A500.5.3.RB - Critical Thinking about Critical
Thinking
When I first began the class and we were asked to use critical
thinking skills; on the first day I logged in I felt I lacked experience and
understanding what critical thinking was. How do I critically think? What does
it take to be a critical thinker? Am I able to use life experience to assist
with my critical thinking? These questions are what I faced, the first day I logged
into the class. However, after a few weeks of trying to learn the skill of being
a critical thinker, using the critical thinking skills, and doing research to
understand how to think critically, I have found that it is not an easy task
and requires practice but with time I will get better at being a critical
thinker.
I attempt to critically think on a daily basis now,
however; I find myself frustrated because thinking critically is not skimming
the surface but digging deeper into our thoughts and working out the problems.
For example, today I was tasked with figuring out a financial situation for one
of our students; this required reviewing data, emails, and any correspondence
that may have been involved. I became frustrated the more I looked at the
information, I had to reach out to a coworker to assist and our critical thinking
skills started turning wheels. In order to reach the results we were looking
for required two of us to use our critical thinking skills to overcome
frustration, questioning our knowledge, and finally drawing a conclusion from
the information provided.
As a result of learning how to critically think, my
skills at work have improved, I am learning to read beyond the surface of new
material, and I feel myself stepping out of my comfort zone because I am
looking at information and situations with a different mindset. I feel the
knowledge of critical thinking will stay with me because I must use it on a
daily basis for my job; I still find myself frustrated with situations that I
cannot solve but I am learning to work through my struggles rather than giving
up.
