Critical Thinking & Decision Making Process
Running head: Critical Thinking and Decision Making Process
Critical Thinking and the Decision Making Process
University of Phoenix
Critical Thinking and the Decision Making Process “Critical Thinking is the awakening of the intellect to the study itself.” This quote is the mantra on the website of the Community of Critical Thinking. Although a deep concise sentence critical thinking is much deeper than one sentence. (unknown, 2009)
Whenever a person makes a decision more than simple thought goes into this decision, there is a process that follows certain steps and when some of those steps are left out quite possibly the decision can be a hasty one. Some individuals are conscious of this process while others truly perform the process without astute awareness they are following any process at all. Scriven and Paul define critical thinking as: Critical thinking is 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. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. (Paul, 1987). However, practical these applications seem, indiviuals apply these dynamics differently which may lead to self discovery or poor decisions. This can be seen in the business world when an employee choses to challenge a process and change the course of how that process is implemented. What does it take to change a process? Recently a process change was put through at work ,Bank of America Merchant Services, (this area of the bank approves merchants to process mastercard and visa) the challenge to the current process was to place a liasion between the
Critical Thinking and the Decision Making Process
University of Phoenix
Critical Thinking and the Decision Making Process “Critical Thinking is the awakening of the intellect to the study itself.” This quote is the mantra on the website of the Community of Critical Thinking. Although a deep concise sentence critical thinking is much deeper than one sentence. (unknown, 2009)
Whenever a person makes a decision more than simple thought goes into this decision, there is a process that follows certain steps and when some of those steps are left out quite possibly the decision can be a hasty one. Some individuals are conscious of this process while others truly perform the process without astute awareness they are following any process at all. Scriven and Paul define critical thinking as: Critical thinking is 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. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. (Paul, 1987). However, practical these applications seem, indiviuals apply these dynamics differently which may lead to self discovery or poor decisions. This can be seen in the business world when an employee choses to challenge a process and change the course of how that process is implemented. What does it take to change a process? Recently a process change was put through at work ,Bank of America Merchant Services, (this area of the bank approves merchants to process mastercard and visa) the challenge to the current process was to place a liasion between the
Cited: Elder, R. a. (2001). Critical Thinking :Tools for taking charge of yourlearning and your life . In Paul, S. a. (1987, Summer). Foundation for Critical Thinking. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from The Critical Thinking Community : www.criticalthinking.org R. &. L.Elder, Critical Thinking . Upper Saddle River: Prentice Park unknown. (2009). Foundation for Critical Thinking. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from The Community of Critical Thinking: www.criticalthinking.org