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.