the critical thinking in nursing

 the critical thinking in nursing

How to Improve Critical Thinking

1. Understanding Critical Thinking

In order to improve our critical thinking, we must first understand what it is. There are 3 different types of thinking. They are creative thinking, analytical thinking, and critical thinking. Critical thinking is a unique form of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual consideration upon which that judgment is based. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference. Critical thinking also involves being able to identify logical fallacies and other fallacies in reasoning. A large component of critical thinking involves being reflective. This means that one is able to change one’s thinking and is mindful of the thinking process itself. Critical thinking also involves being open-minded considering an alternative point of view and practicing tolerance to understand other people’s opinions. How can we be more critical in our thinking? Step one is to make a decision to develop your critical thinking. Coming to The Center for Critical Thinking and its Accessing Deeper Values thinking conference may help you make this commitment. Any major decision requires a commitment. Think about something that you want, that is the result of something, which you will have to do. This something you want must be something you can picture yourself wanting for some time, and it must make a significant difference in your quality of life. Step two is to take your thinking apart. This basically means to assess your impulsive thoughts and break it down to each and every assumption that you are making. This can also mean taking your thought apart in an argument with someone, indicating to the other person that you want to make sure that you are right in your thinking. This can sometimes be viewed as irritable to others, especially when you tell them they are wrong in thinking that you are wrong. Step three, assess what is known about your thought, the problem, or the decision, and assess what it is that you are taking for granted. This can also be thought of as assessing your beliefs on the issue. Your decision assuming that it is an important decision, has come from a thought based on some problem. You must know exactly what the problem is, and must solve it by inferring to a solution with significant difference. Any problem or decision has some thought that has led to it. You want to assess the logical quality of the thought. This means that you want to assess what the thought is aimed at, and what the point of the thought is. Coming to some conclusion later on requires building from that thought. You must then assess the inferences in the thought and the result that infers. This can be thought of as a train of thoughts, where one leads to another, that leads to another. Assessing this will require a bit of a detailed analysis of the thought or writing out the thought in a step by step format. Step four is to make sure of the relevance of your thought to the problem that is to be solved. This means that you want to see if the thought has any bearing to the concluding decision and the solution. You must make sure that you will have not wasted your time in making the thought which may happen if there is an irrelevant assumption or an assumption without any warrant. Step five is to go back and do steps two through four to each and every assumption that you have made in the thought that is aimed at solving the problem or decision. This will require precise determination for the goal of each assumption with the same quality of thinking that was utilized to determine the thought aimed at the problem. You will be surprised at the difference of how assumptions are made in everyday thinking and how you can actually assume something with full warrant.

2. Developing Analytical Skills

Much to my dismay, I have recently become addicted to trying to solve the puzzle. There is a technique to solving Sudoku. I have borrowed this technique by working with an artificial intelligence professor who is doing research in attempting to get a computer to solve Sudoku puzzles. One can apply logical deduction to any puzzle, and this is an exercise that can only serve to help increase analytical skill. It is easy to see that the more one reads, the better one understands. Understanding is rather a complex process where the reader must relate to previous knowledge, often referred to as schema. As the reader follows the text, he constantly uses his own knowledge to compare to what the text is saying, an attempt to understand the author’s implicit meaning. By doing this, readers are developing abstract thinking, a key element in analytical thinking.

There are a few ways to develop good analytical skills. First, use logic as the main tool. Let’s remember that logic is the study of the methods and principles used to distinguish good (correct) from bad (incorrect) reasoning. There is an abundance of material on logic within philosophy. It is hard to see how you could put a value on a skill such as that of learning to distinguish good from bad reasoning. Another strong tool in developing analytical skills is to work with puzzles of many sorts. In reality, a puzzle is any problem that is difficult or impossible to solve under given constraints. Take, for example, Sudoku. Sudoku is a logic-based number placement game.

