Critical Thinking

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5 years ago

What Is Critical Thinking

According to Taylor (2008), “Critical thinking has many benefits. It identifies the elements that are sound and faulty in reasoning, sorts out sensible deductions, then defines and separates them from biases and opinions.” This type of thinking helps to build one’s arguments to defend one’s opinion. It can also dismantle arguments to un-support one’s beliefs or views but does it in an intellectual manner. Critical thinking is used in our everyday lives and is probably not observed in that manner. We make choices to eat, go to work, and attend events that satisfy our constant need for entertainment. If we do not eat we may not live a healthy life. Not attending work may cause you to fall behind on bills or lose what you work so hard for and not fulfilling those urges to be entertained can have an emotional effect on your attitude. That means that critical thinking has played a role in every one of these scenarios and they are only examples of a small portion of the decisions we make daily.

“Critical thinking is a kind of ‘‘good’’ thinking that integrates a set of cognitive skills and dispositions to use those skills with knowledge to increase the chances of success in academic settings, job market, and daily life (Almeda, Butler, Costa, Franco, 2017).” Academic settings require a high level of critical thinking. We as students need to make decisions for assignments in a timely manner given the deadlines and criteria needed to accomplish tasks. Some students will use the information provided by the instructor and use those critical choices to turn in a well-organized assignment and others will use non-critical thinking skills and apply what they feel is needed to accomplish the assignment. The job market and daily life critical thinking can be thought of as one in the same but also having different scenarios as well. Depending on your career or job will determine the thinking needed to accomplish all task requirements set forth by one’s boss. Your daily life is just that, we wake and eat and go to work then come home from work to take care of our loved ones. Not listening to boss can lead to no job and effect your loved ones.

“Critical thinking translates the employment of cognitive aptitudes and the use of one's knowledge base to critically analyze facts or beliefs, to produce rational knowledge that can direct behavior (Carroll, 2005) and sustain daily decision making and problem solving (Saiz & Rivas, 2010).” Problem solving is what it all boils down to. In life we are faced with decisions that need to be made quickly and other decisions that require a little more time. We are faced with decisions every day and my past decisions have helped me to understand that not all decisions are met with the same outcome. If we are not learning from our past wrong decisions and changing that thought process, then critical thinking is not being implemented.

References

Bolte Taylor, J. (2008). My stroke of insight. New York, NY: Viking Press.

Franco, A. R., Costa, P.S., Butler, H. A., & Almeida, L.S. (2017). Assesment of Undergraduates’ Real-World Outcomes of Critical Thinking in Everyday Situations. Phsychological Reports, 120 (4), 707-720. doi:10.1177/0033294117701906

Leandro, d. A., & Amanda Helena, R. F. (2011). Critical thinking: its relevance for education in a shifting society.