Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the connection between the initial idea and the final argument. Critical thinking has been the subject of much debate and thought since the time of early Greek philosophers such as Plato and Socrates and has continued to be a subject of discussion today on whether it should be taught at the primary school level.Critical thinking requires you to use your ability to reason. It is about being an active learner and having the ability to question what you are given. It leads the learner to question the validity of the statement instead of just believing it to be true because a book tells you so. This concept forces the individual to identify the issues and break it apart in order to analyze each individual aspect to determine their answer.
Critical Thinking helps to diversify the individual's thinking methods by introducing and refining the following Skills. Rational Reasoning, Evaluating a topic, Problem Solving, Decision Making, and finally Analyzing everything and putting it together. Critical Thinking is critical for today, because every topic has different viewpoints and approaches to identifying the needs. This skill allows for an individual to analyze all the different viewpoints to formulate the best opinion/answer based on the own interpretation/implementation of the 5 skills mentioned above. This gives the opportunity to take whatever a person learns and be able to answer the “Why or Then What”.
Critical Thinking helps to diversify the individual's thinking methods by introducing and refining the following Skills. Rational Reasoning, Evaluating a topic, Problem Solving, Decision Making, and finally Analyzing everything and putting it together. Critical Thinking is critical for today, because every topic has different viewpoints and approaches to identifying the needs. This skill allows for an individual to analyze all the different viewpoints to formulate the best opinion/answer based on the own interpretation/implementation of the 5 skills mentioned above. This gives the opportunity to take whatever a person learns and be able to answer the “Why or Then What”.
Someone with Critical Thinking Skills Can:
- Understand the links between ideas.
- Determine the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas.
- Recognize, build and appraise arguments.
- Identify inconsistencies and errors in reasoning.
- Approach problems in a consistent and systematic way.
- Reflect on the justification of their own assumptions, beliefs and values
Should Schools Teach Critical Thinking?
Education is the right to be taught with the direction to determine who is right and who is wrong, almost in a black and white fashion. Instead, if Critical Thinking is introduced into Primary School systems, students will begin to think about the Why? And also outside of the box. This will aide in the student developing their own thoughts, opinions,and stances on multiple issues today. With Critical Thinking students won't rely so heavily on instruction, because they will become more independent and self driven learners because they will want to know the Why/ So what of any topic. Many aptitude tests examine an individual's ability to Critically Think and analyze situations, these include the ASVAB for the Military, and any Higher Education test, LSAT and GRE exams for example.