Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt,
fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider... (Francis
Bacon1605). Critical thinking is an essential part of the academic world. It helps
to evaluate theories and ideas. It forces us to not be complacent in our
reading. Above all critical thinking is about asking questions. Who wrote this?
Is his research valid? Does he use graphs/diagrams properly? What is the tone
of the article? Do you agree/disagree? To be a critical thinker you must
collect and study all relevant information, assess it fairly and try to work
out what is fact and what is opinion. Any theory must be tested. It must also
be recognised that the author may be biased in some way. It requires many
complex skills to be a critical thinker. It is essential to analyse the task,
you must compare and contrast theories/ideas, and you must judge fairly and
judge all resources for validity. It is not a personal opinion, but asking what
if? What are the consequences? what is the outcome? The most difficult part of
critical thinking is recognising that your own opinion/prejudices may cloud
your thinking. It is essential to be open to ideas which challenge your own. An
example of critical thinking is to consider a teenager using drugs- theories
would suggest that this maybe because he has a low level of emotional
intelligence or because he is from a single parent family or because he is a
middle child. All theories would have to be studied and questioned in order for
critical thinking to take place.
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