AMBA 610 Essay

According to Paul & Elder, “critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a vision of improving it.” Their argument for the need to utilize critical thinking is the fact that without focus, most of the thinking done by people is partial, many times uninformed, biased, distorted, and prejudiced. What is not easily recognized is the fact that the very fabric of life is

If I am to develop my personal critical thinking ability, I must first make a conscious choice to understand the basic concept of a premise and then make critical reflection of this basic concept by expanding my thinking approach. To achieve this, I must ask radical questions that will enhance the scope of analysis and judgment. I must move from the region of subconscious thinking to one of conscious thinking because in so doing, I become aware that I am actually thinking. This awareness will allow me to think beyond rudimentary concepts through critical reasoning and critical reflection to decipher underlying issues that are concealed in the concept under investigation. By understanding the predictable

In 1990, the American Philosophical Association defined critical thinking as “purposeful, self-regulatory process that results in reasoned judgment”. Critical thinking can be defined in a number of similar phrases that all seem to focus on the importance of conscious analysis. Our text starts off with the working phases of critical thinking as analyzing thinking, evaluating thinking, and improving thinking. The process of critical thought is cyclical and not linear. Being a “fair-minded critical thinker” is not a permanent attribute, and it must be consistently worked at as applying intellectual standards and elements of reasoning instead of emotion can be difficult. Overall, to be a strong critical thinker you must work toward strong intellectual traits such humility, courage, and integrity to better represent issues and or arguments.

Critical thinkers are faced with increasing swirl of challenges also decisions but in an increasingly threatening world as well (Paul & Elder, 2012). The need to reformulating worldview, intellectual work required to change our thinking foundation, regularly re-examine the extent of our ignorance and challenge our perseverance and courage. However, it is essential that critical thinkers skills continually transforms accelerating change also reality that makes up the worldview.

Critical thinking is imperative for the benefit of our current and future generations. We have to think through problems with a critical thinking lens to move past them with well through out, constructive solutions. Over the last few weeks moving through this course while reviewing the required text we have discovered new ways to think critically. There are a few lessons that I have taken away from this experience about how I can improve my critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking is a vital task that must be done in our everyday lives. In “Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking” found at criticalthinking.org, Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul explain critical thinking as “the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances”. Even tough there are many different types of methods to achieve a better quality of critical thinking, Dr. Elder and Dr. Paul discuss four specific ones in the article. All strategies, however, force you to put yourself in an uncomfortable and difficult position to develop a better quality of thinking.

Now that I have explained what critical thinking is and examined reasons why our generation is not offered the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills, I will identify strategies in which critical thinking skills can be reintegrated into everyday life.

Critical thinking is all about asking questions that help you access meaning or significant of claims and arguments. Building these skills and applying them in your life makes it easy for you to assess evidence, evaluate arguments and adopt your thinking. Consequently, you will stay switched on and engage in different situations. Critical thinking evolves stepping back from the situation to make you see all the angles before making judgments or taking decisions.

Critical thinking is very important because every day of our lives we’re faced with life’s circumstances that requires a response from us having to make decisions whether it’s in a professional capacity or in a domestic capacity we often find ourselves struggling with having to make decisions whether great or small because whether we know it or not there are people that depend on us and the decisions we make matter.

In the readings this week, we learned about the many aspects of being a critical thinker, as well as methods for developing critical thinking skills and critical problem solving. These are all important aspects of everyday life required to ensure even the simplest of tasks are done effectively and with the use of good judgment.

Critical Thinking is the practice of making reasonable, logical and well thought out decisions and judgments based on the overall benefit of who it pertains or relates to. It's important to recognize that we all have biases, presuppositional ideas and prejudices that influence our ability to think critically. Critical Thinking is a discipline that can be learned and the more you practice it the better you become at it. The practice of Critical Thinking is a healthy approach and should be encouraged for all individuals.

When an individual is confronted with a problem, applying their critical thinking skills would be essential to attain a positive result. Critical thinking is “that mode of thinking…in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it” (The Critical Thinking Community). Critical thinking is necessary for today’s society. Every day we are faced with a dilemma, an issue, or a problem that requires us to use problem-solving strategies. Applying critical thinking skills can improve cognitive skills, come with a solution for a problem, lead an individual into their creative mindset, and it can help once separate facts from interpretations. For instance, I once heard this guy say

The concepts of critical thinking and creative thinking are both gaining increasing importance in the world today. Critical thinking allows people to understand difficult concepts in a manner that is clearer and more defined. They can more readily understand those concepts if they employ critical thinking. In all portions of everyday life, a person is expected to make independent judgments. Those judgments are based on experience and knowledge. Without the ability to think critically, every situation that a person comes across would have to be considered in isolation from all other situations. When a person encounters a problem that is a new one, he or she may be able to use critical thinking to solve those problems.

This paper explores critical thinking skills and teaching them in an educational setting. Teaching critical thinking is highly debatable. Many feel as though it is not a necessary skill that needs to be learned and others feel as though it is not a skill that can be taught. In this paper I will discuss what critical thinking is and ways it can be taught in an educational setting.

What is critical thinking to you? To some it may mean making wiser choices, taking time to critically analyze a situation, or to just put greater thought in your everyday life. According to Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Pauls’ article, “Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking”, critical thinking is defined as the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. To us, critical thinking is a very important aspect of life and something we can all improve on. It allows us to think outside the box and put ourselves in others shoes and really look at things differently. We made sure to think about our own thinking habits while discussing these articles and to notice if we were ever being close-minded.