Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Critical Thinking 1

As the next topic of discussion and exploration, my class is charged with the task of writing about critical thinking, how it pertains to our major, and if our school does a good, bad, or satisfactory job of teaching us how to think critically. In starting this paper, I have to create a definition of what critical thinking is. After some brainstorming, I came up with this tentative definition, "Critical thinking is when an individual analyzes a text or pair of texts to obtain a greater meaning of the work or works as a whole." After some brief self-reflection, I realized that I started thinking critically back in the days of junior high and have done so ever since. Critical thinking is a skill. I am now far more proficient in critical thinking than I was then, but as it is a skill, there is always room for improvement.

3 comments:

  1. Good definition! I assume you are discussing critical thinking in terms of literature, which is what immediately comes to mind when I hear "critical thinking." Most of the time our teachers taught us critical thinking while analyzing text, so your definition is certainly appropriate.

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  2. I also like your definition of critical thinking. We have very similar ideas. I agree that so much of everything we do nowadays involves critical thinking and we use it every day in our lives.

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  3. I agree with you.. but I think it extends beyond merely text. Perhaps music- or anything else that doesn't require words- such as a situational issue? :)

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