Think about It
Describe in writing a problem you had to solve in the past and how you were able to do it. Think about how you can draw on that experience to solve problems and answer questions in your courses.
In essence, critical thinking is a search for truth. In college and in life you’ll be confronted by a mass of information and ideas. Much of what you read and hear will seem suspect, and a lot of it will be contradictory. (If you have ever talked back to a TV commercial or doubted a politician’s campaign promises, you know this already.) How do you decide what to believe?
Paul and Elder remind us that more than one right answer to any given question might exist. The tasks are to determine which of the “truths” you read or hear are the most plausible and then draw on them to develop ideas of your own. Difficult problems practically demand that you weigh options and think through consequences before you can reach an informed decision. Critical thinking also involves improving the way you think about a subject, statement, or idea. To do that, you’ll need to ask questions, consider several different points of view, and draw your own conclusions.