Critical Thinking Speaker: Frank Reed If you looked at the text prior to starting this course, you may have noticed that Critical Thinking (CT) is not included. Our advisors here at IHCC want us to teach CT so that their future employees would know how, well how to think better. This class, Business Essentials, has the scope of showing what a company or business needs to do so that it may offer employment and maintain that employment. You need to know how to make good decisions about the company for which you may choose to work. What is critical thinking? What is Critical Thinking anyway and why is it important? It will give us the ability to make good, wise, reasoned decisions in sorting through the glut of information. It allows us to make sense of what happens in our life and our life events. It gives us a sense of empowerment, so you can say to yourself: hey, I can make a decision that is a good decision, I have that ability. Plus it serves democracy if you will, if you are looking at it from a political standpoint. (Although the question could be asked is serving democracy a political issue?) Thomas A. Angelo, a professor of higher education and an assessment expert, said that most formal definitions characterize critical thinking as the intentional application of rational higher order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, problem recognition and problem solving, inference, and evaluation. Rational... higher order... think about that for a minute. The word thinking will be used a lot in this discussion. One must use analysis, synthesis, problem recognition, problem solving, inference and evaluation. This idea of thinking for oneself entails a whole lot of input from research and others that we trust. And then, even though we may trust them, what they are saying may be only their opinion. We need to make sure that what other people are giving us as input is not necessarily just their opinion. Next we see from Richard Paul, an internationally recognized authority on critical thinking, that CT is the art of thinking about your thinking while you re thinking so as to make your thinking (told you the word thinking would be used a lot) more clear, precise, accurate, relevant, consistent, and fair. What is thinking? Look it up, find out what that word thinking means: to make decisions relevant to our life s expectations. We are not talking about who is going to win the next football game or whether another dash of sugar more will make these cookies better. He goes on to list the art of constructive skepticism; identifying and removing bias. Oh boy, bias. Are you biased? Do you have biases? I do not know of anyone who isn t in some way. Think about all of the untold problems that have been created throughout the pages of history, or our own personal life Page 1 of 5
where biases may have allowed misconceptions, untruths, and so forth where we made decisions or held bad thoughts, if you will, about others. It goes on to say one-sidedness of thought; the art of self-directed, in-depth thinking. One sidedness Have you ever been in a good debate? A good debate means that both sides knew what they were talking about and discussing? And the judges listened back and forth and they gave points to the team that best presented their ideas, etc. You might ask (I would) what gives the judge or judges the ability to determine who wins the debate? Good debate requires certain parameters as does critical thinking. Critical thinking is good for making life s decisions. I am not talking about deciding whether to have a chocolate or vanilla ice cream cone. That s not the point of this. The point of this is making good decisions, good judgments, that once you have done it, it would be really difficult to change your mind. According to Stephen Brookfield, an adult education professor and author of several books on critical thinking: Critical thinking is a productive and positive activity. It is not an anti-social activity. When we think critically, we become aware of the diversity of values, behaviors, social structure, and artistic forms in the world. It is a process, not an outcome. Let s say you attend a party. You sit around and you talk about politics, religion, life and love, sports. You talk about what you put on your grass to make it grow better. I m not sure there is really any critical thinking involved there. But then again, you could have a good discussion about what is the right type of grass seed to grow, or the right type of fertilizer to put on the yard. If you think about that for a minute, there is a lot of effort and a lot of issues, and a lot of different things to look at: whether your soil is sandy or loamy will determine what type of grass seed will work the best, what fertilizers will work the best, when to apply and how much, and so on. If you don t really care about your lawn, it doesn t really matter. But if you really care about your yard and you want a nice, plush, non-weedy, green, grassy field-looking yard, then all of this is important. When we think critically, we become aware of the diversity of values. Think about diversity in the sense of the history of the United States. Of course, there may those of you that are not in the U.S. taking this class, but it would work for any nation because nations have had diversity throughout history. Diversity of values... different creeds, different nationalities, different people, even your immediate family members may have different values. And that, in and of itself, can cause misconceptions. A lot of times we look at another s values and we judge them. But do we take the time to see where that comes from, to understand that, to make good critical thinking decisions or do we use good critical thinking when we put value to another person s values? Think about other types of diversity: behaviors, social structures, artistic forms, etc. throughout the world. Page 2 of 5
Critical Thinking is a process and not an outcome. It means to look at things in a rational manner, in knowledge, fact-based manner. And yet, sometimes we need to look at things from a faith-based manner so as to gain knowledge. To illustrate: the first time you sit on a chair. You walk up to the chair, look at it to discern that it may hold you when you sit down; you go ahead and sit down not knowing for a fact that it will hold you but it does. You have gone from a faith-based decision to gaining knowledge about that chair, and from then on you have knowledge that chair will sit nicely with you. I would like to take this time to say that I do not totally agree that Critical Thinking is a process and not an outcome. Yes, CT is an ongoing process, but I believe that it does have outcomes in those things that we believe, that become principles for our life, the results of our good decisions. Characteristics of critical thinkers What are the characteristics of a critical thinker? Do you think you have these characteristics? If you don t, then what? Can