Critical Thinking

One of the sessions in Management Communication was on critical thinking and Professor Borromeo had stressed that we all need to become critical thinkers. As I was trying to get some more information on critical thinking, I came across this wonderful website run by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. I am going to share some of the points raised in one of the articles.

The article mentions that thinking comes naturally to us. However, a lot of our thinking is coloured by our biases and prejudices. And yet, as the adage goes ‘we are what we think’. Therefore, it becomes extremely important that we achieve excellence in thought since thoughts determine actions.

So what is critical thinking? According to the article, critical thinking is a mode of thinking where the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and intellectualizes them. A good critical thinker:

1) Asks important questions and formulates them clearly
2) Collects and analyzes information relevant to the question and comes to well reasoned conclusions
3) Thinks with an open mind about alternative trains of thought, recognizing and assessing their assumptions and implications
4) Communicates effectively with others in finding solutions to complex problems

Article link: http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?CategoryID=51
Site link: http://www.criticalthinking.org/