Critical Thinking Skills
When today's university student is asked to apply critical thinking skills to a specific social problem, does that student understand what is being asked and how to go about applying critical thinking skills? When questions from the professor involve, for example, the current dilemma in the United States Congress -- Democrats and Republicans engaged in a near-constant standoff when it comes to ideology and legislation -- does the typical university student understand how to approach those questions utilizing critical thinking skills? This paper investigates what the average student probably knows about critical thinking, what he or she should know, and how that student can become more effective in scholarship using critical thinking skills.
ONE: Address a Topic While Embracing Critical Thinking Skills
What are critical thinking skills? How are they taught?
An Australian university -- the University of Wollongong -- presents for its students a meaningful definition: "It can be thought of as better, more rigorous thinking" (uow.edu.au). Moreover, the idea of critical thinking revolves around the "…intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and/or evaluating information…" that has been gleaned from a person's careful observation, experience, reflection or reasoning "…or communication" (uow.edu.au).
If that seems a bit too broad a description, the university provides a chart for the student to identify which everyday life activity involves critical thinking (and which do not). This is a very pedestrian exercise, but it makes a point. Obviously brushing one's teeth does not involve critical thinking, nor does jogging. But choosing courses at a university, buying an automobile, deciding between job offers, selecting a phone or "…traveling from A to B. with time and budget constraints" do involve critical thinking.
Moreover, the University of Wollongong goes on to explain that being "critical" in an educational setting involves evaluating and making judgments; and when one is in the process of making a judgment, he or she must distinguish between opinion and fact. And he or she must do the research and evaluate theories and examples through careful reading, giving valid consideration to all available viewpoints on the subject. The questions to be asked include: "What if?" And "How could?" And "What does this mean?"
Teaching critical thinking from a textbook:
An article in the peer-reviewed Educational Research Quarterly (Cotter, et al., 2009) points out that while many students are asked to conduct critical thinking on certain areas of study, and textbooks provide exercises on how to improve critical thinking skills, how effective those exercises are "…has not been closely examined" (Cotter, 3). Given that introduction, Cotter and colleague Carrie Tally conducted a study in which college students completed measures of "…formal operational thought" (another skill that has not been researched very thoroughly, according to Cotter) using the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking -- GALT, and also the students were to use critical thinking skills (3). For the critical thinking skills part of the assessment the researchers employed the California Critical Thinking Skills test (CCTST) both after and before several written assignments given to the students.
One of the points of this research paper is that textbook exercises have not shown to date to have provided students with any "…tangible improvement in critical thinking skills"; hence, the authors felt the need evaluate the quality of those textbook exercises (Cotter, 3). They speculate as to why it appears so difficult for students to grasp critical thinking strategies; possibly, they conjecture, it could be that critical thinking involves "abstract and deductive reasoning" and moreover it could be that without the proper "…cognitive tools" it is not possible to be fully competent with critical thinking skills (Cotter, 4).
The researchers conducted a project using 51 undergraduate students that were enrolled in a developmental psychology course in a regional university in a Southern state. The average age of these students was 22 and 47% of the class was made up of sophomores. Three-quarters of the class was female and just over half of the class was Caucasian. The remainder of the class was Asian / Asian-American, African-American and Latino (Cotter, 5).
The participants completed four written assignments that came from their textbook in the psychology class. The four assignments were due each month in the four-month semester. These were...
Critical thinking is unfortunately not a path that all students use to become enlightened as to proper behavior outside the classroom, and in this paper I will provide examples of poor judgment by students based on the lack of critical thinking. Basically, critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process in which a person carefully and with skill (based on practice) goes through a process of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation to
Critical Thinking and Logical Fallacies Author and speaker Brian Tracy says that people do not make decisions rationally, or logically. He believes that individuals make decisions emotionally, and then only seek to justify them on a rational, logical, or rational thought basis. For example, purchasing a vehicle is less often the rational decision regarding what is needed, and more often influences by what the person wants to gain from an individual
Responsibilities of a Critical Thinker in a Contemporary Society Some thinkers consider critical thinking to be solely a type of mental skill, devoid of any moral value; it is often utilized to rationalize prejudice and to promote self-interest. While moral integrity is understood as good heartedness, it is also susceptible to manipulation to satisfy vested interests in the same way as responsible citizenship can be manipulated. The human mind, regardless of
Critical Thinking in Nursing Education For far too long nursing has been seen as a profession that requires compassion along with obedience to the orders of doctors who were traditionally considered to be the "real" medical professionals. Nurses were until recently inside and outside of the profession seen as sort of helpmeets to the doctors, a form of junior wife to the male doctor. Of course nurses were always more than
Critical Thinking and Society Exercise: Critical thinking is a process that is used by individuals on a daily basis though many people use it without realizing it. Critical thinking can basically be defined as the process of exercising or involving skilled observation or judgment. This process requires the use of a variety of cognitive skills and intellectual capabilities to evaluate arguments, overcome personal biases and prejudices, and make intelligent and reasonable
The decade-old system that specifies least standards for staffing in nursing homes need to be restructured, the report says. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services must call for nursing homes to have at least one RN within the facility during all times. Based on the departments' 2001 report to Congress on minimum staff-to-patient ratios for nursing homes, the HHS should mention the staffing levels that increased with
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now