After reading the course material and have looked through the web. I have found that there are many definitions of what critical thinking is. In the words of Brown, Keely, McCall, and Kaplan (1998) they said, "Critical thinking is both old and new. Systematic evaluation of arguments based on explicit rational criteria is as old as recorded history. Terminology changes, emphases emerge, and worthwhile disputes about the criteria for rational conversation break out. But the habit of questioning the quality of the reasoning for a belief or contention is implicit in our daily living." I really didn't like this definition so I continue to look for one that really made me understand what critical think in and after search through various search engines I found one definition that I really liked and understood. John Gay (1999) defined critical think as the controlled ability to assess data, to seek a breadth of contradicting as well as confirming information, to make objective judgments on the basis of well supported reasons as a guide to belief and action, and to monitor one's thinking while doing so. The thinking process that is appropriate for critical thinking depends on the knowledge domain (e.g.: scientific, mathematical, historical, anthropological, economic, philosophical, moral) but the universal criteria are: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound empirical evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth and fairness.
Decision-making is a skill that is learned from solving problems. You must ask questions, answer questions and learn what happens when certain decisions are made. See how the influence of an outside source has an impact on decision-making or the assumptions that one makes on a subject may have an impact that is different from someone else's assumptions on the same subject. In the text of Brown, Keely, McCall, and Kaplan (1998) they said, "Decision making starts with a recognized and defined problem.