• What Are the Causes of Discrimination?

Week 9: Communicating Your Ideas

Learning to set goals and sticking to them are one of the most important things I have learned this term. It gives a good start towards critical thinking because you have ideas on which way you want to go. Critical thinking can mean many different things for every person. Critical thinking applied more often than people think. It is on a daily bases. Besides food, water and other daily needs; Critical thinking is just as important.
I know I’m stuck in my own ways for many things especially when it comes to thinking. I have learned it is more than okay to open my mind as further to understand more and to open up to more ideas. Being suborn is my biggest problem when it comes to critical thinking. I’m slowly getting past that learning to open up to new things. Critical thinking skills give students a chance to grow in their studies and as a person.
What is critical thinking? By definition of dictionary: Disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence. In my definition it is taking your time to think outside of the way you would normally think. Take the time to be creative and careful of thoughts.
The stages of critical thinking is something I never realized there was so many. There’s more than one that applies to myself. I see myself as a beginner thinker because I have the fears of bigger and better challenges that are to come. I reflex back to areas now that I know what needs work and improvements. There are many that I need to work on is what this class has taught me. I know if I apply myself to using my critical skills I can do better and have more confidences. I had problems all of life dealing with my thinking skills so I became stuck in and a safe stubborn zone which of course leads to arguing over who was right or wrong. I was afraid people would think less of me because of the way of I would think. Learning how to apply critical thinking to my everyday life has changed how I look at things. I would look at things like the saying “The glass half full or half empty” all depending on the day and how it was going. Now I think with a brighter attitude with critical thinking about what will happen if I did my assignment earlier instead of the last day and minute to turn it in. I plan to use more critical thinking when it comes to my discussion questions and posts.
I have grown with taking this class in many ways. I’m not as afraid to take a bigger step when needed to move forward. In week one assignment I had picked Challenged thinker because of my fears of failing and doing what I really needed to do to take a bigger challenge when it was presented to me. I have worked on keeping my goals to apply critical thinking to my school work whether it’s an assignment or posting replies to my classmate’s answers on the discussion questions. I can place now and use as factors to help myself to an all new direction to help myself grow even further to become a better student. I changed because I picked up ideas and suggestions from my teacher and classmates. I never really understood what critical thinking really was till this class I thought it was the same as being critical to my own work or others. But it really can be a positive or negative thing.
I need to be freer than stressing myself out on everything I do whether it’s on a paper or in my life. I tend to let stress rule over my life. By doing that I can’t be rightfully critical of my work. Keep applying what I learned in this class to everything I do and I will not fail. Just keep moving forward not letting my fears take over where I worked so hard to change. Apply different thinking patterns to different things will make a difference than sticking to one way of thinking.
Learn from what others have to say about your work whether it’s good or bad. It shows where you need to grow and what areas need the most work to improve. It may hard to be critical of your own work but it is something you need to learn and apply to your work to truly learn and understand your topic or subject. It’s easier to use your critical thinking skills towards others but remember someone else is going to do the same to your work.

References
Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon. (May 26, 2012). Critical thinking. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/critical thinking