The Benefits of Critical Thinking Discussion

The Benefits of Critical Thinking Discussion

The Benefits of Critical Thinking Discussion

Permalink: https://essayscrest.com/the-benefits-of-…nking-discussion/

The main aim of education is practical and reflective judgment, a mind trained to be critical everywhere in the use of evidence. —Brand Blanchard

bas07437_ch01_001-028.indd 7bas07437_ch01_001-028.indd 7 11/24/09 8:00:17 AM11/24/09 8:00:17 AM

8 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

To succeed in college, you must, of course, be able to understand the material you are studying. A course in critical thinking cannot make inherently difficult material easy to grasp, but critical thinking does teach a variety of skills that, with practice, can significantly improve your ability to understand the arguments and issues discussed in your college textbooks and classes.

Doonesbury © G. B. Trudeau. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved.

bas07437_ch01_001-028.indd 8bas07437_ch01_001-028.indd 8 11/24/09 8:00:17 AM11/24/09 8:00:17 AM

The Benefi ts of Critical Thinking 9

In addition, critical thinking can help you critically evaluate what you are learning in class. During your college career, your instructors will often ask you to discuss “critically” some argument or idea introduced in class. Critical thinking teaches a wide range of strategies and skills that can greatly improve your ability to engage in such critical evaluations.

You will also be asked to develop your own arguments on particular topics or issues. In an American Government class, for example, you might be asked to write a paper addressing the issue of whether Congress has gone too far in restricting presidential war powers. To write such a paper successfully, you must do more than simply fi nd and assess relevant arguments and information. You must also be able to marshal arguments and evidence in a way that con- vincingly supports your view. The systematic training provided in a course in critical thinking can greatly improve that skill as well.

Critical Thinking in the Workplace

Surveys indicate that fewer than half of today’s college graduates can expect to be working in their major fi eld of study within fi ve years of graduation. This statistic speaks volumes about changing workplace realities. Increasingly, employers are looking not for employees with highly specialized career skills, since such skills can usually best be learned on the job, but for employees with good thinking and communication skills—quick learners who can solve prob- lems, think creatively, gather and analyze information, draw appropriate con- clusions from data, and communicate their ideas clearly and effectively. These are exactly the kinds of generalized thinking and problem-solving skills that a course in critical thinking aims to improve.

Critical Thinking in Life

Critical thinking is valuable in many contexts outside the classroom and the workplace. Let’s look briefl y at three ways in which this is the case.

First, critical thinking can help us avoid making foolish personal decisions. All of us have at one time or another made decisions about consumer purchases, relationships, personal behavior, and the like that we later realized were seriously misguided or irrational. Critical thinking can help us avoid such mistakes by teach- ing us to think about important life decisions more carefully, clearly, and logically.

Second, critical thinking plays a vital role in promoting democratic pro- cesses. Despite what cynics might say, in a democracy it really is “we the people” who have the ultimate say over who governs and for what purposes. It is vital, therefore, that citizens’ decisions be as informed and as deliberate as possible. Many of today’s most serious societal problems—environmental destruction, nuclear proliferation, religious and ethnic intolerance, decaying inner cities, failing schools, spiraling health-care costs, to mention just a few—have largely been caused by poor critical thinking. And as Albert Einstein once remarked, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the level of thinking we were at when we created them.” The Benefits of Critical Thinking Discussion