Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking and Its Importance in Education
Kadoko Chanda
1.
Introduction
Technology, travel and business have brought countries together, so does our thinking evolve. No more thinking within our boundaries, we need critical thinking to evaluate our own decisions in everything we do. For example, how do you teach students without discriminating their beliefs or religion? How do we start a business in a country with different laws from ours and still incorporate our business values? So, what is critical thinking? 2.
What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking according to Hamilton-Reeves (2009) is the process of filtering information by removing emotional and environmental discrepancies and remaining neutral to make the most accurate decision. On the other hand Elder and Paul (1994, pp.34-35) believes critical thinking is the "ability of thinkers to take charge of their own thinking by developing sound criteria and standards for analyzing and assessing" information to make an informed decision. Lastly, critical thinking from a general psychology point of view is analyzing ones standards, facts and assessing conclusions
(Petress, 2004).
From the above analysis, it is apparent that critical thinking is a process that guides ones logical decision making process by analyzing all possible information before making a decision, therefore reducing the chances of making quick and unethical decisions.
According to Hamilton-Reeves (2009), critical thinking improves your chances of solving difficult problems because all possible solutions are analyzed before making a decision. 3. Approaches to critical Thinking
Critical thinking has a number of approaches, but only three types of approaches will be analyzed. 3.1. Firstly, from an education point of view, Barnett (1997) suggests critical thinking should be tackled by developing techniques that reflect critically on knowledge and development of critical self-reflection. For example,
Kadoko Chanda
1.
Introduction
Technology, travel and business have brought countries together, so does our thinking evolve. No more thinking within our boundaries, we need critical thinking to evaluate our own decisions in everything we do. For example, how do you teach students without discriminating their beliefs or religion? How do we start a business in a country with different laws from ours and still incorporate our business values? So, what is critical thinking? 2.
What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking according to Hamilton-Reeves (2009) is the process of filtering information by removing emotional and environmental discrepancies and remaining neutral to make the most accurate decision. On the other hand Elder and Paul (1994, pp.34-35) believes critical thinking is the "ability of thinkers to take charge of their own thinking by developing sound criteria and standards for analyzing and assessing" information to make an informed decision. Lastly, critical thinking from a general psychology point of view is analyzing ones standards, facts and assessing conclusions
(Petress, 2004).
From the above analysis, it is apparent that critical thinking is a process that guides ones logical decision making process by analyzing all possible information before making a decision, therefore reducing the chances of making quick and unethical decisions.
According to Hamilton-Reeves (2009), critical thinking improves your chances of solving difficult problems because all possible solutions are analyzed before making a decision. 3. Approaches to critical Thinking
Critical thinking has a number of approaches, but only three types of approaches will be analyzed. 3.1. Firstly, from an education point of view, Barnett (1997) suggests critical thinking should be tackled by developing techniques that reflect critically on knowledge and development of critical self-reflection. For example,
References: Barnett, R. (1997). 'Higher Education: A critical business '. Open University Press/ Taylor and Francis business, 79(4), P. 232-236. Cited in: Shriner, M. (2006). Critical Thinking in Higher Education: An Annotated Bibliography [online] Critical Thinking Co (2005). What is Critical Thinking? : Critical Thinking Definition [online] Petress, K. (2004). 'Critical Thinking: An extended definition ' [online]. Available from: http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5006657886 [accessed 19 September