Monday, April 21, 2008

Critical Thinking (Hmmm)




What is critical thinking? Critical thinking begins when someone needs to know more about something or how that thing works and what will happen if we changed something. Therefore the definition of critical thinking is a higher level of thinking and it’s limitless. As some might say critical thinking is thinking outside the box.

Critical thinkers usually are good listeners. They listen carefully to what the others are saying and able to give a feedback. Critical thinkers also try to support their beliefs. They also able to distinguish incorrect or irrelevant information. Curiosity also in critical thinkers they show an interest to know every thing about a certain topic they even try to find new ways and different methods to do everything.

Bloom’s taxonomy which is a classification of the levels of thinking shows that there are six categories for the levels of thinking divided into two groups, simple and complex. Knowledge which is the first category, it means that a person is able to name and recognize or recall something and it’s the simplest type of thinking. The second type of thinking is called comprehension which basically means to understand. After that comes the application, which is the ability to use the knowledge and comprehension to solve problems. Analysis is the forth type in bloom’s pyramid; it’s when a person can examine or break down a problem or a certain thing. Redesigning something or putting something back together in a different way comes under the synthesis. The last type of thinking and the most complex way is the evaluation; it’s when a person is able to discuss and rate on a certain topic and can conclude from this topic.

In conclusion the benefits of critical thinking are lot and very important. Critical thinkers will manage to understand lot of ideas. They will have the ability to create new things. People also will be capable of think reasonably and logically.