Discipline in Critical Thinking
How can personal discipline help with critical thinking?
Personal discipline involves patience, and the more patience they have the more time the may be willing to dedicate to critical thinking.
Critical thinking cannot be done when you let your emotions control you. To be objective you need to be methodical. Showing discipline includes stepping back, reflecting, analyzing and adopting a solution that fits best the situation.
Mary,
Right you are about the need for discipline. Self discipline seems to be lacking in many students today. We need to help our students to understand the value of acquiring self discipline and the benefits that will result from having it.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Discipline is vital to the process of critical thinking and developing sound outcomes and recommendations. One must be committed to to solving a problem, both mentally and physically, doing the necessary research, interviews and weighing options. Furthermore, one must be patience if reflection is needed and be disciplined enough to wait for the right idea or scenario to come to light. With out discipline, rash decision might be made that do not result in the best possible outcome.
Marybeth,
Well said and something that we need to remind our students about as they work through problem solving situations. The more self discipline the more resources they will have from which to pull as they move through critical thinking and problem solving sequences.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Having personal discipline can open up new solutions to problems...It can have you see things in a different way and provide you with more that one option at times...It does take more effort and time and can be often overlooked for a faster solution or fix for a problem.
Mark,
Thank you for sharing this example. Great way to illustrate your point about how individuals can work through critical thinking to come up with solutions.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
As a hobby I'm a race car crew chief. Critical thinking is paramount during a race. How focused are you at winning is half the battle. The other half come down to preparation. With proper preparation and focus winning becomes possible. Using racing as a real world example helps students understand the dedication and focus needed to succeed, but when faced with the reality of the hours of time put in, the expenses and the travel time, students don't see the 15 minutes of fame as glorious or worth the effort. Hence rather than telling them this, I guide the conversation so the students uses critical thinking to deduce the amount of effort involved. Then they see the reward in the 15 minutes of fame.
A person must dedicate time and energy into finding the answer that works best for them. It is easy to sit back and accept another persons thoughts and ideas. It takes effort to explore our our sense of selves.
To be a good critical thinker you must put the time and effort in to the decision making process. This time and effort will give you the tools and information to make good decisions. Gathering the most information about a problem will enable you to make the best decision.
Lilly,
Yes, it does and it seems to be a concept that many students cannot or will not grasp. Self discipline is key to the development of the ability to think critically and problem solve.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Discipline implies a commitment in time, and a willingness to work at a sound solution
Lisa,
Self discipline seems to be missing in many of our current students. Your point about the value of self discipline is a good one and something we need to convey to our students on a regular basis. By developing self discipline they will be able to secure information, make choices and then solve problems once they are working in their career areas.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I think that personal discipline is important to critical thinking because when one is asked to think critically this is usually a timely process as well as some frustration at times. Therefore, when one has discipline they will be motivated, dedicated and patient to finding the best or right solution to problem.
Susan,
I agree because the bulk of students do not seem to have an understanding of the steps needed to think critically nor problem solve. By being a role model for them you can help them create their own strategies for becoming problem solvers.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I believe that we need to model the steps to having discipline and model the process of critical thinking in our classrooms so students can apply that in their learning and in their lives. Critical thinking is a most important life skill.
Scott,
Right you are and by following these steps students will be prepared to do critical thinking and problem solving.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
must be consistant and be willing to have perseverence and a positive attitude to think clearly.Negativity will skew your thinking
Denise,
You are most welcome. I know you are going to like the results you get from having former students come in and tell students like it "really is" out in the workplace. The motivation level is always high after one of these presentations.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
