Critical Thinking and Decision Making Essay example

Critical thinking occurs when a person thinks about a subject or problem to where the development of the quality of ones very own psychological process of actively and skillfully applying, analyzing, and gauging information to come up with an answer or decision. A few important skills that is learned through critical thinking is learning how to discipline oneself in thinking, understanding the world as well as learning themselves. While using Critical thinking in your academic career path while other benefiting from your answer or idea.

Critical thinking is described as unbiased, clear and factual thought process that helps any student with any decision-making process. Critical thinking is an essential tool that every student will need to master to continue academic success. There are multiple phases of critical thinking as described by Benjamin Bloom which include remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. The critical thinking process starts by remembering. If we can remember what we read and apply key facts we will be able to move forward to understand what decisions we need to make. From there we can then apply the facts to the decision we have to make and innovate, or create, as needed.

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Teaching higher order thinking skills is not a recent need. It is apparent that students, at all levels of education, are lagging in problem-solving and thinking skills. Fragmentation of thinking skills, however, may be the result of critical thinking courses and texts. Every course, especially in content subjects, students should be taught to think logically, analyze and compare, question and evaluate.

Critical thinking helps me to make the right decision in my daily life. Every time that I have to decide something in my life, I first brainstorm to make the right choice. Every decision I make in life, it can make a change on it. One of the best ways I can relate it with my personal life is when I was going to move to Canada.

Critical thinking is something I don’t do very often, sometimes I just judge from looking or listening to what I see or hear but this is something I will learn with time. To learn critical thinking I will follow the steps that are required because critical thinking is something we have to learn because we are not born critical thinking. One is identifying what we are talking about. Then we have to gather information about the theme that we are talking about. The next step is to look for evidence and consider alternatives or other people points of view. Sometimes we do not want to accept what other peoples opinion is about something and that is wrong because we might learn from them. Finally we choose the best possible alternative after we have gone thru all this. Using critical thinking will allow you to make better decisions not only in the work place but also in our day to day lives. Maybe one day you will have to make a life changing decision in your job.

The main concepts presented in the article are the varying definitions of each author on the concept of critical thinking. The information the author uses are definitions which are the opinions of varied authors and are similar in foundation in that to apply critical thinking one must be able to identify a problem, pose a question(s), provide valid supporting evidence, and come to a conclusion. Although the author’s definitions do not identify a problem, questions, evidence, or conclusions, the relationship Petress (2004) shows is that the reader must apply this process themselves as it is not always given. The information used does appear to be relevant, significant, and valid. The references the author listed does provide enough information for me to come to this conclusion. Since this work is a literature review and not a case study, numerical data are not necessary to determine validity of the information.

Bassham, G., Irwin, W., Nardone, H., & Wallace, J. (2002). Critical Thinking. [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies Publishing. Retrieved August 25, 2004 from University of Phoenix, Resource, MGT/350–Critical Thinking: Strategies in Decision Making Web site: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/resource.asp

My definition of critical thinking is thinking outside the box and analyzing the information collected to come up with an opinion or conclusion. In my opinion, the difference between thinking and critical thinking is the intensity of the thought. For example, thinking can be done by anyone whether it’s an adult, child, or animal. It doesn’t require much effort and it doesn’t require any facts or evidence to form an opinion. Critical thinking on the other hand, involves time and research.

Critical thinking is defined by Victor-Chmil as “the cognitive processes used for analyzing knowledge” (2013, para.1). Critical thinking is knowledge based and

Critical thinking is the questioning of ideas. It is the process in which you take an argument and analyze it in order to conclude whether that argument is valid. Thinking critically is a good skill that can help others make intelligent decisions and helps them understand what to believe or not believe. Critical thinking is involved in our daily life. For example, every day we make decisions and before every decision we think critically if that is the right decision. We take into consideration the possible consequences of such decision and from that we reach a conclusion. Critical thinking involves disciplined thinking and it teaches you to think for yourself. It is personal growth and confidence that results from learning to exercise your mind to its fullest potential.

The relationship between critical thinking and decision making is inseparable. The purpose of utilizing critical thinking skills is to get to the very core of an issue, topic or problem, and making a decision on the information. Therefore, there is little purpose to one without the other. Why would anyone become a critical thinker if they were not going to follow it up with a decision on the data as it is presented? Similarly, any decisions made without the benefit of any relevant information will end up being a decision made in haste. It is best to utilize every tool at your disposal to make an informed decision.

What is Critical Thinking? Is the process of conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and /or evaluating information gathered by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication, as a guide to belief and action (Scriven & Paul, n.d.). When one applies critical thinking more ideas are develop, fewer mistakes are made and better decisions are reached. When people instead of using critical thinking act on beliefs or without giving it a second thought, the end results are poor decisions and as a result have a disaster at hand. People don’t always use critical thinking, it is not uncommon to hear someone say such remarks after making the wrong decisions; “I just was not thinking”, “I did not think it was a big deal”,

Critical thinking also helps in decision-making. Both problem solving and decision-making abilities are vital to a prosperous business.

Critical thinking means accurate thinking in the search of appropriate and dependable knowledge about the world. Another way to describe it is sensible, insightful, responsible, and skillful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. Critical thinking is not being able to process information well enough to know to stop for red lights or whether you established the right change at the supermarket.