Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking and Its Beneficial Use

Introduction

There are nuggets of wisdom about life that tell of applicable truths about it . We can surely find an array of them : live like there 's no tomorrow , do good and avoid evil , do not do unto others what you do not want others do unto you , among others . But there is one adage about life that most people - if not all people - will personally come across as they grow old in life . It goes by the phrase , life is the best teacher in the

world ' Even modern schools of thought accede to this for one cannot simply dismiss the truth that lies in the fact that experience .is a major resource in learning situations (Brookfield 1986 ,

. 38 . True enough , there are experiences in life that teach vital lessons . They can figure in the learning one draws from school , or the decisions one takes on oneself , or even mistakes one commits in the process

But learning from the past does not necessarily have to translate to committing so many indecisions and mistakes in life . While learning generally stems from the lessons one draws from the past , one does not always have to commit mistakes to know which decision works or not There can be a lot of things at stake and far many more things to lose were one to put on an attitude of laxity in facing life . Surely , life may allow certain latitude for mistakes but the general thumb-rule about it runs by the premise that one engages first in thoughtful consideration of possibilities and consequences before making a major decision . As it were , this is where critical thinking comes in

Critical Thinking : Its Nature and Aspects

Critical thinking is basically an exercise involving correct reasoning At the very least , critical thinking is done to arrive at a correct judgment over matters that may or may not lead to a certain kind of decision . Thomson would define critical thinking as an exercise that is centrally concerned with giving reasons for one 's beliefs and actions analyzing and evaluating one 's own and other people 's reasoning devising and constructing better reasoning (Thomson , 2002 ,

. 2 Fundamentally , critical thinking is a process and not a possession of an immediate or intuitive knowledge . One does not usually engage in critical thinking if he or she is not willing to undergo its meticulous process - a process which may involve the following activities recognition of the problem , gathering of facts , analyzing gathered data evaluation of other possibilities , and , last but not least , drawing logical conclusions (Thomson , 2002 ,

. 2

According to Thomson , there are at least three major aspects involved in critical thinking . First , to think critically means analyze the kind of reasoning one submits . In this process , one is enjoined to pick out those features of language which tell us that reasoning is taking place (Thomson , 2002 ,

. 5 . It must be remembered that reasoning is done on a daily basis . Which is...