligence and reasoning because all learning from mistakes is an exercise of critical thinking in the identification of the reasons for the mistake and the prevention of further mistakes of a similar nature.

a. Understanding Human Nature through the Ages

Before looking at the different categories of barriers that impede critical thinking, you should begin by identifying what is meant by critical thinking. The National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking defined critical thinking as the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information gathered from or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. So learning to think in good order and discipline must be an active process, a process where the different phases of the process are often used in a way that amounts to thinking things through. So if critical thinking is a key part of good decision making, what are the different types of barriers, both personal and cultural, that impede critical thinking?

3. Strategies to Overcome Barriers in Critical Thinking

3.4. Improve the development of your ability to identify and solve problems The most significant strategy for learning how to improve your thinking ability is also the simplest: to begin by developing the habit of asking the right questions. Get into the habit of identifying when you have a problem that needs solving, and then move on to questioning the nature of the problem and possible solutions. With practice, this will become an automatic internalized process that will lead to significant improvements in thinking ability.

3.3. Be aware of your egocentrism or sociocentrism Once you fully understand egocentric and sociocentric thoughts, identify when you or others are using them. When you find them employed in their thinking, ask these clarifying questions: – What is my thinking trying to achieve? – At that moment, are you using thinking which is driven by self-centered or societal-based interests? – Are you trying to enhance your interests at the expense of others; trying to get what you want regardless of its impacts on others; perceiving an injustice on your part and trying to get what you believe you deserve? – Are you placing the interest of a particular group (perhaps your political party or a group of co-workers) above its long-term well-being? The aim here is not to advocate for any specific answer to those questions; it is simply to ask these questions in order to take thinking that is auto-centered to thinking that is focused on the best interest of all, hence making the necessary adjustments.

3.2. Dealing with personal/emotional problems If you are aware that personal problems are affecting your thinking, it is essential to take a time out to sort out your personal problems and get into the right frame of mind before attempting to think critically. It would also be a good idea to involve a friend; one might be able to help each other with their problems by offering a different perspective or a solution to the problem.

3.1. To come to a solution One strategy for overcoming this barrier is to split the research and action taken into steps, to avoid being daunted by the large task. This could also be tackled by setting small specific goals to achieve.

Recognizing and overcoming the barriers to critical thinking are essential to the practice of good thinking.

4. Benefits of Developing Strong Critical Thinking Skills

Second section: One benefit of critical thinking is that it is an efficient means of persuasion. When one applies critical thinking more readily, the result is that his or her ability to persuade others becomes greatly increased. Persuasion can be seen as an effort to getting a person to change his beliefs or actions, an act that is almost always done in the best interest of the person being persuaded. Thus, in being able to persuade others to take an action that is in their best interest, a person who has developed his critical thinking skills will at the same time be bettering his own interest. Another benefit of critical thinking is that it conducts a larger perspective. With critical thinking, a person can solve problems more systematically, identify possible exceptions, and look for the root cause of a problem. This helps in avoiding a bad decision, solves a complex and can often lead to greater productivity and efficiency. Both these benefits rely heavily on receiving good information from the environment, which is the third and very important benefit of critical thinking.

First section: Benefits of developing strong critical thinking skills. It is one thing to understand what the benefits of critical thinking are, but it is entirely different to understand how to achieve these benefits. It can actually be said that it is harder to think critically about a situation than it is to think about the situation itself. When a person is faced with a problem, they often come up with the solution that first comes to mind. A solution, which encompasses thinking about a topic at its most basic, which is a form of thoughts that are not based upon gathering information, interpreting that information, and then drawing a conclusion. Critical thinking involves identifying, evaluating, and constructing arguments. It is the attempt to question one’s own beliefs and assumptions, while at the same time, entertaining views that may oppose personal beliefs. As for there being barriers to critical thinking, there are several that are very damaging. Coming to terms with the existence of these barriers is the first step to breaking them. Once these barriers are broken, it is possible to receive many good from thinking critically.

5. Implementing Critical Thinking in Everyday Life

It is common to hear that an individual is good at critical thinking or has strong critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, or other thinking skills. Even if we did, many of us are not able to explain how it is that excellent critical thinkers systematically can come to sensible conclusions about issues, suss out the truth, discover creative solutions, identify the mistakes in their own and others’ reasoning, and form a consistent and solid worldview. Until answers to these questions are clearly provided, students and the general public will not have a clear guide to improving their thinking, nor will they have a sound basis for developing new instruction in critical thinking. This is very important to understand the style in how critical thinking skills can be transferable to new ideas and solutions. When an individual begins to understand the method or how to do it and its benefits and alternatives open to them. For example, the individual would not be aware that his/her classmates are making an important decision that affects the quality of their group assignment and just think to themselves that there is no time to do anything now, and we will finish whatever we have next week. At this point of decision, they can attempt to use critical thinking in what the best alternative would be to improve the assignment and what the potential consequences of this are. By understanding the method and having motivation to take action, the next phase would be applying this decision at points where they may judge it necessary.