Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Reflection Paper

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

I am taking the Critical Thinking class this semester. Before the class started, I had thought about the word critical. The word critical put instantly the negative words and images into my head such as criticize, disapproval, blame, condemn, etc. However, when I put the words critical and thinking together, I had to question myself the meaning of the new words critical thinking. In my definition, the critical thinking is the thinking process which starts with disapproval and leads to the rational decision through the optimistic view. I believed it could only be achieved based on the analysis of fact without any biased opinions. It was a quite interesting that I had two different views for two similar words critical and critical thinking, and I realized there were more to the critical thinking process than just my own definition after reading the introduction.

The first part of introduction briefly introduces three main sections that will be covered in the textbook later. Part I analyzes the internal factors that affect our thinking capabilities. Part II covers the elements of critical thinking: our attitude and belief. Part III focuses on the creative thinking. After reading the introduction, I became more aware of the factors and elements and asked to myself “Have I made decisions by thinking critically? Have I properly applied the factors discussed in this book, which affect my thinking ability? Have I ever made wrong decisions based on the biased opinions grown unconsciously inside my mind? With these questions in mind, I am looking forward to learning the factors and elements of critical thinking and applying the concepts to improve possible outputs through this course.

According to the introduction, people usually make decisions by their intuition and rational decision techniques. In everyday life, critical thinking skill is not required to solve the general problems. However, it requires...