Are you a Critical Thinker?

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas. Critical thinkers are crucial to exploring and understanding the world we live in.They are also focused on constantly upgrading their knowledge, and they engage in independent self-learning.

Critical thinkers thoroughly question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value. They will always seek to determine whether the ideas, arguments and discoveries represent the entire picture.

Critical thinkers will identify, analyze and solve problems systematically rather than by intuition or instinct.

Someone with critical thinking skills can:

1. Understand the link between ideas and opinions.
2. Determine the importance and consequence of arguments and ideas.
3. Recognize and appraise arguments.
4.  Identify discrepancies in reasoning.
5. Approach problems in different way.
6.  Reflect on the justification of their beliefs and values.

Critical thinking is thinking about things in different ways, to arrive at the best possible solution in the circumstances that the thinker is aware of. Meaning it is a way of thinking about whatever is currently occupying your mind so that you come to the best possible conclusion by always asking questions and being active in your thought process.

Are you a Critical thinker?

• Do you ask a lot of questions like: What’s happening? Why is it important? What don't I see? How do I know? Who is saying it? What else?
• Do you have rational conversations with people you disagree with?
• Do you get news from multiple sources?
• Are you fascinated by how things work?
• Do you over analyze?
• Do you expect too much of yourself?

There is much that has been said throughout the centuries about critical thinking. The methodology named after Greek philosopher Socrates—the Socratic Method—is one of the earliest critical thinking instruction tools known to man. Centuries later, Roman Emperor Marcus “The Philosopher” Aurelius would warn in his meditations that, “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact; everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

Galileo, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King Jr., and numerous others, discovered that the practice of praising the benefits of critical thinking is literally thousands of years old. So what is it that makes it such an honored skill? In what ways does critical thinking truly benefit us?

These benefits are among the most significant.

1. It encourages curiosity
2. It enhances creativity
3. It reinforces problem-solving ability
4. Cross-curricular activity for the mind
5. It nurtures independence
6. It's a skill for life.

Critical thinking is not being critical or criticizing. It is not having negative thoughts. Critical thinking involves curiosity, understanding the other point of view, probing for the truth, examining the reasons behind different statements, simply anything other than blind acceptance or rejection.

In my opinion, critical thinking might be described as the ability to engage of insightful and independent thinking. Apparently, critical thinking requires enhancing our ability of reasoning. It is about being an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information, which will make all the difference.