Reasoning as a Resource
What role does reasoning play in the critical thinking problem solving process?
I believe the role of reasoning in the problem solving process is tied closely to decision making.
With my nursing students, I often see that they're able to gather data by different methods, like reviewing a patient's chart of performing a physical assessment, but they have difficulty determining what it all means: Why does the patient have these symptoms? What medical condition is causing this? What nursing interventions do you implement to help the patient?
This is where good, solid reasoning comes in. If the student understands enough about the disease process and can understand why they're seeing what they're seeing, they can use the data to create a plan of action.
If their reasoning is poor, they struggle to make sense of even the most common and obvious symptoms. This may lead them down a path that doesn't help the patient at all and could potentially harm the patient.
Matthew,
I am a big user of case studies. I think they help students to see real situations in a setting that lets them think through situations without the fear of failure. The more confidence they can build with the case studies the better because once they are out in the workplace their are very few do overs.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Case studies are a great way to see how a student is actually thinking, the way answer them has a direct impact on how they will do it on a real situation. I always get those students who say "I can fix it on a real car but not in a written scenario". I find this to be inaccurate and they struggle with real scenarios and reasoning skills as much as if it was a written scenario. A sound reasoning skill is needed to answer scenarios as well as a real life situation.
It plays a big roll because with out reasoning and being willing to listen and take in all possible scenarios into account it's hard to come up with the correct result.
I find that students just want to press the easy button (goggle). They don't care how or why,They just want a quick answer.
I find it to be very difficult to change this approach to problem solving.
The students must understand the purpose of the assignment. By developing questions the student will better understand the given assignment. The student must use all data in order to come up with a viable conclusion.
Reasoning often adds a level of rigor to the critical thinking process, as well as creating an objective process by which to evaluate unfamiliar subject-matter. When confronted with new ideas or surprising research findings, the process of rigorous reasoning offers a way to "map" the information so that patterns and discrepancies can begin to emerge and to be compared to known patterns. This is especially important in the architecture and design fields, where a designer is frequently confronted by societal demands and technological novelties that are unfamiliar to some degree. Reasoning as a routine process in critically thinking through the design problematic is exceedingly important in these fields, both in academia and practice.
Michael,
Well put and right on target in terms of how critical thinking and problem solving can be developed.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Is taking the time to use critical thinking to evaluate information, apply common sense and make a judgement.
A very important role and one that is difficult to bring forth to the student who want to gain the knowledge without much effor: there are youtube, google, wikipedia, etc., to search quickly-even if the answers/information is inaccurate or plain wrong.
Reasoning requires one to think independently, patiently, and look for solutions based on his/her experience and knowledge
Zachary,
So true. One single approach used over and over becomes a recipe for failure because one solution will not work in every setting as life experiences has taught us.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
One must reason and see all the best possibilities to critically think. There could be more than one answer to a problem so reasoning is crucial to find the best answer.
Frances,
Big fan of the light bulb. You are right when it comes on the result is such a great feeling. This makes you feel that it is worth all of the time and effort that has been invested in preparing classes and working with students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Deductive reasoning has to come before an answer. It is all related. My child is sick...what do I do? I take care of child or take child to doctor? Set of facts, deductive reasoning, (common sense), critical thinking. Everyone does this everyday...on the freeway, at the grocery store, with family crisis...it is just we have formal labels for it in schools. The students understand when they can relate to everyday life, then begin applying it to more scientific and complex situations. AHHHH! The lightbulb! Love to see their success!!!
Sherry,
This is an ongoing challenge for students. They want to google an answer and move on without using any of their thinking skills or pull on their life experiences. The most effective problem solvers are those that can do thinking and then acting effectively as they solve problems.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree thought has a lot with problem solving. The problem is a lot of students do not think about a problem to decipher what exactly they need to solve. Therefore they waste a lot of time and have to start again. They want to solve the problem quickly, but waste time starting over. If only, they had done a little thinking at the beginning.
Peter,
Good definition and one that requires time and effort to come up with viable solutions to the presenting problem. Common sense goes a long way in helping students to come up with solutions. I am finding that more and more of the students are coming to class with little or no experience in using common sense to analyze a problem. I am spending more time in this area. There is more to life and problem solving than Google.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I think that reasoning is a very important part of the critical thinking problem solving process. Reasoning is defined as, "the action of thinking about something in a logical, sensible way."
Reasoning plays a major role in critical thinking. One must be able to approach a problem in a structured manner and weigh all options. Critical thinking requires a formal process that allows the thinker to weigh decisions clearly.
