Blogs:

You need to know what is ‘critical thinking’ to understand the importance f this. Critical thinking does not mean you need to be negative or critical, it means you are required to evaluate. This can be termed as ‘evaluative thinking’. The result of this can range from rejection to acceptance, positive to negative or even in-between.

Critical thinking and analyzing is the core of college education and needs to be adopted by all educational institutions. There are multiple graduates who pass out without the apt knowledge of sifting fact from an opinion, review reports which are conflicting in an objective manner or even make an argument which is clearly written.

Education and Critical Thinking:

Students should have an understanding of ideas which are useful, beautiful and important. Critical thinking can create students who can think critically and analytically. This can help them enhance their lives and make a substantial contribution to society, civilization and also culture. Education on critical thinking are based on specific assumptions which include -

* Minds are created while brains are biological and curriculum is a device which is mind-altering. You got to treat students as learners on an independent level with the ability for determining the contours of their own lives and minds.

* Critical thinking education should prepare students not for roles which are pre-conceived but for self-direction. Students need to prepare themselves for thinking in their own way and getting out of challenges thrown at them by different stages in life.

* Clear thinking, analyzing with care and deliberation which is reasonable are important to a democracy and a democratic life.

Helping students with Critical thinking:

Teachers play an important role in teaching students the concept of ‘critical thinking’ and for this they need to have an apt base of knowledge to support students. Teachers also need to be -

1. Open to any challenges thrown by students and not represent themselves as the only source of knowledge.

2. Gather information from personal experiences of the students and use these as starting points.

3. Students should be encouraged to look into the bigger picture beyond the classroom.

4. Avoid using approaches like ‘how to do’ instead let the students find the answers by taxing their brains to a certain amount.

5. Students should be given enough time for the processing and planning besides the debriefing.

6. Encouraging students to put forward questions and also challenge the beliefs which already exist. This includes the structures and practices.

7. Lessons need to be structured to enable the students to work in a co-operative manner which is safe and develop forms on the creative side with shared responsibility.

8. Students should be given the freedom to take critical action which is a big help in the outside world.

Benefits of Critical thinking:

Critical thinking is considered as self-disciplined, self-directed, self-corrective and self-monitored thinking which enable to boost up the confidence of students and enables them to solve problems with a little effort, overcoming egocentrism and also sociocentrism.