CRITICAL THINKING: What it is, Characteristics and How to Develop It

Critical thinking constitutes a type of complex thinking that allows the individual to reflect on unresolved issues or on others already established, with the aim of generating new responses. This type of thinking requires processes of analysis, inference, evaluation and deduction whose purpose is to recognize what is just and true. It is, after all, the thinking of a rational human being.

In the following Psychology-Online article we will analyze in greater depth What is critical thinking, its characteristics, what it is for and how it is acquired. Finally, we will detail how to develop critical thinking in adults and children.

Index

1. What is critical thinking: definition and examples
2. Critical thinking characteristics
3. What is critical thinking for and how important is it?
4. How to acquire critical thinking
5. How to develop critical thinking in adults: 10 tips
6. 10 strategies to develop critical thinking in boys and girls

The critical thinking It is such a complex skill that a definition that encompasses the entire process is not easy to perform. According to Paul, R. and Elder L., authors of "The Mini-Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools ", critical thinking is "that mindset - about any topic, content or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his thought by seizing the inherent structures of the act of thinking and subjecting them to intellectual standards. ".

It's about a rational, reflective and self-directed thinking that occurs when solving problems. Its main function is not so much to generate ideas as to review, analyze and evaluate them from a critical and objective perspective, generating contrasted and accurate answers.

Some formulation examples that are carried out from critical thinking, based on the elements that compose it (which we will detail in the next section), could be:

• What is my purpose and why?
• What question (s) sums it up?
• On what assumptions do I base myself?
• What perspective do I start from?
• Is the information collected clear, accurate and relevant?
• Are the key concepts well defined?
• What conclusions can I draw from the evidence obtained?
• What consequences and implications does my reasoning have?

In this article you will find the different types of thinking according to psychology.

According to Paul, R. and Elder L., critical thinking is made up of 8 elements:

1. Purpose of thought: goal or objective.
2. Problem or issue to solve.
3. Assumptions from which it starts.
4. Point of view or perspective from which one starts.
5. Information collected to carry out the analysis: data, facts, observations, experiences, etc.
6. Concepts and ideas that shape the information collected.
7. Inferences and interpretations concluded.
8. Implications and consequences of said conclusions.

Critical thinkers are people who routinely apply the following intellectual standards to these elements of the thought process: clarity, accuracy, relevance, logic, breadth, precision, importance, completeness, fairness, and depth.

Critical thinking has many advantages. In general, it helps to promote reflective and metacognitive thinking or knowledge about one's own cognitive processes and about the properties of learning and information. Here you will find what is metacognition. In other words, the practice of this type of information processing contributes to:

• Expand thinking skills
• Clarify understanding
• Get feedback about teaching / learning
• Provide tools to correct strategies
• Create links between different ideas
• Encourage curiosity and creativity
• Provide challenges

The consequence of applying this mode of analysis to the critical thinking process is the development of more complex intellectual characteristics such as:

• Modesty: is aware of the limits of his knowledge.
• Autonomy: masters your own thinking and reasoning process.
• Integrity: be honest and humble, recognizing the need to use intellectual standards in your reasoning process.
• Integrity: courage to abandon stereotypes and unfounded beliefs and accept proven truths even though we did not originally share them.
• Perseverance, despite difficulties, obstacles and frustrations
• Trust in reason, as something that will benefit the whole society by establishing just and accurate truths
• Empathy, to put yourself in the place of other people and understand their approaches. Here you will find How to practice empathy in your life.
• Impartiality: adhere to intellectual standards regardless of personal interests.

Faced with content learning, which is still the majority learning in most schools, critical thinking is important because promotes in students learning to learn. Internalizing this way of perceiving the world and processing information will allow us to become more humble people, tolerant and reflective, which will feed much more efficient responses to the conflicts that arise in our day a day.

