The discussion requirements each week are to post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days to earn full participation
. This includes your initial post (which should meet the word count requirements stated below) and 2 substantive replies to other students or to your instructor’s posts.
Due Thursday
The goal of this course is to help you become a better critical thinker, which will help you as a student and in your everyday life. In this first week, we are looking at the elements of critical thinking, characteristics of a critical thinker, and barriers to critical thinking.
After completing the Learning Activities for the week, please respond to
all the inquiries below. Your response should be a minimum of 175 words total (approx. 50 words per question).
Based on this week’s reading and activities, how would you define critical thinking?
What are some characteristics of a critical thinker?
What do you see as common barriers to critical thinking, and how might people overcome or avoid those barriers?
Reflect on the learning activities, concepts, ideas, and topics covered this week. Discuss the most interesting activity or concept you learned this week and mention any concepts that are still a bit confusing to you or that you have questions about.
I would define critical thinking as the ability to evaluate information and to be
aware of biases and assumptions. Characteristics of a critical thinker are analytical skills, open mindedness, effective communication, research, and inquiry skills. Looks at different points of view, and flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity. Common barriers to critical thinking would be trusting your gut, closed mindedness, lack of knowledge, misunderstanding of truth, and lack of willingness. You can overcome these barriers by recognizing and addressing biases, explore different perspectives, evaluate information, consider context, and practice critical thinking skills. The most interesting activity for me this week was the Think Tank on page 7, a self-evaluation questionnaire rating yourself on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). As you read on and continue to learn more about critical thinking, you will find out what your response to each statement means. I like
to learn more about why I am the way that I am, and these questions will
