You doughtily heard in business and civic leaders as well as educators talk about the importance of critical thinking and found yourself asking "What is critical thinking?" and "Why is it so important?". Suffice is to say that "critical thinking" means good thinking, almost the opposite of illogical, irrational, thinking. But if you were to test this understanding further, you begin to develop additional questions. For example, is critical thinking the same as creative thinking, are they somehow different, or is one part of the other? How do critical thinking and native intelligence or scholastic aptitude relate? Does critical thinking focus on subject matter or content that you know or on the process that is used to reason about the content?.
Critical thinking is supposed to be a process so what criteria best characterizes the critical thinking process. Browne and Keeley (2000) define critical thinking as consisting of an awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions, plus the ability and willingness to ask and answer them at appropriate times. What could we use as examples of that best fit this definition. What about a patient's questioning of her doctor about a diagnosed illness. Or what about trial lawyers, as portrayed in television dramas and movies? How about a judge who is good at listening to all sides of a dispute, considering all the facts, and then deciding what is relevant and what is no, and then rendering a thoughtful judgment? Or maybe a scientist who can readily devise sensible alternatives to explore, but who does not become defensive about abandoning these alternatives if they don't work? Or a mystery writer who can explain how a particular conclusion was reached or why certain criteria was applied?.
From these examples we must ask what mental abilities, attitudes or approaches do these individuals habitually exhibit that makes them good critical thinkers.
