Critical Thinking and Discussion Student Observation

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

While it is common for critical thinking to be needed in the workforce or in education, the demand for critical thinking is required for different aspects of life beyond the workforce and education. Critical thinking is essential on the global level. In the article “Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts”, Peter Facione reflects upon the importance of critical thinking in society and on the global level. He offers a hypothetical situation explaining how the lack of critical thinking would have an impact on a global level. He states that “imagine an electorate that cared not for the facts, that did not wish to consider the pros and cons of the issues, or if they did, had not the brain power to do so” (23). He also states that “suppose

To survive in such a multifaceted and diverse world we as people must possess the ability to think critically in highly complex situations. The world is an extremely challenging place, all of us are forced to adapt by constantly challenging existing principles and performing certain methods to ensure our growth both physically and mentally. Many claim that contemporary society needs a skill called critical thinking to adapt and survive. Critical thinking is a higher level of intellectual progression that makes use of diverse information, skills and attitudes in interpreting situations and confronting problems. Critical thinking is done

American students have been getting weaker, not stronger. Schools continue to graduate students who can no think critically. As far as them being able to use reasoning to analyze good and bad arguments. He says that there is a problem with teaching critical thinking as a skill and the teacher must be critical himself to teach it. Current and even previous educators continue to argue about whether “critical thinking” is a “one-size-fits-all” set of skills or whether it was “specific domain”. There are unresolved arguments, to this day, about what “critical thinking” really means. The authors’ idea of teaching critical thought is to teach the methods of information gathering and analysis. If you want to teach people to think critically, you need to teach them how to research and to understand. Critical thinking comes from being able to think intellectually and rationally. Gather information about a subject and understand logics between the subjects. Analyzing, applying, generating reason for that subject, when you can do that on any addressed subject, once you have learned to form opinions based on facts, and then are you capable of critical

Over the course of the last six weeks, I have come to realize that critical thinking is an important asset as I continue my journey in life. I have found this course to be both challenging and rewarding. Most importantly, I find myself viewing problems and conversations in a completely different light. While I would not consider myself an expert at critical thinking, I would assess myself in as a Beginner Thinker. Paul and Elder point out in the beginning thinker stage an individual actively begins to take command of their thinking process across multiple facets of their life (Paul and Elder, 2012). Furthermore, we recognize that there are problems in the way we think and begin to consciously attempt to better understand we can improve our thinking.

Bowell, T. & Kemp, G., (2015;2014;). Critical thinking: A concise guide (Fourth ed.). New York; London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315772035

In today’s current school systems, the question of whether or not schools are correctly teaching students the right curriculum is coming up for debate. In the Article,"Teaching Critical Thinking by Marcia Clemmitt, she goes into extensive research of the U.S. Department of Education’s crisis of standardized testing. Most learning activities include standardized testing which lacks many students to express creative and critical thinking. Critical thinking is defined as the examination and evaluation of ideas, events and arguments in their contexts which introduces students to interrogate assumptions and identifying biases (Clemmitt)Pure critical thinking involves investigating a text more than just memorizing, but to apply theirself in other ways of techniques, meaning schools should stimulate more analytical methods of teaching. This would not only free students from a sheltered test culture,but will allow students to think in a deeper,more passionate way than before.

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.

A key observation I notice in the text is the layout of the picture to content. First of all the margins of the text, the outside margins are bigger than the inside margins. By having the margins like this it gives an impression of thightnes to the text and makes it feel like there is no other place for your eyes. That it seamless flowes from one page to another. The visuals of the text are usually separated from the content but still connected in a way by invisible margins. the imagery is so perfectly aline with chapters name that you could understand what they are talking about without reading a word of the text. This part of the whole reading for me was the most enjoyable, How the content flows nicely into the picture makes the reading easier.

There are proposed reasons for the emphasis that is currently on critical thinking. Many factors can be related to this emphasis. They include the societal factors of economic shifts

As a detailed examination of the identification of assumptions shows, when going from the theory of critical thinking to the praxis of producing and evaluating arguments, the critical person will inevitably make such commitments from particular perspectives, using particular contexts of meaning. But then she may fail to take notice of relevant ones and may end up using her critical powers in a mercenary way. (Mejía, 2009, p. 351)

Critical thinking is a significant and essential topic in recent education. The strategy of critical thinking skills helps identify areas in one's courses as the suitable place to highlight, expand and use some problems in exams that test students' critical thinking skills.

While reading these three engaging articles, we made sure to incorporate critical thinking skills. During our discussions, we made sure to ask each other questions, clarify our thoughts whenever speaking unclearly, and making sure to not stray away from the topic at hand. Occasionally, if we ever had thoughts that were not relevant to our discussion, one of us would remind us to stay focused. During our discussions, we tried to connect the article to each other and how they related.

This essay will critically examine several models and theories of critical thinking addressing views and definitions from various scholars and philosophers. In addition it will be shown that

When defining the term “critical thinking” it can seem overwhelming and daunting, especially for young learners. In laments terms, you are teaching your student how to think for him or herself when it comes to problem solving. Instead of giving the student the answer, you give them the tools to discover the answer him/herself. Critical thinking is an important component of any classroom. No matter the age group, these skills stay with a child for the rest of his or her life. As a teacher, it is important to understand what critical thinking pertains to and how to structure part of your lesson plan around developing critical thinking skills.