what do you undrstand when you here the word critical thinking?

Answer 1

Well, apart from being a phrase rather than a word, critical thinking involves processing, analysing and understanding information. It uses patterns and cognitive skills to conceptualize, apply and synthesize, to observe, experience, reflect, reason and communicate. It applies judgment criteria and expects logical reasoning in evaluative processing. Memory may be a contributing factor to one's inherent ability to think critically.

Some interesting sites on this topic:

http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/critthnk.html
http://www.criticalthinking.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking

Answer 2

Since this was posted under the heading "Special Education," I am assuming that the asker was actually looking for the definition used in Education, especially when working with students with disabilities...

Critical thinking involves using what you've been told and going beyond it. When teachers pose a critical thinking question, they are looking for students to go beyond the concrete facts and content presented directly. Students may be asked to express an opinion, infer an outcome, synthesize the content into a conclusion, analyze a character's motivation in a story, etc. Bloom's Taxonomy's last three levels are all critical thinking skills.

Students with disabilities often have difficulty with these sorts of questions. This can be due to the particular disability. However, for most average intelligence students, it is a lack of practice. Frequently, teachers dealing with disabled students are constantly focusing on the concrete skills the child is missing (e.g. print decoding), and just don't include critical thinking questions and challenges. The child doesn't get the practice at thinking about those kinds of questions, and therefore has difficulty with them.

In my classroom, there is always a critical thinking level journal prompt, and I always try to include "why," "how," etc. questions when we're discussing content. Average intelligence kids with disabilities rise to that challenge beautifully, and we have some excellent discussion.

Answer 3

Yes i studied it for RN Education
Critical thinking consists of a mental process of analyzing or evaluating information, particularly statements or propositions that people have offered as true. It forms a process of reflecting upon the meaning of statements, examining the offered evidence and reasoning, and forming judgments about the facts.

Critical thinkers can gather such information from observation, experience, reasoning, and/or communication. Critical thinking has its basis in intellectual values that go beyond subject-matter divisions and which include: clarity, accuracy, precision, evidence, thoroughness and fairness.

Answer 4

I understand critical thinking as being analysing what you read or hear rather than just taking it at face value. Learning to think carefully through an issue yourself rather than just accepting other people's opinions.

A very useful skill to keep in mind with Yahoo Answers!

Answer 5

I went to college too like our rn friend but what I really think of when I hear critical thinking is...that there is no reality only perception...you may do all your proper documenting and jot down your so called facts but in reality it's only an opinion of an individual however detailed or factual it may be.

Answer 6

Take something that you read or learn and think about it in terms of your own personal values, experiences and knowledge. A critic is someone who tells you what they think and not what someone else thinks. Too many people just read or listen to things and don't think critically.

Answer 7

Isn't that two words? Don't mean to be critical.... but those words to me do not mean something medical, they mean a negative or overbearing person who would say something like above...

But I am not a nurse and nurses are great people and I am sure her definition is much more accurate and to the point than my flip, but I hope funny answer.

Answer 8

is a term used to refer to those kinds of mental activity that are clear, precise, and purposeful. It is typically associated with solving complex real world problems, generating multiple (or creative) solutions to a problem, drawing inferences, synthesizing and integrating information, distinguishing between fact and opinion, or estimating potential outcomes, but it can also refer to the process of evaluating the quality of one's own thinking.

Answer 9

I think of my English A-level exam. We got a pack of texts on one subject that you had to ananlyse for a week. You had to link them together by a theme and what this theme says aout the subject then explain how you found the links and how you analysed all the texts. 2 and a half hour exam...it was the bet exam i've ever done!

Answer 10

i did criticical thinking at A level...it's all about forming arguments