What is Critical Thinking?

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Managerial Communications COM515

Team Name: The A Team

Members:

Alex Korkishko

Firnaaz Jiffrey

Charles O‘Connor

Charles Webb

Professor: Herb Spalla

May 19, 2004

Critical thinking is a person's ability to rationally evaluate their world, searching for understanding of the ideas and theories. In order to think critically, we must learn to completely evaluate new ideas that are constantly being presented to us. This really is the ability to understand ourselves better (Pagewise, 2002). Without critical thinking our conversations would become vague, not interesting and dull. The lectures in schools would put students to sleep and business meetings would be over in ten minutes. We rely on critical thinking every day to make decisions about our life-changing commitments, what university to attend, or which route would require the least amount of time if taken to get to work. Critical thinking skills have been assigned as a global priority.

Educational studies are a leading source for the critical thinking challenge. Schools and universities encourage students to participate in learning how to think outside the box, helping to expand the way students learn and acquire new information/data. Students are challenged every day to use their skills in a variety of classes, from science to linguistics. Every class will test a student in his/her ability to go past assigned reading material and explore the information further. Critical thinking makes students challenge the professors, ask valuable questions, and produce professionally written papers. Critical thinking is the thought process that requires more than memorization of facts. It requires that the student analyze, apply and evaluate information (GADOE, 2004). Critical thinking skills are those strategies for finding ways to reach a goal. This is an important skill in conducting a research. Critical thinking skills are used to evaluate the research paper by reading critically to understand the research, report your findings, synthesizing those findings to come to a conclusion.

The main notion of critical thinking is the ability to understand ourselves better. Critical thinker need to ask questions to clarify his/her belief or information. The reason for asking questions is to evaluate almost every kind of idea or hypothetical concept. Critical thinkers analyze the situation before they make any conclusion. Critical thinking consists of four steps1)

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Analyzing: Identify and analyze the argument by asking questions. For example, “What are you trying to make out of the reading? Why are you curious about it?”, 2) Interpreting: Construe the meaning of significance of the contents, 3) Synthesizing: Try to make connections among the parts or the whole content. With synthesis try to create something different from what you started, and 3) Evaluating: Evaluate the work by judging the quality and significance of the work.

Managerial communications is a concept that describes the interaction between those who represent an organization’s strategists with the employees of that organization. A manager needs to motivate and/or create an environment to the point where employees can/want to fulfill an organizations goal. Organizational managers and supervisors would dramatically suffer the lack of communication skills without the help of critical thinking. Managers have to use this skill to explore the possibilities of better ways to accomplish various tasks, solve conflicts among coworkers, and explain complicated goals to peers. The management staff has to practice these skills every day to accomplish their duties of being in successful leadership roles in the company.

Critical Thinking skills can greatly enhance a manager’s ability to assign tasks and make better decisions. Managers fill positions in order to facilitate the purpose of an organization. An organization behest their managers to accomplish this while efficiently utilizing resources. Managers represent the bridge between CEO’s and the consumers of the organization. For a manager to perform his/her role, he/she must understand their employees. The manager needs to examine the employees’ state of mind and avoid confusion on how and why their manager is asking them to do certain tasks in a particular way. To summarize what Celuch and Slama (1999) state, Critical Thinking leads to good thinking business people, who in turn create value. Whereas poor thinking causes problems, wastes time, wastes energy and results in frustration (para. 15).

It is to the graduate student’s benefit to develop their Critical Thinking skills. According to Cheung, Rudowicz, Kwan and Yue (2002) fostering students’ Critical Thinking has been an increasingly important goal for University education. It is also a highly valued component of education amongst faculty (para.2). Graduate studies are designed to delve into a particular area of study, to the point where they are highly qualified in the subject. Graduate studies include a structured curriculum aided by research of traditional materials, and of course these days, the internet. This structure requires the students to evaluate the source of their research. Who is the author?, What is his objective? What is the source of author’s research? These questions are especially important for research conducted via the internet. Graduate studies revolve around research. The lecture introduces the topic. Research expands the knowledge base on the topic. Applications ensure that the student transforms his/her knowledge base into experience. Critical Thinking leads to better questions and this in turn leads to better comprehension.

A Critical thinker uses in-depth analysis of evidence to make decisions and communicate his or her beliefs clear and accurately. It is used to describe thinking that is purposeful, reasoned, and goal directed. Critical thinking is not only for research or in-depth analysis; it is also for everyday life situation. Almost all of the thinking which we undertake contains some critical and creative aspects. For example, when we try to solve real life problems, we move back and forth between critical reflections as we develop solutions or weigh the consequences of any one solution. It is important that any attempts to improve thinking abilities pay special attention to critical aspects of thinking. Critical thinking enables an individual to be a responsible citizen who contributes to society and not be nearly a consumer of society’s distraction.

In conclusion, critical thinking is an important part of our daily lives. If we are to be successful, it is incumbent upon us to learn the fundamentals of how to think critically. The importance of critical thinking skills in problem solving is crucial. A rational person has the mental discipline to examine all points of view. These are qualities that make a good employee, spouse, and parent. You've heard the humorous saying, "Don't confuse me with the facts"? A person who sticks stubbornly to unfounded beliefs despite contrary evidence has very poor communication skills. On the other hand, someone who has strong opinions, but an open mind, can be a good listener and an interesting conversationalist.

References

Cheung ,C., Rudowicz, E., Kwan, A. and Yue, X.D. (2002). Assessing university students’ general and specific critical thinking. College Student Journal. Retrieved May 15, 2004, from ProQuest.

Diane F. Halparn, An Introduction to Critical Thinking (1996).

Diane F. Halparn, Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking (1996).

GADOE – Education Definitions. Retrieved 05/13/04 from website: http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/_documents/doe/help/definitions.pdf, 2004.

Pagewise – What is Critical Thinking? Retrieved 05/13/04 from website: http://nh.essortment.com/whaticritical_prz.htm, 2002.

Steven D. Schafersman, Introduction to Critical Thinking (1991). Retrieved 5/15/04 from www.freeinquiry.com/crtical-thinking.html.