The critical thinking development occurs through several phases:

1. Thoughtless thinker: In this first phase, people are not aware that there are problems in our thinking, we do not perceive incongruities within us.
2. Challenged thinker: At this moment, we become aware that there are divergences in our thinking.
3. Beginner thinker: from this awareness, we try to correct inconsistencies but only sporadically.
4. Practicing thinker: we recognize the need to practice this way of processing information and we get to it.
5. Advanced thinker: As we practice critical thinking, we advance in our skills and in the development of our thinking.
6. Master thinker: it is from the constant and lasting practice of this thought that we end up internalizing it and applying it in each and every one of our facets of life.

To develop the mastery of critical thinking, it is very positive to be surrounded by favorable educational environments that encourage this way of processing information. For this reason, it is so important that teachers and professors incorporate this way of working in their day. day to day, verifying the advantages of this procedure, encourage your students to act in this way.

The practice of critical thinking is precisely necessary today. We are in the information age thanks to which we have immediate access to all kinds of information and data. Adopting critical thinking as adults and teaching it to our sons and daughters will allow us differentiate between false and true information, something very important to discard misleading information that also circulates through the internet.

Simultaneously, it will allow us to become aware of our thoughts to analyze and interpret them effectively. Important aspect to act honestly with respect to our thinking and feeling in our relationship with ourselves and with others.

In relation to this, we describe below 10 tips that will allow adults to develop critical thinking:

1. Become aware of the importance of always being and staying informed.
2. Spend a specific time "thinking about thinking": observe our thinking, what we think, how we do it, what conjectures we arrive at, etc.
3. Encourage curiosity: from those moments of observation of thought, pay attention to those things that attract our attention the most
4. Trust the rational inquiry process and in your own reasoning skills.
5. Show us open and flexible to perceive and attend points of view divergent from one's own.
6. Be honest in the recognition of one's own stereotypes and prejudices.
7. Work with discipline to advance the development of critical thinking.
8. To persist despite the difficulties.
9. Be thorough in the search and treatment of information.
10. Act impartially during all phases of critical processing.

In most classrooms, content learning is encouraged through the teaching of basic school subjects, despite the few benefits generated by such long-term learning term. Faced with this method, critical thinking arises as an option the training of critical students, that they become aware of or question their social reality and participate in their role as social actors.

From this approach, it is important to work on those strategies that allow develop children's critical thinking in classrooms (and, why not, also in the family sphere). How to promote critical thinking? Below we list 10 practical strategies that will promote this cognitive development in children:

1. The teacher will adopt the role of mediator and inquirer, rather than transmitter of knowledge.
2. Create an environment that encourages critical thinking that promote the truth, open-mindedness, empathy, rationality, autonomy and self-criticism.
3. Encourage students to believe in their own mental processes.
4. Pose problems higher level and request elaborate answers.
5. That the created environment allows children discover your own thoughts and beliefs, express their feelings and opinions and reinforce them when they raise different points of view on the same topic.
6. Adopt the pace of work that allows children to develop their thinking.
7. Encourage debate and the exchange of ideas.
8. Favor scientific procedures.
9. Stimulate the teamwork.
10. Extrapolate this procedure from problem analysis of everyday life.

Encouraging critical thinking will favor in our children and students a self-critical attitude towards life that It will allow them to manage themselves more efficiently when solving the problems that arise in their lifetime. This is why it is so important to keep critical thinking in mind in education. It is worth investing time in organizing and planning this type of learning at school and in the family by carrying out activities to develop critical thinking.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Critical thinking: what it is, characteristics and how to develop it, we recommend that you enter our category of Basic psychology.

• López Aymes, G. (2012). Critical thinking in the classroom.
• Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2003). The mini-guide to critical thinking, concepts and tools. California: Foundation for Critical Thinking.
• Aika, Journal of Innovation and Technology. (2016). How to develop critical thinking? Tips for where to start. Recovered from http://www.aikaeducacion.com/consejos/8-consejos-desarrollar-pensamiento-critico/