Critical Thinking and its Links to Success

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Introduction With the development of human society, we have stepped in to the information age, leading the cost of decision-making significant increased. This special age has focused attention on good thinking as an important element of life success (Huitt, 1995; Thomas & Smoot, 1994). This report will provide an overall description of what critical thinking is, and explain what it means for students to do critical thinking. Overall description of critical thinking The definition of critical thinking has changed somehow over the past few decades. Critical thinking first used by Plato and Aristotle in about 350 BC, the writings of Socrates, encouraged their followers to explore theories and concepts, because they believe that the final result of analysis of facts and conditions, were usually not what they appeared on the surface(Sam & Frederick,2006). Chance described critical thinking is the ability to analyze facts, generate and organize ideas, defend opinions, make comparisons, draw inferences, evaluate arguments and solve problems in 1986. Then in 1995, it has been defined as a skillful, responsible thinking that facilitates good judgment because it is sensitive to context, and is self-correcting (Lipman, 1995, p. 146). Moreover, numbers of separate groups have made significant contributions to the definition of critical thinking based on their perspectives. Philosophy reminded that critical thinking is a process of thinking to a standard, psychology established the operational definitions that associated with critical thinking, and Content specialists demonstrated how critical thinking can be adopted in different content areas (Huitt,1998). What it means for student to be able “critical thinking” According to Ferrett’s su... ... middle of paper ... ... State University. Retrieved May 1998, from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/context/infoage.html Huitt, W. (1998). Critical thinking: An overview. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved from, http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/critthnk.html Lipman, M. (1995). Critical thinking - what can it be? In A. Ornstein & L. Behar (Eds.) Contemporary issues in curriculum,pp. 145-152. Otley, D., (1980) The contingency theory of management accounting: achievements and prognosis, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol 5, No. 4, 413-428 Sam, N., & Frederick, R. (2006) “Critical thinking in organizations”, Team Performance Management, Vol. 12 Iss: 7/8, pp.272 – 277. Thomas, G., & Smoot, G. (1994, February/March). Critical thinking: A vital work skill. Trust for Educational Leadership, 23, pp34-38.

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