Critical thinking is a process we all us in some way in order to pass a judgement or
come to a solution. I believe everyone uses critical thinking in some way. Some of us
may be more in detail as others may just go with the basics to form their opinion or
come up with a solution. Some key characteristics to critical thinking are
inquisitiveness, attentive, self-confidence, and open minded. Not all of theses
characteristics will have the same level of thought or process to everyone who uses
them. Some people will go more in depth with certain areas where others might just
think of the basics. I think one big barrier that is hard for a lot of us nowadays is
being open minded. Not sure how we have gotten to this point in society but I
believe being open minded has not come along with us at all. We are more likely to
attack someone over a different opinion then we are y’all and learn from their point
of view. I see this has a big barrier for our whole society this day in age. With this
weeks lesson a really want to hit again on being open minded. I have a strong
believe this is something we don’t see in our society very much or at all. Being more
open minded I believe could help a lot of us with different issues and overall make
our society a better place for everyone.
Based on this week's reading and activities, I would define critical thinking as the
collection of skills we use in our everyday life to make smart logical decisions. It's a
really god skill that everyone should learn to develop because it teaches you how to
think rather than what to think. Critical thinking includes the application of rules of
logic as well as gathering and evaluating evidence. Some characteristics that define
critical thinkers include the basic listening, speaking, and writing skills as well as
skills to collect and analyze evidence. Open minded skepticism is especially
important because some people may make decisions based on other factors and not
solely the evidence present. The first common barrier to critical thinking that comes
to my mind is religion. Religion can make one's judgement clouded based on ethnic
values and ideals. The second barrier that comes to my mind is plain simple
ignorance that unfortunately many people have. One way people can overcome
these barriers is having an open mind and accepting one's ideas and values even if
you do not agree with them. When you think about critical thinking you think of a
complicated idea that doesn't matter in everyday activities but in reality we use
critical thinking every single day wether we know it or not. After reading this week's
activities it made me realize how important these skills we have developed over the
years are.
