What Is Critical Thinking?

What Is Critical Thinking?

Paul and Elder (2006) describe critical thinking in the introduction of their book Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life, as “the art of thinking about thinking while thinking in order to make thinking better.” Working out a situation, explaining some dilemma, answering particular questions, or settling a certain issue is the common purpose of thinking. Discovering how to recognize that things are not always what they seem to be on the surface and realizing how skillfully that one makes sense of the world’s surroundings is essential to a person’s welfare and interests. Learning to become a successful evaluator of reasoning logically allows full advantage to the value of thinking. This requires making learning about thinking precedence (Paul, Elder, 2006, p. xix).

What is the need for Critical Thinking skills?

Skills of knowing how to learn and knowing how to comprehend the rapidly spreading information that we must select from are the most important intellectual skills for the future. The information flood and the continuously shifting workplace are but a few rea¬sons why critical thinking is more significant now than ever before in history (Halpern, 2003, p. 3). The information upsurge is but one reason why there needs to be specific instruction in thinking. Critical thinking skills are important for a free society, and claims stating that every generation needs better critical thinking skills than the previous one due to a bigger and more complex base of knowledge (Halpern, 2003). In some instances, state university curriculums are instructed to include critical thinking as part of their general education requirements (Halpern, 2003). Critical thinking skills are considered high priority on an employers list when searching for potential employees (Burbach, 2004, para.4).

The ideal critical thinker is consistently inquisitive, knowledgeable,