What Is Critical Thinking?

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. (Critical thinking community, n.d.)

Critical thinking is one of the most important traits that a person can have in their day to day lives. It involves the person to have the ability to ascertain claims and make judgments based on well-support evidence or logic rather than anecdote or emotion. There are 8 protocols that critical thinkers’ exhibit in their day to day lives in order to become better at their craft.

Critical thinking is described as unbiased, clear and factual thought process that helps any student with any decision-making process. Critical thinking is an essential tool that every student will need to master to continue academic success. There are multiple phases of critical thinking as described by Benjamin Bloom which include remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. The critical thinking process starts by remembering. If we can remember what we read and apply key facts we will be able to move forward to understand what decisions we need to make. From there we can then apply the facts to the decision we have to make and innovate, or create, as needed.

Critical thinking is the ability to think of something, and be able to give an opinion/judgement about the subject. If you can’t think critically, you can’t understand the relationship between ideas, or facts given to you. Having

Critical thinking’s meaning to me is a very well-disciplined thinking process of an individual who skillfully, analyzing and evaluating. A process from information gathered from information given to an individual. It also is coming from communication, observations and past experiences that the individual has experienced from the past. Critical thinking allows you to think and ask yourself the right questions so that you can reach the best conclusion.

……What is critical thinking, critical thinking is -------it helps a nurse --------and all of these steps contribute to good patient outcomes. Anyone is capable of learning and improving critical thinking skills. Critical thinking makes one look at a situation and weighs all possible solutions before coming up with a conclusion. It may require input from different coworkers, for example ------critical thinking helped my priority

Critical thinking is a process in which a person actively participates, and with skill comes to conclusions that are based on what a person has seen, experienced, and what one may believe.

Critical thinking involves evaluating and analyzing data in order to form a reasonable judgment about a particular topic or idea. It is not simply believing a subject matter because someone in authority or expertise said it, but challenging those arguments in order to form a well thought out conclusion. A critical thinker will normally not accept an answer without reasoning; they require evidence to validate or prove their conclusion. The ability to reason logically is a fundamental and disciplined skill that can be learned over time.

Critical thinking is not something that is foreign to our brain. We use critical thinking every single day, even if we don’t know it. Critical thinking usually involves a process of breaking down information in order to get a desired result.

Do you ever think to yourself, “This can’t be worth it. Is what I’m doing right? Can this affect others in a negative way, and hurt people I don’t want to hurt?” When you do this, You’re thinking, and not just the kind of thinking you normally. What you’re really doing is critically thinking. You’re thinking about your decision and how it might hurt others, and what it will do for you in the future. When you critically think, it can help you make decisions from where to eat, up to huge and important decision that could last you a lifetime.

I would describe critical thinking as thinking outside the box, digging a little deeper. According to the text on Think Smarter : Critical Thinking to Improve Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills, critical thinking is a purposeful method for enhancing your thoughts beyond your automatic, everyday way of thinking. (Kallet,2014)

The definition of critical thinking is an important concept for everyone to recognize. According to Browne M. Neil, listening and reading critically that is, reacting with systematic evaluation to what you have heard and read requires a set of skills and attitudes (4). If critical thinking is used in the process of listening and reading it is significant to know the definition. Critical thinking, is a set

Browne, Keely, McCall and Kaplan, refers to critical thinking as a "Systematic evaluation of arguments based on explicit rational criteria (1998, p.IX)." The authors go on to state that "critical thinking refers to the following: awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions,

Critical thinking means accurate thinking in the search of appropriate and dependable knowledge about the world. Another way to describe it is sensible, insightful, responsible, and skillful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. Critical thinking is not being able to process information well enough to know to stop for red lights or whether you established the right change at the supermarket.

What is critical thinking to you? To some it may mean making wiser choices, taking time to critically analyze a situation, or to just put greater thought in your everyday life. According to Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Pauls’ article, “Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking”, critical thinking is defined as the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. To us, critical thinking is a very important aspect of life and something we can all improve on. It allows us to think outside the box and put ourselves in others shoes and really look at things differently. We made sure to think about our own thinking habits while discussing these articles and to notice if we were ever being close-minded.