The Importance of Critical Thinking

Usually, when we think about critical thinking, we think about the questions that came after our reading comprehension passages when we were younger. Or later you hear about it at seminars or workshops or even a self help book. Critical thinking has been a principle that floats around a lot of us, but it’s never really given a hard definition. That might be because critical thinking isn’t necessarily a concrete, one-liner you can find on quizlet. It encompasses multiple ways of thinking and pathways of addressing issues.

For example: If you’re trying to answer a simple question like whether or not drinking coffee is good for your heart. When you do research, instead of googling your question you would search to pros and cons of drinking coffee. From each site you would evaluate both credibility and bias. You might even look for professional studies and evaluate their bias and the flaws in their study. From this path of action you can make an adequate decision for yourself by taking in the information from your research. Even if the research was inconclusive for whatever reason, it’s worth communicating your findings because it’s a balanced idea.

Critical thinking is thinking for yourself. It means you move away from sociocentrism and egocentrism to not only to avoid following the crowd, or your feelings, but to be able to prove that your opinions are well-informed and have evaluated both good and bad. Critical thinking also includes understanding how bias while researching an issue like in the example in the last paragraph. Making informed decisions objectively, and thinking self-correctively.

While this skill can easily be isolated to the academic world. Obviously for a project you want to research your topic thoroughly and come up with theories, arguments and counterarguments. In every essay you provide evidence for your topic sentences. It’s been engraved into everyone who went to grade school knows that rubric-style thinking that many of us have used when writing an essay. Most educators are trying to get their students to think critically, but this checklist thinking is what has ensued instead.

Critical thinking isn’t only for writing essays or doing homework in general. A lot of employers look for an individual that can not only think for themselves, but reason objectively, solve problems, and make their own decisions. Think back to when you write essays for college admissions. One of the prompts is usually about how you solved a problem, or when you learned something new. Interview questions will most likely ask you how you dealt with something difficult. When you move forward into the world, whether it be in corporate or education or advocacy or just in general, as you as you age, it’s very much expected of you to be critical in your thinking, learning and problem solving.

So next time you’re asked to “think critically” don’t think of it as a hassle, or evaluating unnecessary details, or say “this isn’t even important, no one needs to know this information.” because the world is looking for people who can solve real world problems objectively. The world needs thinkers that are ready to better the environments they inhabit.