Critical Thinking

For as long as I can remember I have had a plan of how I would do things before I did them. I would sit down and think and weigh out the pros and cons of each situation and then decided on a plan of attack. I had no idea that what I was doing was critical thinking. Critical thinking is described as 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”. (Foundation for critical thinking 2004) What this means is that you take charge of the way you think and become a critical thinker.

“Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced” (Foundation for critical thinking 2004). Critical thinkers distinguish between fact and opinion; they ask questions, and make decisions based on logic and evidence. To become a critical thinker one must change their thought process or the way he or she has been taught to think. As children we tend to think like our parents or the adults around us because this is how we were taught. As we grow and become adults we can change the way we think about certain things and become critical thinkers.

Critical thinking is a process that takes time and sometimes the use of strategies. Critical thinking strategies strengthen your focus on the topic. A critical thinking strategy that I use is the web, at the time that I learned this strategy I didn’t know it was a critical thinking strategy, it was something that was used to provoke thought while writing a paper. To use this strategy I draw a circle and I put the topic or problem that I am having inside the circle I then draw lines from that circle and I began to add the pros in smaller circles from the line on one side and I do the same with the cons on the other. From those circles come more circles; thus provoking me to think critically about the decision that I need to make.

Another critical thinking strategy is to use wasted time. “Instead of sitting in front of the TV at the end of the day flicking from channel to channel in a vain search for a program worth watching, spend that time, or at least part of it, thinking back over your day and evaluating your strengths and weaknesses”. (Paul, R. & Elder, L. (2001). I like to use this strategy because I am a procrastinator I wait until the last minute to do things, so during times when I would normally be doing nothing; like my breaks at work I take that time to think of how I can improve and have better time management skills. I also use that time to work on some projects such as papers for school.

I have used critical thinking to help me in my professional career. I was out of work for a year after I gave birth to my daughter and I used critical thinking to help me decide if I should return to work or be a stay at home mom. I decided to go back to work and now I use critical thinking on the job. I schedule candidates to take the Certified Nursing Exam in the state of Florida, and we are contractually obligated to give each candidate a testing date within thirty days of us receiving their application, we also have to make sure that the site where they are testing is within fifty miles of their home. Because