3. Enhancing Problem-Solving Abilities

By hiring a tutor, a tutor trained in critical thinking skills can help identify and remove faulty logic, learn problem-solving techniques, and guide the student in building problem-solving skills. A full assessment of a student’s critical thinking skills is the basis of designing a tutoring/tutoring plan.

b. Teaching heuristic strategies. Edwards (2002, p. 50) identifies a heuristic as “any strategy or technique that is useful in problem-solving, learning, or discovery”. Educators can provide lists of heuristics relevant to the tasks at hand and gradually encourage students to generate their own lists. An effective method of teaching students to use heuristics is to break up into cooperative groups, with the groups using a think-aloud protocol to solve a problem.

a. Developing a cognitive language. One way to build problem-solving skills involves using a language that focuses on the process rather than the solution. Terms such as “what makes you say that?” can be helpful in directing student attention to the decision-making process. It is also important to help students spend more time clarifying the problem and understanding the cause and effect of potential solutions.

The best strategies for enhancing problem-solving abilities are often used in conjunction with one another. They are:

4. Cultivating Open-Mindedness

Cultivating open-mindedness usually requires, first and foremost, recognizing possibilities inherent in thinking in ways that come less naturally. Because critical thinking discourages the belief that there is an easy or quick solution, it is not always a welcome attribute. Abandoning either a part or the entirety of one’s belief system can result in an uncomfortable feeling of cognitive dissonance, yet this can be an indication that the seeds of intellectual growth are being planted. One strategy for fostering open-minded thinking is to confront mental habits which actively prevent it. A dogged adherence to a particular stance is often less a product of the intellect than the ego; someone in this frame of mind may say “I’m not budging an inch on this, I’m right and that’s final.” Identifying such instances of closed-mindedness and committing to being receptive towards alternative viewpoints can be an effective means of establishing the understanding that beliefs are in fact, separate from the self and subject to change. A contentious issue or one with little available evidence can provide an excellent opportunity to practice being open-minded, and while the results of doing so may not always be transformational, the virtue of open-mindedness will in some measure be strengthened. Finally, it is important to cultivate a healthy dose of skepticism towards the quality of thought that serves as a basis for beliefs. Naive realism dictates that the world is exactly as it appears, and that it experiences as others would if they were in his position constitutes an objective understanding of the truth. In reality however, there are numerous factors which can influence the beliefs of an individual at a given time, and the real truth of a matter is not always apparent. Learning to differentiate beliefs which are well founded from those which are poorly reasoned can result in a re-evaluation of certain beliefs, and it can also help to avoid forming beliefs based on bias or prejudice. Open-mindedness and continual improvement of thinking go hand in hand, and it is in using the latter as a tool to understand the nature of the former that progress can be made. (Elder and Paul, 2007)

5. Applying Critical Thinking in Daily Life

3. Be a smart consumer: The products that we use, from toothpaste to car insurance, the ads that we see, the music that we listen to, and the movies that we watch are all produced by people, and in many cases, are made to convince people to think or behave in a certain way. Hopefully, applying critical thinking to what you consume from the media and advertisers will help you avoid being unduly influenced. This will happen if you develop the skills of evaluating arguments, analyzing, evaluating, and making value judgments about what you see and hear. Admittedly, this is no small task. It’s hard to think straight. It’s even harder to figure out if and why a given piece of evidence supports or opposes the conclusion to which it is relevant. The skill of determining what to accept as true is the means to an end. The goal here is to make the wisest decisions on what to believe and do.

2. Know your own biases: It’s important to be aware of your own biases when making a decision. A bias is an unfair inclination or prejudice for or against one thing or a group compared with another. If you can identify your biases, you can try to factor them out of your decision. For example, if you are a little league coach and you believe that your players are the best-behaved kids in the league, this bias could lead to a subjective decision on your part about the behavior of your team’s kids at a game.

1. Uncovering the truth: Thinking critically can enable you to discover the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It helps you to separate fact from fiction and minimizes the chances of acting on beliefs that are not well-founded.

The whole point of developing critical thinking skills is to try to change your behavior in ways that help you. If critical thinking is the engine that drives a healthy lifestyle, learning how to apply and use critical thinking in daily life goes a long way towards you adopting that healthy lifestyle. Here are some suggestions for applying critical thinking to everyday living and leading a well-informed life: