Unit 2: Improving Critical Thinking Skills

Chapter 4 was about Critical Thinking. First, it goes over the six stages of listening which are hearing, understanding, remembering, interpreting, evaluating, and responding. Then the book talks about how cultural differences affect listening. Then, the benefits of critical listening such as reduced stress, more learning, improved speaker-audience relationships, improved decision making, improved speaking, and a better society. The four types of listening are introduced which are listening for pleasure, to provide emotional support, to get information, and to make an evaluation. The chapter ends with ways to improve your listening behaviors.

IT projects can have a lot of different components to them which creates the potential for more risks. These risks need to be identified, analyzed, and addressed as the project progresses (Schwalbe Ph.D., 2014). There are different types of risk that can affect the implementation of a system that will allow people to manage their own human resource information. A positive risks can produce a project under budget or ahead of schedule, while a negative risks can have adverse effects on a project such as going way over budget. There are also some risks that do not have a positive or negative impact on a project. Identifying risks and addressing them is mostly handled by the program manager.

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

High School students are not being adequately educated about these skills in classrooms. Be as it may, many students do not engage in enough higher thinking. Notwithstanding the importance many educators have stressed, it continues to be an educational concern. In our education system instructors are not advocating enough critical thinking in High School classrooms as the curriculums intended there to be. The challenge of polishing critical thinking in classrooms is that teachers must learn how to interpolate these skills into the academic curriculum. These skills are not only important in Reading, English and Writing but in all subjects including History and Social Science. In need, High School classrooms do not provide enough opportunities for students to develop critical thinking skills. The opportunities

A crucial skill in critical thinking is learning to distinguish inference from assumption. An inference is an act of concluding that something is true or seems to be true. An assumption is an act of assuming something based on previous beliefs. Everyone has their own point of view, therefore, they have different assumptions about what the see. For example, if two people see an overweight person at the gym, one might infer, "There's a lazy person." The other might infer, "That person is taking control of their health." These inferences are based on different assumptions about the conditions under which overweight people end up in the gym; these assumptions are connected to the point of view about people that each has formed. The first person

There are many different strategies that you can take to improve your critical-thinking skills. One of the ways I have learned to use to improve my critical thinking skills is by figuring out in the morning what it is that I want to accomplish during the day when I have a moment of free time. One of the questions to ask yourself is: What is the problem? Once you have this established, you can decide how you want to tackle it and move on about your day. Another way to improve your critical-thinking skills is by using up wasted time that you have each day. Using up time to worry about things during the day or worrying about the past can be used to be productive in obtaining your goals. Use your time wisely during the day. If you have a moment of free time, use that time to study or finish a project.

Communication is the transfer of information from person-to-person, perception and understanding, as well as trust, respect, and empathy are essential to creating and fostering effective communication (Huber, 2014). I will discuss the critical thinking exercise in our text. I will describe communication problems occurring with the development of a critical pathway, and to whom the responsibility of these problems fall onto. Furthermore, I will discuss team behaviors, and leadership and management strategies to resolve conflict and improve communication and relationships.

The first four stages of critical thinking development are, the unreflective thinker, the challenged thinker, the beginning thinker, and the practicing thinker. When it comes to the unreflective thinker, "we are unaware of significant problems in our thinking" (Paul & Elder, 2012 P.28). An unreflective thinker doesn't question their beliefs or decisions, due to the fact that they lack intellectual standards. The unreflective thinker does not realize that they are lacking skills. Egocentric tendencies play a dominant role in this type of thinking for the reason that, they lack skills and motivation to notice how self-centered and prejudice they are. The next stage is the challenged thinker, meaning "that we become aware of problems in our

One of the specific feature of critical thinking that I would like to talk about is keep an open mind. I seem to have a big problem with this one myself. I never keep an open mind when it comes to thinking because over the years I felt that my way or decision making would be the right one without the input of others. I have learned the hard way that listening to others turned out to be a good thing because their insight on things would make others make a better decision for themselves or even myself. Open-mindedness is characterized by being receptive to other views and having the willingness to change views with new facts and evidence. Open-mindedness increases intellectual capabilities by allowing for new experiences and perspectives. A narrow

How did you score on the assessment, and what was your initial reaction to your score and interpretation?

1. The first reason every student should be required to take general education courses is according to Washington state university learning goals general education courses promote critical thinking skills. Through assignments given in these classes, students develop the ability to problem solve and choose the right course of action to complete tasks (wsu undergrad education ucore, 2015). I think Ken Walzer from the University of Michigan sums it up best he says general education means to “begin to develop intellectual and moral imagination”(Waltzer, K. 2000). Looking back I can agree with this rationale I remember my first college assignment. I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. After reading the assignment several times, I then broke down the task into parts and then attempted to think through each section. Each course has helped me learn how to think outside the box.

According to the critical thinking processes, I would like to improve the following four critical thinking habits and skills.

I agree that critical thinking is a challenge in EMS education. I feel like in paramedic school, simulation labs were so specific. A person is either having a cardiac episode, a respiratory episode, but never two illnesses combined together. There was only one specific algorithm you went down and you magically cured the patient (unless it was a mega code, of course). Once I entered the field, critical thinking became a huge part to properly assessing and treating a patient, especially patients with both COPD/CHF, certain STEMIs, dialysis patients and so forth. The body can be so complicated and that is where knowing your pathophysiology comes into play. I think critical thinking is what makes being a paramedic fun and challenging at

This course has expanded tremendously my critical thinking skills. I am able to research information for a specific topic having in mind the critical thinking elements. Thus allowing me to focus more on precision data rather than unorganized perspectives. In addition when reading articles I am able to determine and analyze the author’s assumptions on their topic. Which helps in pointing out my own assumptions and makes me aware not to utilize them or minimize my usage in my essays. Furthermore, I am able to better criticize the articles I am reading, much like dissecting all aspects of the research to determine the true purpose of the article and it’s benefits. Although, it takes much more time to read a single article with time I think I

1. There are few instances I noticed about my senses since I began thinking about them. On rare occasions after I am forced to wake up earlier than usual, my vision start distorting itself and I can see odd floating specks or my vision begins to blur and darken before returning to normal. I have also noticed that can taste some food that others claim they cannot such as cilantro.