you make good decisions? Why are you taking this class? What was the mode, the method, the process in which you decided to take this class? There are other business courses, so what caused you to take THIS class? Did you use critical thinking skills? Could there have been a better class? Or was it just so that it would just qualify you for something? The scope of this class is not to teach you how to be a good business manager, or a good operations manager or a finance manager. This class will give you the basic knowledge of what a business does, so that you might make good decisions when you are working. Let s get back to the characteristics of an effective, critical thinker. Do you ask pertinent questions? Do you assess statements and arguments or just accept or not accept them? Do you (can you) admit that you have a lack of understanding or information? People who are critical thinkers are curious. Are you? Here s one for you, why is the sky blue? Do you know? Being an instructor in both photonics and physics, I am able to answer that question, but I am not going to. If you want to know, find out for yourself. Of course, if it is not pertinent, then it would be a waste of time. Are you curious? Another characteristic of a critical thinker: being able to clearly define a set of criteria for analyzing ideas. You do have that ability. Be willing to examine beliefs, assumptions, and opinions and weigh them against facts. Weigh them against your opinions, assumptions, & beliefs. You will have outcomes. You look for proof. Just because someone says it, doesn t mean that it is provable. Consider this, who was the first president of the United States? If you said George Washington, that would be correct. How do you know? If you did not know who the first president of the U.S. was, how would you find out? Think about it. And then when you found out what the truth might be, how do you go about accepting it, believing it? How does a belief stay a belief, does knowledge stay knowledge? Until it is disproven and then only with critical thinking do we change, by examining problems closely, paying particular attention to detail. Page 3 of 5
You know that communication is a two-way street. Believe that? To have good communication in all relationships, there must be understanding. When someone says something, you must listen and ask questions so that you understand what they are trying to say. You listen carefully to others and give feedback. Here again, it is a lifelong process of self-assessment. Think about that for a minute, critical thinkers self-assess. Yes, I have believed that George Washington was the first president of the U.S. for many years and then someone comes along and says, Ah, not so, oh great one. I have proof. Do you listen to that? Do you hold your mind open to that which may change your lifelong thinking? Another critical thinking characteristic is one that suspends judgment. You don t make a decision, you don t make a judgment until all the facts have been gathered and have been considered. Critical thinkers look for evidence to support assumptions and beliefs. Are assumptions beliefs? If someone were to ask you why you believe the way you do, what would you say? Let s go back to the grass seed type discussion. Why is it that you put ABC fertilizer on your lawn? Because it was the cheapest and that is what the store sold? That doesn t have basis for good critical thinking whatsoever now, does it? Critical thinkers are able to adjust their opinions when new facts are found. I like the fact that this says that you can adjust your opinions... when new facts are found. To me, facts are knowledge, they are absolutes. And if they are not absolutes, then I am not sure they are facts. You know, I could be wrong, so you need to critically think about whether I am right or wrong. Opinions and facts do not go hand-inhand. Two plus two is four. That is a fact. Can that be changed? No! Are you able to adjust or change your thinking when new facts are found; can you have your mind changed? Critical thinkers are able to reject information that is incorrect or irrelevant. How you think about certain things is influenced by the way you were raised and the influencers in your life, whether it be grandparents, parents, mentors, instructors, best friends, or whomever. Because they said it, you believe it (consider Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, and so on) and it becomes your basis for your life. What happens when someone else comes along and says what you believe is not true, that it is wrong? How do you handle that? A lot of arguments are based on those types of things, aren t they? Next is a short list that sort of capsulizes characteristics of critical thinking from an intellectual standpoint. Intellectual Humility: I suppose you would be able to say that you are willing to listen to and look for other viewpoints. Intellectual Courage: You are not afraid to challenge or be challenged as far as that goes. Intellectual Empathy: Can you empathize with other people? Will you see why they might believe what they do? That brings to mind this: You believe one thing and someone else believes something that is Page 4 of 5
not quite the same. So those two beliefs do not coincide. So this person has his basis for his beliefs and you have yours. You both have facts as far as you both are concerned and therefore knowledge, and yet those beliefs are enough different to indicate that one of you is mistaken in some way. Great discussions are based upon this premise. It is my contention that there is only one absolute right, one absolute correctness; we just have to be willing to look for it and be open to it. Intellectual Perseverance: you know, keep trying. I m not saying to spend your whole life trying to decide which house to buy. I m saying to have perseverance to the point of saying OK, that s enough and make the decision. In business, there are two trains of thought where you either optimize or you satisfy in making decisions. To optimize means to continue to gather facts/knowledge until there is not any more to obtain. This takes a very long time. To satisfy means to gather enough information to a point where a good decision may be made in the time allowed. As you can tell, one gets things done faster than the other. In fact, in this day and age with the tremendous amount of information available, to optimize decision making would be impossible. Faith in reason: come, let us reason together, though our differences are explicit, let s strive to make them understandable to one another. Intellectual Sense of Justice: Justice... this is cool. To determine right from wrong, to judge with righteousness, to do so honestly, with integrity, fairness... WOW! I hope that this critical thinking unit is making sense to you in that what it might do for you in your own life and therefore in your business and personal dealings. Frank Reed and Indian Hills Community College Page 5 of 5