Name: Jayraj Dave

131018

Roll No.

What is Critical thinking?

Critical thinking is the ability to think independently, clearly and

rationally about what to do and what to think. Critical thinking is about
asking question like what, who, why, whom, when, where and getting
answers to that in form of opinions, fact and arguments and then come
to the conclusions.
It is about making reasoned judgments that are logical and well
thought out. It is not the way of thinking in which we simply accept the
information we are exposed to but rather to have an attitude to
question the arguments and conclusions.
Critical thinking is reflective, metacognitive in a way. It involves
thinking about thinking. We already have views about something but
what are they based on-thinking about that is critical thinking. It is
authentic. It has standard reasonable arguments
There are three parts of critical thinking
1. Questioning things
2. Reasoning them out
3. And believing the results and come to the conclsions
This is the era of information and knowledge. Especially when you are
connected to the world all the time lot information comes to you, it is
imperative to decide what to believe and what not to believe with
legitimate frame of reference and arguments.
Critical thinking is the kind of thinking which seeks to explore questions
about existing knowledge for issues which are not clearly defined and
for which there are no clear-cut answers.
Critical thinking is a process that challenges an individual to use
reflective, reasonable, rational thinking to gather, interpret and
evaluate information in order to derive a judgment.
Critical thinking is a process in which we analyze, conceptualize,
synthesize and evaluate the information to come to a conclusion or an
answer.
As discussed in the class, critical thinking is part of the philosophy. It
helps us even knowing ourselves a lot better.
At the end of the day, we are what we have listened so far. Well, we
listen too many things throughout the day, but whether to take all that
information into the account for the future decisions needs critical
thinking. Because every bit of that information might not be
authenticate. Especially the tools people are having control over, are
able to exploit the information very well and present in front of us in

very trustable manner. But it is very crucial to think independently on

that and decide whether to believe it or not.
Critical thinking lets you cover all the possibilities and aspects of the
particular information or situation such that you have broader vision of
what exactly is going on in that and helps further in the deduction
method.
It is the process to evaluate the every tiny data in whichever form and
come to conclusions.
Critical thinking is self-directed and self-corrective thinking.

Why it is important?
It is said that, Progress of any person in his work field (Especially in
corporate world) depends 98% on how he communicate with others. It
is important to have right information to communicate which has been
tested through the critical thinking.
Even for ourselves to be sure we need an overall view of the matter. It
is very important to have strong foundation of the things we know.
As critical thinking demands extensive research it is helpful to know
the new subjects creating an analogy with the information you already
you know.
It improves cognitive skills and foundation of logical decision making is
created in such a way that you feel confident about your way of
approach toward any situation.
It enhances presentation and language skills.
Critical Thinking is important in life as it helps us to think creatively
(out of the box). It keeps us from becoming narrow.
Nowadays, the world is becoming small as far as information traversal
is concerned. There will always be someone out there who knows the
same information that you know. But what makes you different is how
you as an individual has put a thought into it and how you are able to
articulate it better. Moreover, people would have same information that
you have, even sometimes more than that. So obviously we dont want
to seem foolish to believe any bullshit information that comes to us. It
is much matured approach to analyze that information on your own
and then pass on to others.
Now this era is called information era, everybody wants to take the
advantage of it and make the money out of it. People try too many
things to snatch the money out of our pocket. Moreover, there are too
many people teaching or doing the same thing. At times it becomes
very crucial to whom to believe and whom not to. Because we would
be going to invest our money and time. So it is very important to
differentiate between what is real and useful to us and what is fake and
has been there for just the sake of it. Critical thinking helps us here

regarding the pros and cons of alternatives in which we are going to

invest ourselves. With the most possible rational approach we take
decisions.
There are people who will manipulate you for their own benefits. If we
get carried away easily then the world will never miss any change to
take advantage of us. Here, Critical thinking helps us with its rationality
and saves us from being carried away so easily.
Metacognition is very essential tool in critical thinking. Metacognition
involves thinking about thinking. Thus, critical thinking is crucial for
self-reflection. It helps us to identify our patterns of thinking. For a
meaningful life, it is important to justify and reflect on our values and
decisions. Critical thinking provides the tools for this process of selfevaluation.

Why it is important for us

(Engineers)?

Engineers are problem solvers. Problem solving involves observation,

identifying the problem, gathering information and knowledge and
applying them. Here, critical thinking helps in checking the authenticity
of the information we deal with and helps us in deciding whether to
believe that data or not.
I think as an engineer we really need to have this approach of critical
thinking in order to identify and solve the problem batter
Critical thinking gives you the luxury of knowing every aspect of the
subject or a topic. So it can be really helpful to make things more
effective and understandable
Critical thinking can lead us to developing your judgment, evaluation
and problem solving abilities.
Researcher Jane Qinjuan Zhang writes that critical thinking enables
students to assess their learning styles, strengths and weaknesses,
and allows them to take ownership of their education
According to Linda Elder and Richard Paul, authors of "Critical Thinking
Development: A Stage Theory," students who know how critique ideas
are able to make connections across various disciplines, see knowledge
as applicable to daily life and understand content on a deeper level.
Now the time is of expertise in multiple disciplines. To reach to the
higher level in any field it has become almost necessary to have
specialty in more than one field around ones core discipline. So it is
important to learn new things as quickly as possible with long lasting

understanding. Critical thinking helps in analyzing the new information

effectively which we come across very fast.
One common quality I have observed in great personalities is that they
are great at creating analogy and understanding the things with
applying that analogies, whether it is life, philosophy, politics or any
other areas of interest. For that, one need to have very in depth
understanding of the things in first place such that it helps in
understanding the new concepts in the frame of what we have already
learnt in depth. Here, critical thinking plays vital role as to have an in
depth understanding of anything one need to go through the all the
aspects of that with very rational approach.

Opinion: its just a belief of someone regardless of the fact or

knowledge. It is more of conscience of people which varies with respect
to their background, personality and other factors

Fact: A thing that is proved to be true. The thing that can be tested.
Argument: set of reason given in the support of an idea.