Personal Definition Of Critical Thinking

Unit 4 Discussion – Critical Thinking

My personal definition of critical thinking is your ability to think using sensible, adequate, and level-headed thinking about things you believe in, the things that you do, and how you ultimately decide what needs to be addressed. This includes your ability to interconnect in independent, reflective, and authentic thinking that helps you recall information and details so that you can better understand them. Critical thinking also entails your ability to make the right choices while boosting your ability to solve problems and arguments while evaluating the evidence. This also includes your thought process in being rational, open-minded, and understanding the connections between thoughts and ideas. Critical

Thinking in a reasonable and rational mind set allows you not to jump to a conclusion without first weighing the facts and the evidence. When we reflect we think back about the matter at hand and we think carefully yet deeply at the same time. When you engage in fair critical thinking, you are not being biased and sticking to one side. Believing what to do or deciding on what to do means you are trying to decide on a course of action by making observations, solving problems, and drawing conclusions. When you want more information on a specific topic or issue you respond by making inquiries to find out more about it and gaining

As stated in the text by Nosich (2012) “even if you don’t watch the news much, you indirectly form a good deal of your picture of the world from it” (p.16). Everyone forms their own picture of the world by different social media outlets, the news, and by word of mouth. The media is a way to keep up to date and informed on events happening all around us. The question is how honest or reputable is the information given to us? Is the information they offer to us distorted in any way? The impression we get from the media influences the way we see things, judge things, and how we form distorted pictures about the world and events within our minds. To gain the correct information on a world event, we need to do some research ourselves by engaging in intensive critical thinking. We can seek sources for the subject or topic by looking through reputable textbooks, accredited websites, and looking at past and future studies. Another potential impediment to critical thinking is Egocentrism. Nosich (2012) said that “our experience is heavily influenced by how we think and, conversely, how we think is influenced by our experience” (p.21). We all have our own way of thinking and when you engage in egocentric thinking, you make judgments based from your own self-interests and fantasies. Egocentrism will obstruct your critical