Critical Thinking Application

Critical Thinking Application

Jeremy Otkin

MGT/350

September 6th, 2011

Roger Sevison

Abstract

The following is a short description of critical thinking, its definition, and how it has been used in personal experience to get a successful result. It will break down the definition of critical thinking into a more understandable three part piece. It will also explain how each part of the definition is used in critical thinking and how results can be achieved by using the parts of the definition.

Critical thinking is used in a wide variety of definitions in a wide variety of locations throughout the world. According to “The Critical Thinking Community: Foundation for Critical Thinking” (2009), “critical thinking is 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,” (para 3). This definition is a lot to digest so let’s break it down into a simpler definition.

Critical thinking is an intellectually disciplined process. This means that critical thinking develops your mental capacity discipline. Instead of using your emotions or feelings to make a decision, you explore your mind and use discipline to develop a critical thinking process, therefore coming to a conclusion based on your mental capacity. For example, if you were the manager of the Sara Lee apple pie division and had to make a decision on where to get your apples from, you would use critical thinking to weigh all the options and make the best choice to benefit the company. If your company was located in Colorado and you had to get your apples from either Washington or California, you would weigh the cost, time of delivery, and delivery mode of the apples to Colorado. You may sacrifice time for taste and cost for efficiency. In the end you will have to use your...