Understanding the importance of Critical Thinking
Educator Akhil Shahani explains how analysing pieces of information, systematically solving issues and creating innovative solutions can make you a better professional
In this age of information overload, we are inundated
with fake news and rumours via multiple WhatsApp forwards and social media
feeds. How do we know what to believe and what not to? This is where critical
thinking comes to the rescue.
Critical thinking is defined as the
objective analysis and evaluation of an issue before drawing a conclusion. The
youngsters are growing in an environment where one is prone to biases,
irrationality and prejudices.
Learning how to think critically
could make the difference between success and failure.
ADVANTAGES
Key to career success: Critical thinking helps in any
profession where you need to analyse information, systematically solve issues,
create innovative solutions and elucidate it. This capability is used
frequently by lawyers, analysts, accountants, doctors, engineers, reporters,
and scientists.
Better decisions in personal life: Every day, you make thousands of
decisions that do not require much thought. However, there are important
choices like right career, life partner or buying a car, which require a deep
understanding of situation using an unbiased logical decision process.
Can make you happier: A key component of being happy is
by knowing and understanding yourself. Critical thinking reduces cognitive
biases and negative thoughts that hold you back. It helps you assess your
strengths and weaknesses to help you decide areas of improvement.
Improves your relationships: Critical thinking enables you to
formulate and convey your thoughts clearly to others, which helps them
understand you better.
It makes you more openminded and
accepting of other points of view.
Makes you better informed: Critical thinking helps you sort
through the overwhelming amount of noise surrounding you to identify the truth
that matters. You will be better able to spot fake news Your opinion on issues
will become more respected.
DEVELOPING THE SKILLS
Five-step critical thinking process includes:
Clearly
define your question or problem: Importance of what exactly you need to
solve is important. For example, you may want to get a good job after
graduation. You need to be very clear about what you define as a good job.
Gather reliable information: Consider only the most valid
information from reputable sources and disregard the rest. For example, while searching
for a job, feedback of people in job review sites helps in making the final
decision.
Apply the information gathered: A great way to start would be to
ask the five ‘W’: Who? What?, Where?, When?, Why? If you pick a course, you
must ask yourself “Do I want to study this and take up a job related to this
course?”
Consider the implications: Once you have got your questions
answered and have a rough idea of what you have decided, consider what will
happen once you have made the decision and if that outcome is acceptable to
you.
Explore other viewpoints: Sometimes people will look at the
same set of information and will come to different decisions.
This does not mean that one set of
them is right and one set is wrong. It could just mean that they have had
different experiences and have different needs from each other.
Source | Times of India | 9th September 2019
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library & Information Science (NET
Qualified)
Research Scholar (IGNOU)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
Mobile @
9665911593
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