What is critical thinking?
Last updated
21 August 2023
Reviewed by
Jean Kaluza
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Critical thinking involves analyzing all data before making a judgment, and it considers known and subconscious biases. It requires credible sources, evaluating the argument, assessing any alternate views, and testing the hypothesis.
Let’s look at everything you need to know about critical thinking.
- Why is critical thinking important?
Critical thinking hinges on being rational and objective, which is useful in various disciplines and settings. It’s the keystone of science, humanities, and anyone wanting to have information literacy and engage independently without media and popular bias.
- 5 characteristics of critical thinking
Critical thinking has five main characteristics that affect any decision-making process:
Dispositions
Critical thinkers have certain traits and dispositions, so they can think through all parts of a problem. Some of these traits include:
Open-mindedness
Respecting evidence and data
Valuing fair-mindedness
Using clarity
Cognitive flexibility
The ability to make sound arguments is part of critical thinking, and they involve supporting evidence. You’ll consider several arguments for and against before coming to your reasoning.
You need to meet some conditions for something to be factual. Critical thinking means you can discern fact from fiction.
Metacognition
When you think about your thoughts, analyze them, and see other avenues of thinking, that is metacognition. Being able to do this means you can reach better hypotheses and more definite conclusions.
- 6 key critical thinking skills
Six thinking skills help a critical thinker create a thorough conclusion:
Identifying bias
Identifying your bias is a major factor in critical thinking. This internal bias can alter how you see evidence and read project data. It’s good to uncover bias when working with people, as it can create workplace inequalities and group discord.
Inference is the ability to come up with a logical conclusion from the available data and information.
You must research the facts and information to generate your conclusion. Some projects or situations require much more research than others.
Identification
The ability to identify problems and what is affecting that problem is called identification. The skill helps you know when to analyze a situation after seeing broken patterns or other issues.
Intellectual curiosity means you can question what’s happening around you and explore different measures of changing or affecting it. Beginning with an open mind full of wonder can help you see things others may not. It can also help you ‘ think outside the box.’
Judging relevance
A wealth of research can be part of a data set, but not all information is relevant. A key part of critical thinking is seeing what is and isn’t important.
Relevance helps you stay focused and not wander to parts of a project or data set that aren't essential to your conclusion.
- An example of critical thinking skills
Let’s imagine you’re reading about a new drug: One article shows thrilling results.
Thinking critically, you compare the study cited in the article with other results. You discover that it’s an outlier—most other research has shown it’s ineffective in treating the condition.
You take another look at the first journal article and see the drug company paid for it. With the outlier results, bias, and conflict of interest, you reject the study’s conclusion.
- 9 actionable tips to improve critical thinking skills
Want to improve your critical thinking ability? Here are a few ways to boost that process:
Play logic games
Spend time playing logic puzzles or other games that make you think critically.
Question your assumptions
When you notice you've made an assumption, question it and think about where that belief stems from.
Ask more questions
Increase the number of questions that you ask on a day-to-day basis. Preferably, use open questions instead of closed yes/no questions.
Practice active listening
Most people don’t truly listen to what others say. Developing active listening skills means you’ll pick up on a lot more in conversation.
Go beyond the echo chamber
Diversify your thoughts and think outside your comfort zone. That may mean consuming media from a different source or having a discussion with someone with opposing views.
Consider your actions
Before acting, think about the consequences of your actions and develop more than one way to respond. After considering your options, form a more logical and less emotional response.
This also applies when you have a problem. Try to think of multiple solutions and analyze how you came up with them.
Look for a mentor
Embrace individualism.
Forge your own thinking path: Don’t just follow the crowd. One way of fending off herd mentality is being aware of your thoughts and questioning what others are following.
Stay on top of problems
Develop the skills to identify problems in your home and work environment faster. Be more mindful of what is going on around you.
How do you identify a critical thinker?
People who can stay objective during a situation and follow the facts are critical thinkers. Separating emotion when making a decision or judgment is another core aspect.
Identifying these skills in advance is a great way to be a more competent manager and create a better work environment.
What are the types of thinkers?
There are five types of thinkers: Realists, analysts, synthesists, idealists, and pragmatists.
Realists go headstrong into problems without issue.
Analysts need procedure to look at all the data first.
Synthesists consider possibilities creatively for their problems.
Idealists set a high bar and work toward goals for the issue.
Pragmatists want fast and long-term results while working through the problem logically.
What part of the brain is responsible for critical thinking?
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is responsible for behavior, thinking, and emotional response. As the most evolved part of the brain, it’s the primary region for critical thinking.
What are the 4 Cs of 21st-century skills?
The four Cs are communication, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.
Communication ensures you consider everyone's thoughts and draw other conclusions.
Critical thinking means you can logically create an unbiased response.
Creativity finds new ways to respond to information.
Collaboration helps mindsets work together to create a unified front for the conclusion.
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6 Foundation Skills for Critical Thinking
Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think – Albert Einstein
When Albert Einstein was in high school his Father asked his school’s headmaster what profession his son should pursue, the headmaster’s response was “It doesn’t matter, he’ll never make a success of anything.” Albert showed no signs of being a genius, and as an adult denied his mind was extraordinary. He said “I have no particular talent. I am merely extremely inquisitive.”
Einstein had the basic critical thinking ability of being able to cut problems down to size. It was said that “One of his greatest intellectual gifts, in small matters as well as great, was to strip off the irrelevant frills from the problem.”
While most of us can ever hope to achieve the intellectual level of Einstein, we can all strive to learn to think critically to solve both personal and workplace problems.
Critical thinking is the practice of processing information in order to make a decision, come to a conclusion or solve a problem. Think of critical thinking as a simple machine that allows you to put information in, and the machine processes the information and spits out a conclusion. That conclusion could take the form of a solution to a problem or an important decision that must be made.
Critical thinking is a high level skill that requires more than just thinking about the information you already know. It is an important skill in the workplace because it helps employees solve problems and make difficult decisions. For example, an employee could use her critical thinking skills to help a customer decide on a product that meets his specific needs. The employee would collect information about the needs of the customer, compare that information with the information she knows about the products she is selling and make a decision about what to recommend to the customer. If she uses her information well, she will have a happy customer.
You think and make decisions all the time. In fact, this very moment you might be thinking to yourself, “I make decisions every day. I already know how to think critically.” That is sort of true because your mind is always working, thinking about what’s happening around you, what you’re doing or something someone is saying to you. However, not all thinking is critical thinking.
Have you ever heard someone tell you to use your critical thinking skills? As the name suggests, critical thinking requires skills or a learned ability to do something. So how do you develop or learn critical thinking skills? The Critical Thinking Skills program breaks down critical thinking into the following six skill areas:
1. Gathering Information 2. Analyzing Information 3. Applying Information 4. Forming a Hypothesis 5. Problem Solving 6. Decision Making
This is the beginning of a six part series on critical thinking. Stay tuned to upcoming posts to learn more about the Conover approach to Critical Thinking.
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About the author: terry schmitz.
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