Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Is, also, the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

Why Critical Thinking?

The Problem:

Everyone thinks, but much of our thinking, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced. However, the quality of our life depends precisely on the quality of our thought.

Definition:

Critical thinking is that mode of thinking in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.

The Result:

A well cultivated critical thinker:

·   -   Raises questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely.

   - Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively.

·  -  Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards.

·   -  Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences.

·   -    Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.

Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking, instead of that, is someone able to deduce outcomes from what he knows, and he knows how to make use of knowledge to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform himself.