Importance of Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a term that has been heard by students of all grade levels. For some, it is confusing as to what critical thinking is, while for others, they do critical thinking on a daily basis. There is absolutely no doubt that critical thinking is essential in the 21st century. Ranging from studying more effectively to scrutinizing content to determining facts and fallacies, critical thinking is shown to play a major part in day-to-day life. Lastly, critical thinking is often overlooked by students who are not willing to go through the real struggles of learning.
What is Critical Thinking?
There are many definitions of critical thinking but the one I am going to use will be from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “the act or practice of thinking critically (as by applying reason and questioning assumptions) to solve problems, evaluate information, discern biases, etc.” Simply put, it is the ability to not take information at face value and process it at a deeper level than what people are normally used to.
It has been around since the days of Socrates, who pioneered the idea of critical thinking. While he called it the “Socratic Method,” it essentially fostered what critical thinking came to be now. The “Socratic Method” involves a dialogue that centers around open-ended questions. It was Socrates’ way of pointing out contradictions in the arguments of those he talked to to promote self-reflection.
In the academic world, critical thinking can be applied in the classroom by asking your teachers open-ended questions and vice versa. Moreover, critical thinking can also be stimulated during tests that utilize higher-order thinking skills. These involve things like finding relationships, making critiques, and contextualizing information as opposed to just memorization skills like enumeration, identification, and matching.
Bloom’s Taxonomy and its Importance to Critical Thinking
Bloom’s Taxonomy is incredibly popular among learning coaches as it’s perfect for clearly defining critical thinking. It is essentially their number one tool in helping learners be better at learning. Bloom’s taxonomy refers to the framework used for mapping out learning outcomes and objectives. It formerly consisted of three domains: Cognitive (knowledge-based), Affective (emotion-based), and Psychomotor (skills-based). While all three of these are important to learn, I will be focusing on the Cognitive domain as it has the most connection to critical thinking.
As we can see in the image, the lower orders consist of remember, understand, and apply; while the higher orders consist of analyze, evaluate, and create. To clear out any misconception, the lower orders are not inherently irrelevant, rather, they’re not the most effective in terms of critical thinking. Meanwhile, the higher orders are practically the processes that go into critical thinking.
To delve deeper, each of the higher order consists of the following but are not limited to:
Analyze
* Categorizing
* Correlating
* Mind-Mapping
* Explaining
* Contextualization
Evaluate
* Arguing
* Criticizing
* Hypothesizing
* Debating
* Assessing
Create
* Composing
* Collaborating
* Directing
* Writing
* Managing
Questions to Ask to Improve Critical Thinking
During discussions, questions are expected to pop up. In my experience, what students and even some teachers fail to understand is that questions also vary in quality, which hinders critical thinking. It’s so simple to ask what the types of [insert topic] or what the [insert topic] or sometimes when did [insert something] or even who was [insert topic]. These are questions that have an answer, but the problem is they only have one answer. This contradicts the very idea of critical thinking because students just pull information out of their brains without having to process it deeply.
Instead, students and teachers should maximize critical thinking by asking why and how. However, there’s a trap in both of these. Why questions tend to center around cause-and-effect relationships which only facilitates memorization again. On the other hand, how-questions that involve procedures are on a similar wavelength. Both of these approaches for these types of questions inhibit critical thinking. Therefore, the main questions that should be asked are open-ended questions that make students and teachers thoroughly think of the information which is already a form of critical thinking.
The main idea is not “only ask why and how, never what, when, where, and who,” it is “ask questions that get your brain to process deeply.” To provide specific examples, when contextualizing, it is important to ask “What is the application of this information to everyday life?” and utilize follow-up questions like “How am I going to apply this information to my everyday life?” Combining these types of questions can facilitate critical thinking by finding connections between the previous question and the current one.
There are more ways than one to ask questions that facilitate critical thinking. How you formulate questions should be up to you based on your needs and curiosity. Although it is important to remember the fundamental ideas of critical thinking to better boost your learning.
Benefits of Regular Critical Thinking
Critical thinking should not just be done every once in a while. We live every day of our lives thinking, so we should do it critically. There are more upsides to regular critical thinking as opposed to its downsides. We are able to learn information, create art, and rationalize events through critical thinking. In many situations, critical thinking will help you in one way or another.
In my experience, as I utilized critical thinking more and more, I have grown to be more confident. It is also important to have a level of curiosity that allows you not to think that you know everything there is to know. Critical thinking is not about being smart, it’s about learning to be better. We should not ask questions in order to “test” other people, rather, we need to have a genuine desire to learn from them as that is also part of critical thinking.
Furthermore, my creativity has been enhanced because I’m able to branch out to different ideas and not be stuck with one blank canvas through critical thinking. Critical thinking is not just about the “logic” side of the brain, it’s also important to take into account our imagination. Through critical thinking, I’m able to generate more ideas than ever, as well as create works that are up-to-standard.
Lastly, critical thinking allowed me to distinguish facts from false information. In the 21st century, we are living in a media-driven world. We constantly receive and filter information in our brains. Critical thinking allows that information to be judged, verified and reviewed so that we get to learn the truth. Being able to validate the truthfulness of the information is a staple of critical thinking and something that everybody should strive to achieve.
Conclusion
Critical thinking is important in the 21st century. Students and teachers should apply it more regularly during lectures and discussions. Critical thinking doesn’t just help us become better thinkers but also become better learners. Prioritizing higher-order thinking over the lower-orders is a fundamental part of critical thinking. We need to thrive in an information-driven world because knowledge is power. Critical thinking brings us one step closer to that power.