UIII Examine the Role of Critical Thinking

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.

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.

Having those strong critical thinking skills is very vital to this career. Critical thinking means that you have to make decisions based upon treatments, symptoms and changes that occur in a child’s state of health (educationcareerarticles.com, pg.2). You have to know what specific type of care each patient needs so you can diagnose any problems that may happen. Having patience is another strong quality at the top of the list. Dealing with kids can give someone a lot of stress just because they are all over the place sometimes which is where your patience ability has to kick in. Kids who are really young have a lack of trepidation meaning they rarely understand what’s going on around them (educationcareerarticles.com, pg.2).

Society today requires individuals to develop skills to make informed, thought-driven decisions, rather than quick hasty decisions, in many situations both personally and professionally. Decisions like these are made based on critical thinking skills that are not inherited but developed through many years of training both of the mind and of one’s thought processes. Understanding how thinking occurs and analyzing the thought processes are steps that critical thinkers use on a daily basis (Paul & Elder, 2012). In addition, according to Celuch & Slama (2000), critical thinking is essential to lifelong learning and is developed through improved reasoning and communication skills.

I do agree that sometimes we get too comfortable in our practice that we tend to do things without thinking. I have found myself in that situation a few times. That is the point when we have to stop, step back and think. There is nothing wrong with taking our time and be cautious, especially when we are talking about safety and quality of care. We have to keep in mind that every patient is different as well as each situation. Critical thinking is another important tool that we as nurses have in our hands. We are educated professionals, we are not going around doing things automatically, just because we have learned and repeated so many times. We have the capacity to think critically and make not only a decision, but the better decision based

Imagine you’re driving home from a long and trying day at the office, when all of a sudden a car comes zooming into your lane, nearly sending you crashing off the road. Natural instinct might cause you to honk your horn, shout out a series of profanities, or even chase the vehicle down to directly give the driver a piece of your mind.

Critical thinking is beneficial to individuals in most areas of life; however, to be effective one must work at the process regularly. You must apply logic, explore subjects, and educate yourself on the materials involved in the arguments. Remember it easy to be an effective critical thinker, we only need to put in a little work.

Having the ability to reason through problems, see alternative viewpoints, and change the initial beliefs are characteristics of a fair-minded critical thinker and are necessary to the changing society that we live in today (Elder & Paul, 2012). Changing our views of the world and situations that arise is better accomplished through asking questions and continually evaluating our lack of knowledge thus becoming a more disciplined thinker (Paul & Elder, 2017). Growing as a critical thinker will give us a stronger foundation to face problems and make knowledgeable decisions in all things (Paul & Elder,

“Development in thinking requires a gradual process requiring plateaus of learning and just plain hard work. It is not possible to become an excellent thinker simply because one wills it. Changing one’s habits of thought is a long-range project, happening over years, not weeks or months. The essential traits of a critical thinker require an extended period of development” (Foundation & Thinking, 2013)

I think the reason that I decided to take this course this semester was the fact that I have always been a fan of mystery, thoughts, and analyzation. I must confess though that when I signed up for this course I had no idea that it would have a lot of writing involved. I have always been more of a fan of numbers and Science then I am of structuralizing sentences. So when I glanced over the course I started despairing a little. I was thinking that it was going to be more like those critical thinking handbooks you buy at dollar stores or at other random little places where you read a story of a situation and figure out who the killer was or what you are supposed to do to

Critical thinking is when a person analyzes and evaluates a situation before forming an opinion. Ask questions, assess the facts and issues, and then assert a concluding opinion before taking something at face value. Someone may have had a negative experience somewhere and then they passed their experience on. Doing so will most likely cause a lot of people to steer away from that place, to avoid a negative experience.

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.

Critical thinking is a big part in our lives. It helps us to make more inform decisions. It definitely plays a big role in our society, especially in our society because we need it. I know I need to use it because if I do not use critical thinking, then I would be making very bad decisions. Critical thinking is important in my life and as well as in society.

There are said to be six stages of critical thinking, the unreflective, challenged, beginning, practicing, advanced, and accomplished thinker. The unreflective thinker is unable to asses their thinking skills while in the second stage of challenged thinkers, they are becoming aware and figuring out problems. The beginning thinker is similar to concrete thinking, which contains no depth, it regards to the facts and thinking in the periphery. At the fourth stage, the practicing thinker is developing the knowledge for systematic practice, while the advanced thinker now has good habits and can actively analyze information. Lastly, the accomplished thinker can access their intuitiveness and take a position on things in everyday life(Edler, Paul).

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.