Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking The disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances and being able to evaluate and determine what the facts are regarding a topic, through analyzing, evaluating and sorting through it, is the meaning of critical thinking. A critical thinker means that you can routinely use higher-order thinking skills based on reason and evidence, not only in studying but also in life. There are a few strategies that I can use to develop my critical thinking for college learning. Some of them are: my use of wasted time, try to solve a problem a day and redefine the way I see things. I’m pretty sure there are lots more but these are some that I know I can really use. Sometime during last week or so, I took a Critical Thinking Assessment that covered knowledge, skills and attitudes. This assessment is supposed to give me an idea of how much of a critical thinker I am and if I know or don’t know much about critical thinking. Needless to say, that I’m not much of a critical thinker. My score was a 52 out of a 100, which means that the lower the score the more I likely need to develop my critical thinking skills and if after reading this book my score does not improve, I would have to speak to an academic counsellor, a tutor or a supervisor to root out my difficulties. My weakest area in this assessment was of Self-Testing. Meaning that I’m supposed to stop periodically while reading and mentally go over or review of what was said, but I don’t do that. It also states that low scoring students may need to develop an appreciation for the importance of self-testing, and learn effective techniques for reviewing information and monitoring their level of understanding or ability to apply what they are learning. My strengths in this assessment was of Attitude and Concentration. Meaning that I have a positive attitude about attending classes but I lack in paying attention during lectures. During our