Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking

Sondra Albrecht

MGT/350

January 12, 2011

Instructor: Warren Leigh

This is an explanation of critical thinking and the benefits it offers in the decision-making process. The definition of critical thinking “is that mode of thinking—about any subject, content, or problem—in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it” (Paul & Elder, 2006. p. xxiii). Even though selfish thinkers use critical thinking to manipulate, free-minded thinking improves the quality of thinking because it makes the thinker fully aware of thinking. In this paper the subject to address is the standards, components, and phases of critical thinking. In addition, there is an example of a personal work experience in which critical thinking was applied to make a decision.

Critical Thinking

Standards of critical thinking include “clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, fairness, significance, consistence, plausibility, probability, and reliability” (Paul & Elder, 2006. p. xxix). The components that make up the standards of critical thinking are purpose, question, point of view, assumptions, inferences, implications, concepts, and information. One analyzes by breaking each thought into individual units, such as intention, data, connotations, and outlook. The next step is to evaluate each thought, how much can it endure, can it withstand offensive actions, or most important does it meet the needs; “how clear, accurate, precise, significant, and fair it is to all parties involved” (Paul & Elder, 2006 p.xxix). Put all this together and it forms the phases of critical thinking; classifying thinking, gauging thinking, and finally meliorating thinking. When studying thinking, it is important to remember there are different types of thinking and some, such as “critical thinking”, have different forms within. Let us look at two types of critical thinking,...