The Importance of Critical Thinking in Listening and Reading

Imagine your employer calling you to have a discussion with you about a new idea he has for the company. He tells you how he intends to do this and informs you of your role in this new plan. After about thirty minutes of a long monologue from your employer, he then asks you to give your opinion and all you could say was “It is a great idea, boss”.??Instantly, the light on your employer’s face disappears and he asks that you return to your work.

What do you think will be going through your employer’s mind??

First, you are not a good critical thinker. How can an entire plan be presented to you and you are not able to make suggestions or even ask questions for clarification?

Second, you are not bold. What prevents you from making a suggestion or asking questions for better comprehension??

Third, you are not an effective communicator. You might have had a few suggestions and questions but could not communicate these ideas.

All these problems mentioned above have a great connection with critical thinking. Critical thinking is different from just thinking. For one to think critically, one needs to question, analyse, evaluate and judge anything he hears, reads or sees. This means that you have to understand logical connections in ideas and easily break these ideas down.?Sometimes, all these processes need to be done within a blink of an eye depending on the situation at hand.

It is important that you become aware of your own biases and assumptions before you can truly question, analyse, evaluate and make a judgement. When your biases are not checked, they affect the level of your criticality and this leads to misjudgement.?

Why is it important to develop critical thinking skills?

How can we apply all the knowledge we obtain from reading and listening without thinking through to identify which information is needed at a particular point in our journey? This is where our critical thinking skills become non-negotiable. There is this course I read in my final year in the university and it really helped me develop my critical thinking skills. In my Literary Criticism class, our goal was to read essays written by literary writers and critics such as Aristotle, Samuel Johnson, Shakespeare, T. S. Elliot, Toni Morrison, William Wordsworth, Adrienne Rich, Virginia Woolf, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, amongst others, bring out their views, and most importantly, critic these views in light of our contemporary society.?

Being a critical thinker helps you to improve your decision-making. Before you finally decide on anything, you must have thoroughly analysed the alternatives and weighed the advantages and disadvantages of every option presented to you. Also, you must have considered the difficulties associated with the choices presented to you and prepared your mind towards the outcome of your decision.

Critical thinking also enhances your problem-solving skills. As you continuously think deeply about a situation, you are able to identify potential problems that may arise and work towards finding a solution to such issues. Even when an unforeseen problem rears its head, your ability to question, analyse, interpret and evaluate enables you to find a better solution to the problem.

Furthermore, your curiosity is stimulated. Due to your ability to identify logical connections in ideas, you are eager to find out any theory underlying such connections and when this is achieved, you are able to apply it in different areas.

Moreso, you easily refine your research skills. Critical thinking has a positive correlation with research because one needs to ask a lot of questions in other to give a critical evaluation and questioning opens the door to research. After researching, you are able to make inferences. You easily draw conclusions based on relevant information and personal experiences.

Lastly, critical thinking enhances effective communication. When you are critical, you become open-minded and creative. Communication is more effective when one knows what he or she is talking about and also know how best his or her ideas can be presented. Communication is a two-way conversation between individuals. As one talks, the other listens to give important and relevant input which is dependent on one's ability to think critically.

How does one read or listen critically?

You need to first identify the central claims presented in any information you read and listen to. These are issues that the writer or speaker develops and advances his or her arguments on.

Then you begin to ask some questions about the context of the information. Some of these include: what prompted this information? How has this information been presented? Why is the information presented in this particular manner?

Finally, you look at the information in line with your present situation. What ideas resonate more with my situation and how can these ideas be applied in my world? This means that you do not take information wholly without evaluation. The idea of “take it hook, line and sinker” does not thrive in critical thinking.??

I believe that after reading this article we are going to apply our critical thinking skills everywhere we find ourselves. If you are a student, apply your skills during classroom discussions, when writing your academic essays and even when you are holding conversations with your lecturers, teachers and friends. If you are a worker, apply your skills during meetings or one-on-one interactions with your boss or colleagues. Never forget that critical thinking skills are highly important if you want to be an effective communicator.

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