Critical Thinking. Asking the Right Questions

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Table of Contents

Parts of Critical Thinking
Misconceptions
Emotions
Five Concepts that are Impediments to Critical Thinking
The “Sponge” and “Panning for Gold” Concepts
Differences between “Weak-Sense” and “Strong Sense” Critical Thinking
Elements
Major Standards
Impediments
Fallacies in the Reasoning

Parts of Critical Thinking

There are three parts of critical thinking, which include the following points:

Awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions;
Ability to ask and answer critical questions at appropriate times;
Desire to actively use critical questions.

Questions are the essence of study and cognition, consequently, the ability to ask questions is at the center of any thinking process, especially critical thinking, which is aimed at reviewing and analyzing.

Awareness and the ability to ask questions are interrelated, and can be trained, however, the third part – desire requires motivation, and can not be trained.

Misconceptions

The discussed misconception of critical thinking is laid in the essence of the “Right Answer” Myth. Originally, this myth claims that the answer often depends on the question, however, critical thinking is aimed at defining the essence of the question, and finding the correct answer by asking the additional questions regardless of the initial one. It is emphasized that regardless of the type of the question, the issues that require your closest scrutiny are usually those about which “reasonable people” disagree.

Emotions

The emotions are generally regarded as the key reason for prejudice. Originally, prejudice may not be harmful; however, if there is strong necessity to make critical evaluation, emotions may become a powerful barrier.

Five Concepts that are Impediments to Critical Thinking

The first one is forming the picture of the world basing on the news. Originally, people who often watch the news tend to dramatize essentially the occasions, and often expect nothing positive from the life

Forming the picture basing on movies and TV is another impediment. Movies, TV programs and advertising tend to focus on particular issue and exaggerate it essentially. It is also stated that some educational practices create barriers for critical thinking, as they form particular ways of thinking, depending on the major. Stereotyping is the impediment which is regarded to be the most serious. It is stated, that it is also difficult to avoid it, and get rid of it if it is present in the thinking process.

The “Sponge” and “Panning for Gold” Concepts

The essences of these two approaches are similar; however, the processes which they require are different. Thus, the sponge approach requires knowledge acquisition; the panning-for-gold approach claims for active interaction with knowledge as it is being acquired. Thus, the two approaches complement each other. In order to pan the knowledge, thinker should have what to pan, so, sponge approach is in the first place. Though, there is deeper impediment such as egocentrism, which essentially restricts the cognition and critical thinking, and patterns of thinking, which close the other – not standard – approaches.

Differences between “Weak-Sense” and “Strong Sense” Critical Thinking

The key difference between the weak and the strong sense is the approach to the use of the mind of critical thinkers. The weak thinker uses his mind restricting it with feelings, emotions and prejudice, while strong critical thinker aims to avoid all the factors which create barriers for objective evaluation.

Elements

Point of view – is the basis of thinking. Purpose – defines the direction of further thinking process. Question at issue – similar to purpose, however it narrows the matter of thinking. Assumptions – make interpretation subjective, Implications – widen the concept of the thinking, Information – this element the matter of thinking, Concepts – ways of thinking, which may be used as the pattern, Conclusion and Interpretations – summarize the thinking process: These are the central elements of alternative thinking. In order to think things through properly and critically it is necessary to have access to all these eight elements.

The facts may be misleading due to the very notion of communication. Some facts may be intentionally distorted; the others may miss some details and originate misunderstanding. The others contradict the existing information.

Major Standards

It is emphasized that facts in the text or speech may be misleading. This happens by the means of logical, however, wrong conclusion of these facts, or the distortion of some information. The seven standards of critical thinking involve:

Clearness – makes thinking clear and understandable
Accuracy – helps to avoid distorting facts
Importance and relevance – helps to avoid irrelevant and unimportant details
Sufficiency – helps to concentrate on the essence
Depth – provides essential coverage of the problem
Breadth – defines the amount of the issues to think over
Precision – similar to accuracy

Impediments

Clearness: it is difficult to be precise and tell what one really wants. Solution: Try to explain in other words, and use opponent’s language.
Accuracy: quick generalizing of the heard or learned information. Solution: be more attentive to the information.
Importance and relevance: it is often hard to see the essence: be attentive and prepared for learning the information.
Sufficiency: it is hard to take off all the subsidiary facts: define the purpose of thinking, and restudy the facts.
Depth: fear of “digging” too deep: set the border of the depth in the purpose.
Breadth: hard not to take excess facts: define the borders in the purpose.
Precision: quick generalizing of the heard or learned information.
Solution: be more attentive to the information

Fallacies in the Reasoning

The fact is that there are three tricks that lead to the failure of reasoning. These are:

providing reasoning that requires erroneous or incorrect assumptions;
distracting us by making information seem relevant to the conclusion when it is not; and
providing support for the conclusion that depends on the conclusion’s already being true.
Making conclusion basing on the first facts, from a starting point
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