Post by mlawes on Feb 11, 2016 18:27:42 GMT
This current video and reading material really builds upon the previous session and has caused me to think more about what is critical thinking and whether I use critical thinking. I found it very interesting to see the whole process of critical thinking broken down into several sections/ processes. Overall it sounds great but I think the biggest barrier to critical thinking is Group think. In the video they described it as inherited opinion. In today’s society we are fed most of our information from the Internet and television. When you couple that with our pre existing beliefs that were established during our upbringing it leads most of the time to group think. Sometimes we tend to suspend reason and facts due to our feelings and the fear of challenging our beliefs and values, which were instilled in us by our parents and society. Society tells you not to question accepted beliefs and practices and that is the total opposite of Critical Thinking. Critical Thinking allows you to decide whether you agree or not with a topic based on careful intentional thinking, reasoning and logic. In the video when they talked about fully evaluating all parts of claims I found it interesting when they said the claim that ships sailing east from Europe would fall into space because the earth was flat was pretty easy to reject assuming you know that the earth is not flat. It takes some critical thinking to challenge that claim and take the risk of exploring.
A personal example that I have of a time I should have used critical thinking is pretty recently when I started a complete gut renovation of my house. A lot of the choices as far as what was going to be removed and what was going to stay was completely influenced by whatever my contractor told me. I figured he was the expert and I regularly let him make decisions based on what was the norm. Although in the end I was able to incorporate some innovative features there are still some choices that could have used more critical thinking. The overall renovation ended going over budget and we had to sacrifice some things. I think if I had taken a little more time and researched I would have come out a little better.
A personal example that I have of a time I should have used critical thinking is pretty recently when I started a complete gut renovation of my house. A lot of the choices as far as what was going to be removed and what was going to stay was completely influenced by whatever my contractor told me. I figured he was the expert and I regularly let him make decisions based on what was the norm. Although in the end I was able to incorporate some innovative features there are still some choices that could have used more critical thinking. The overall renovation ended going over budget and we had to sacrifice some things. I think if I had taken a little more time and researched I would have come out a little better.