Lesson 1.6 What is Critical Thinking Video

Critical thinking is all about asking questions: the right questions questions that help you assess both the meaning and the significance of claims and arguments. Building these skills and applying them in your life makes it easier for you to assess evidence, evaluate arguments, and adapt your thinking so you stay switched-on and engaged in different situations. Critical thinking involves stepping back from a situation, to enable you to see all the angles before making judgments or taking decisions. It means identifying the key points, analyzing the sources of information, weighing up different types of evidence, just as a judge and jury would do in a court of law, and putting it all together into your own independent, thought-through point of view. One thing that it's very important to realize is a critical thinking isn't about being critical and it's about much more than just finding flaws in other people's claims. By itself that isn't enough to give you an edge. To be a true critical thinker means being creative reflective and adaptable- evaluating the evidence to decide for yourself what is accurate, what is relevant, and do I have sufficient information to take a decision on this topic. Thinking critically means taking a stand for yourself. It can be difficult not to be swayed by close family or friends' views on things or certain beliefs that just feel right but learning how to use these higher-order thinking skills can help you to feel much more confident in your own opinions and conclusions. Critical thinking is also about a sense of discovery and excitement- not only about learning but evaluating arguments to see how they stand up and filtering for yourself what resonates is right or wrong. By using these techniques you'll find yourself becoming a clearer, better thinker Macat: Learn better, think smarter, aim higher.