What have I learned? What
is the are aspects of critical thinking that I have learned? How have my critical thinking skills
improved? In this course?
I recently read in an article, in the Washington Post (2012),
that in Texas the Department of Education did not want to teach critical
thinking in schools, because it wrongfully proposed that it challenged traditional methods
of student learning. This article made
me think, before this class would I have understood both sides of the opinion,
would I have understood what is meant by critical thinking and its true purpose. Would I have even understood why Texas did not want to teach these skills? Could I have used my core competencies that I learned about reasoning and change my life for the better? My story of leadership continues today as I
took a vital step in becoming a better, mentor and leader. I embarked on new a journey to actually learn
new skills and way to look at problems through reasoning.
I started this course with my own personal view on, with
what I thought was the truth of critical skills. Right or wrong I believed that
critical thinking meant to criticize others for the production of a
non-reflective hypothesis. I believed that
written word, even peer reviewed work was never questioned. This was not hard, so what was the fuss about
critical thinking all about, most humans do it all the time. We judge and
criticize all the time. We judge and criticize
the Sunday night game and latest athlete caught in a drunken scandal. My old way of “critical” thinking seemed to completely
ignore all of the essential elements of reasoning, instead my behavior focused
on my own opinions and points of views. For example, years ago, I held truth
that my Southern Baptist was the only way to think about God and that Catholics
are persecutors of the truth about Christianity. This heated argument almost destroyed my
marriage, as I was not open-minded to even active listen. I criticized and summarized Catholic
denomination from the Holy Father to my fiancé without looking at consequences or all of the information, or the purpose of the argument.
This problem took me years to work out and to understand that I was
wrong for thinking like that. Looking
back on this example, with the tools of reasoning that I have found in this
text, things would have turned out so much different.
This is old way of thinking was nothing more that bully
tactics and sometimes caused irreversible damage because of non-reflective judgment;
which is not critical thinking at all. It was a personality trait that could
have been at times a little, egocentric in all the wrong directions. For example, the latest athletic scandal at
the Olympics, I judged that athlete from the get go. Immediately the media and myself demonized
the athlete, calling him all sorts of names, the athlete was treated like a
common criminal, nothing more than a thug.
The athlete behavior is not a reflection of his intelligence, meaning he
is not an idiot (okay maybe), but there are other questions to ask: what are
his points of views, what is the actual problem that needs to be addressed
here, what are the implications and consequences if he does not get help for
these problems, what background information can we discover to get the proper
help…and so on.
Critical thinking is about reasoning not rationalizing. Reasoning through the athlete behavior, or
the other point of view about the origins of Christianity. The 8+ elements of reasoning provide tools to
seek an understanding of the material and the author, through a more reflective
lens. This is why critical thinking begins. It requires practice and time to
be good at using the elements. The elements
do not presume to remove emotions but regulate them, it does not presume to
criticize the author or the research but instead focus on reflection of the data and the deeper level of the author. The long lasting impact of understanding the
elements of reasoning will help me understanding critical thinking on a deeper
level, it will not only help me at work but at my home as well. I hope to learn more about this skill over my
next few years in this degree program. I
wish that this skill was taught to me at an earlier age, maybe in secondary school?
Reference
Valerie Strauss (2012) Texas GOP Rejects Critical Thinking
Really. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html
No comments:
Post a Comment