According to Moore and Parker(2011), critical thinking involves skillfully and actively applying, conceptualizing, synthesizing, evaluating, and analyzing information gathered through experience, reflection, observation, communication, or reasoning. The results of the critical thinking will then act as a guide to act or belief. Critical thinking improves an individual’s quality of thought by skillfully imposing intellectual standards and inherent structures.

Criticalthinking involves the application of logic and reasoning to new ideas, situations, and opinions. It also involves the observation of things in open-minded ways and examining them from various perspectives. Critical thinking allows people to see beyond their view of things and understand the opinions of other people better. Critical thinking is usually used in discussions to form well-rounded and cogent arguments.Critical thinking uses multiple skills such as logic, accuracy, relevance, fairness, clarity, precision, and completeness. Critical thinking has benefits that range from personal life and working place to scientific research and academic education. It is quite unfortunate that most people’s thinking are distorted, uninformed, partial, and biased, which form barriers to effective critical thinking (Moore & Parker 2011).

Criticalthinkingrequires the ability from an individual to approach situations and problem in a rational manner. Thinking in a rational way requires proper analysis of what is known and deriving conclusions based on evidence or facts rather than feelings or opinions. Reasoning in an honest way requires thinkers to acknowledge motives, personal goals, and emotions that can corrupt one’s thought processes and opinions. Rational thinking should identify and eliminate prejudices that inhibit fresh and objective approaches to situations (Moore & Parker 2011).

Critical thinking is important as it generates new avenues of problem solving. Critical thinking requires people be open-minded. Being open-minded permits people to find all possible answers to an obstacle and accept solutions and answers different from the initial expectations. Being open-minded requires people not to assume their ways of providing solutions are always right or the best. Scientists, for example, should be aware that the results of research or experiment will not always meet their expectations. Results obtained from such experiments can be challenging, but will eventually lead to meaningful discoveries (Moore & Parker 2011).

Critical thinking requires accuracy and precision. Critical thinkers should be free from distortions and errors. They should verify whether the validity of information and make clear any uncertainties and confusions. Thinking critically and logically involves drawing well-founded conclusions from beliefs and knowledge. Critical thinking reasonably requires linking and relating of arguments and ideas together. When all possible thoughts make sense and are mutually supportive, the end results are logical. Critical thinking also involves clarity. When communication is clear, it is easy to grasp and understand its meaning. When clarity lacks in communication, people fail to understand the intended message.

Thinking should be preferably thorough rather than superficial and deep rather than shallow. A combination of breadth and depth gives completeness. In conclusion, all skills have important and specific roles to critical thinking. Combining the skills result to critical thinking when confronting any challenge and as such, critical thinking is more important than just thinking (Moore & Parker 2011).

References

Moore, B. N., & Parker, R. (2011). Critical thinking (10th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.