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From your perspective what are the characteristics of a critical thinker?
A critical thinker is one who is able to question information presented to him and not just make the assumption that information must be true because of the source the information came from. While some sources are far more reliable than others for certain information, a critical thinker should investigate other sources and consider weather the source of the information has motive in making us believe the information presented is true (advertiser), or even if the information we receive confirms our own biases and therefore satisfies our own desire for the information to be true. I critical thinker should in fact especially be skeptical of believing things that we want to be true.
A critical thinker is someone who is able to combine and to use his life experience, his learning and his skills when dealing with a situation that needs to be assessed.
For me, a critical thinker is someone who is presented with a problem, who can then analyze the problem, explore the alternatives, understand the relationships with all other aspects of the problem, formulate a position, and then make the appropriate decision as to how to best solve the problem at hand. I usually think of this from a math context because that’s what I do, but really it has to do with whatever we are doing in our lives. Everyone needs to be a critical thinker to best survive in life.
In my perspective the characteristics of critical thinkers are great listeners who can come up with sorting out the needed from the unneeded. As we all know that time and flowing has a great impact on critical thinking. In the era we are living we are definitely lacking the time to sort out but to quickly come to conclusion.In spite of this we as educators found that is complex to instruct the fast generational computerized learners to make them think critically.
I would agree that a critical thinker finds more than one way to prove his conclusion. We stress this in all of our automotive classes in order to fix the car correctly you must prove the answer out in more than one way.
Taking the time to gather information from a variety of sources. This takes time and patience,and as instructors we have to work with our students to see the benefit in this.
I also deal with this issue on a daily basis. Students generally have a great deal of difficulty using critical thinking, they want results/answers instantly without having to put forth any effort or thought. During lecture and lab I put a lot of effort towards explaining the reasons behind diagnostic procedures, how to interpret the results, and how this procedure can be used in other applications, rather than simply explain only the steps in the procedure. It is very frustrating to see the students have so much trouble comprehending that in some cases the test procedure steps and/or results may not be black and white, and they are often unable to use any critical thinking skills to understand why something is the way it is or how they might adjust the procedure to suit that specific situation.
I write many of my own lab sheets in my course. I usually follow a format where I have them perform a task they are required to know such as taking some measurements but I follow the task with questions to confirm that they comprehended the purpose of taking those measurements. When grading these labs it becomes very clear who the critical thinkers are. Many can perform the act of taking a measurement but few can critically think what to do with it.
To be a good critical thinker it is important to have the proper amount of information on hand. With out the proper research and data it makes it very difficult to have the tools to be a critical thinker and come up with good decisions.
Lilly,
There is a saying in relation to value of listening that goes "When you are listening you are learning and when you are talking you are not.". This is something we need to help our students to understand and practice. All of us could stand to do more listening.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Good listeners, who gather all information. They apply logic in disseminating information and process the information.
I believe that a critical thinker needs to be informed, open-minded and patient because they need to take the time to look at situation from all perspectives to come up with the best possible solution. I also agree with the material in that it needs to be self-disciplined because it needs to come from within the student to find the best solution.
Edward,
Think time is so valuable in situations like this. Students need to see the reason why it is good at times to just step back, think about the situation and then propose possible solutions.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I like to teach to the class that taking your time to think about the resolution rather than just attempt a quick answer usually proves to save time in long run
Sharon,
Good list of the components needed to be a critical thinker which leads to successful problem solving. The workplace seeks problem solvers so students need to see that they can increase their value by developing their critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Critical Thinker Characteristics include being objective or open minded to ideas, unbias, analytical as to be able to break a problem down into small pieces to analyize, able to distinguish between fact and opinion, able to make decisions using these characteristics and explain their reasoning for that decision or solution.
Tom,
Well said. They need to have confidence in you as their learning leader. This is how you earn their respect and upon which rapport is developed. From there the students can start to reflect on what they know and how they can become effective problem solvers.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
To be concise and have value. When the student believes in your knowledge and experience you are most effective.