Running head: CRITICAL THINKINGAPPLICATION AND ITS FOUR MAJOR COMPONENTS
Critical Thinking Application and its Four Major Components
Gina Cazeau
University of Phoenix
Abstract
This paper will define the concept of critical thinking and its four major components. It will address the skills required to become a critical thinker. It will, also, provide some real life examples of the application of critical thinking and its components. It will show how critical thinking is applied in everyone’s life either consciously or unconsciously. It will demonstrate how the application of critical thinking can make someone successful either in their personal or business life.
Introduction
Critical thinking is the process where someone thinks about any subject, content or problem and skillfully analyzes, assesses and reconstructs it by using logical reasoning. It requires curiosity, flexibility, skepticism and honesty. A critical thinker is someone that can ask the appropriate questions, gather relevant information, efficiently and creatively sort through this information, reason logically from this information, and come to reliable conclusions about the world that enable one to live and act successfully in it. [Critical thinking is sel-directed, self-discipline, self-monitored, and self-correcting thinking] (Richard Paul, Linda Elder, 2006). The four components of the critical thinking application process are: 1) questioning and challenging assumptions; 2) detecting bias; 3) analyzing context; 4) seeking alternative points of view and sources of information. It is very important that the critical thinker knows how to master those components in order to apply them to the right situations at the right times. Some personal and work experiences will be used to demonstrate those components and their applications.
1. Questioning...