Critical thinking leads to better problem solving: Yes or No?

Almost every one of us often experiences problems at various intervals. While some of us experience huge and complex problems whereas others might get across with easy day to day problems. Similarly when we talk about our professional life, there is also a lot of issues and challenges which needs to be addressed. Whether we are in office or work sites, we go through different kinds of challenges and we need to deal with them accordingly. One of the basic skills a person should possess is to identify the solutions to particular problems. In recent times the employers look for these skills as they require a workforce which is well prepared and ready to deal with any kind of situations beyond the usual essentials of writing, reading and arithmetic to outgrow their business. These skills comprise of critical thinking and problem solving.

Critical thinking can be defined as the process involving the analysis and evaluation of ideas and information in order to reach sound judgments and conclusions. Just bring into use your knowledge, data and facts to effectively solve problems. You may take time as assessing problems and finding the right solutions does but doing it in less time with a well thought out solution is a plus for you because that’s what employers need from employees nowadays. They want people in their company who can easily work and solve their problems themselves. An ideal employer can think effectively and critically, use sound judgment and take decisions.

Anyone with the ability to think critically can:

· Comprehend the connections between thoughts and ideas.

· Define the significance of arguments and ideas and their relevance.

· Identify, build and evaluate arguments.

· Recognize inconsistencies and faults in reasoning.

· Approach problems in a consistent and systematic way.

· Reflect on the justification of their own assumptions, beliefs and values.

Critical thinking is rationally thinking about solutions and all their aspects in specific ways so as to reach at the best conceivable solution in the situations that the thinker is aware of. In other words, it is a way of thinking about the present problem in a sensible and logical way in order to come up with the best conclusion.

In Fact, critical thinking entails you to use your aptitude to reason. It is about being a proactive learner instead of an inactive receiver of information. That’s what critical thinkers have in them which differentiated them from others. They don’t accept things as they are rather go for the deep study based on the facts and figures. They will try to analyze whether the arguments and findings actually signify the whole scenario or not. They will arrive at the solution of the problem systematically as compared to their intuition

Skills required for Critical Thinking:

The skills we need in order to be a good critical thinker are diverse and involves, first of all, a keen observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, clarification, problem-solving, and decision making.

Specifically, we need to be able to:

1. Think about a topic or issue in an objective and critical way.

2. Identify the different arguments there are in relation to a particular issue.

3. Evaluate a point of view to determine how strong or valid it is.

4. Recognize any weaknesses or negative points that there are in the evidence or argument.

5. Notice what implications there might be behind a statement or argument.

6. Provide structured reasoning and support for an argument that we wish to make

To conclude, I‘d say that Critical thinking is intended at attaining the best possible conclusions in any condition. In order to accomplish this, it must include assembling and analyzing information from as many diverse sources possible. It needs a rational, often uncomfortable, assessment of your personal strengths, weaknesses and preferences and their possible impact on decisions you may make. Critical thinking also involves the development and use of foresight as far as this is possible.

As Doris Day sang, “the future’s not ours to see”.