Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is beneficial to all thinkers who take the time and effort to improve their knowledge and performance. Exploration and analysis are required to begin thinking critically and evaluating the personal element in the decision making process. One needs to accept that decisions can be made more thoroughly by taking time to measure criteria and identify problems weigh out the alternatives and impacts. Critical thinking is a way to think about anything in which the person doing the thinking improves the quality of their thinking by "..skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it"(Paul, R. & Elder, L., 2006, Introduction).

The benefits of critical thinking are vast and extensive. A benefit is to improve your outlook and ideas on life, or any topic by searching and digging deeper to develop thoughts while resisting the egocentric thought process. Humans are naturally self centered and therefore are not able to be fair minded 100% of the time. When critically thinking we need to consider all of the points in order to make the best decision. To reach the fair minded status then the traits of humility, courage, empathy, honest, perseverance, and confidence in reason must be integrated harmoniously. Characteristics of critical thinking of mind are, " intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, intellectual courage, intellectual autonomy, intellectual empathy, intellectual perseverance and confidence in reason"(Paul & Elder, 2006, Chapter 1) All of these traits are interdependent, meaning that they all rely on each other to transform into the next trait, which leads to another trait, so on and so on.

When decisions are being made the person needs to know the problem and the goals then evaluate the effect the problem has on the goal. The process of critical thinking is vital to the evaluating process in decision making. Critical thinking takes into consideration all of the factors before making the decision. Effects of each solution are considered in order to define how the goals would be affected by each. Critical thinking is used to check the quality, dependability and accuracy of the thinking.

Examples of critical thinking are analyzing, evaluating and improving. When making decisions, critical thinking is used to: Analyze the decision and its affect it will have on the objective; Evaluate the problem and the impacts of each considered solution; Improve thinking by analyzing and evaluating.

Solution oriented thinkers will hinder the process of critically thinking. The critical thinking steps can not be rushed through to get to solution. Time must be spent to become a more fair-minded and a gain the skills of a critical thinker. The benefits of thinking more deeply would be becoming more centered on others and less egocentric. Questions should be asked about the decisions that need to be made and effort made to search for the aspects of each different choice and where it may lead the final product of the decisions. Thinking critically will minimize the negative outcomes to decisions.

Experience in applying critical thinking in a hearing organization's decision making process has been varied and plentiful. Hear for Life Hearing Centers is a small hearing clinic servicing patients for over a year. Educational Seminars are used as community service to inform those attending of the latest hearing technology. Marketing direct mailings are sent to select adults in the area to invite them to attend a seminar to hear about hearing loss and get questions answered. Expansion has been in the long term plan of Hear for Life Hearing Centers. An opportunity to join