Learning and Demonstrating Critical Thinking Skills- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theLearning and Demonstrating Critical Thinking Skills. Answer: What is critical thinking and why is it a necessity? Many scholars agree that critical thinking is a disciplined intellectual process. The process engages a student to actively and skillfully conceptualize, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the information presented (Wisdom Leavitt, 2015). This information may come from observations, reflection, reasoning, communication, experience or beliefs. Also, there are still others scholars like (Mulnix, 2012) who believe that critical thinking is metacognitive or a process of thinking about thinking. Nevertheless, all explanation leads to the same thing. Critical thinking skill has various advantages. One of them is that it enables students to act rationally in scientific, social, and practical situations (Wisdom Leavitt, 2015). Simply put, scholars who think critically solve problems efficiently. Indeed, critical thinking goes beyond just having knowledge or information on a concept. The current evolving world requires problem solvers and people who can make an informed decision. Therefore, it requires a student to have the skill to make informed decisions either in the study or at a workplace. Critical Thinking Process Critical thinking is a learning process. The skills need development, practice, and regular integration. With this, students need to focus their attentions on the content application, learning process, and assessment methods. By content application, it means that students need to distant themselves from memorizing facts within the content. Instead, they should use those facts to stimulate their thinking (Popil, 2011). Instead of memorizing the facts, students should analyze them, synthesize, and evaluate that information to make an informed decision. Critical thinking is a constant mental process. In (Railean, Elc?i Elc?i, 2017), critical thinking continuously challenges the students to think about their thinking capabilities, improve them, and use them as higher-order thinking skills. On the part of assessments, (Lai, 2011) suggests that the learning should focus on assessments that emphasize thinking rather than the facts. The grading system, the question, and tests should focus on challenging the student intellectually instead of memory recalls. Learning critical thinking should include subjective tools like academic research and case studies (Lai, 2011). The activities are avenues for analysis where students can demonstrate their knowledge in the concerned situation. Furthermore, students can focus on multiple-choice questions that challenge them to think critically. Integrating Critical Thinking Skills While students are learning and demonstrating critical thinking skills, they need to understand that it requires more than simplistic engagement. Students would need to engage themselves in the research to gain addition discovery of information (Wisdom Leavitt, 2015). Besides, they also need to use academic sources and employ heuristic techniques in solving problems. For this reason, studies like (Wisdom Leavitt, 2015) studies have revealed that students who engage in experimental learning score higher on assessments when compared with students who learn by traditional textbook or lecture methods. Heuristic learning techniques help students to learn, understand, discover, or solve problems on their own. This process happens through experimenting and evaluating possible solutions, in addition to trial and error practices. In (Haynes, Lisic, Goltz, Stein Harris, 2016), the study found that problem-based learning projects promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In essence, the study also revealed that active participation within learning processes like self-direction, teamwork, creative discussion, and integration of a variety of knowledge helps students to learn or demonstrate critical thinking skills. In (Haynes, Lisic, Goltz, Stein Harris, 2016), the study revealed that problem-based learning environments increase students knowledge acquisition and thinking skills. Similarly, the findings confirmed that work based learning, research and critical reflection on academic sources promote the integration of critical thinking skills. Methods of Promoting Critical Thinking Skills There are various methods that higher education students can employ to learn and demonstrate critical thinking skills. One of this is through answering questions from different questioning tactics. In (Davis, 2013), questions using different question approach can enrich the students' critical thoughts. Depending on questions formation, students may demonstrate various critical thinking skills to interpret, analyze, and recognize the hypotheses to come up with a logical conclusion. Classroom discussion is another method that students may use to promote their critical thinking. Various techniques are available for discussion. For instance, a negotiation model where students engage in credible but antagonizing arguments (Haynes, Lisic, Goltz, Stein Harris, 2016). Other strategies are like discussing an issue with pros and cons. Additionally, writing and research can work as a powerful vehicle that students can use to expand their thinking methods. Students who involve themselves in writing and research acquire astounding results. Research writing as a process and product, it uniquely brings certain powerful learning strategies. Elements of a Critical Thinking Activity Above all, all the methods that students may use to learn or demonstrate their thinking should reveal the following elements. For one, there should be an ill-structured problem (Lai, 2011). These are problems that with questions, scenarios or case studies that do not have a wrong or a right answer. They may also include controversial issues that need a reflective judgment. Notably, any right or wrong responses exist only where the student gives a supporting logical reasoning. The next element that students should demonstrate in a critical thinking activity is a criterion to assess their thinking (Hsiao, Chen Hu, 2013). Thinking assessment demands a framework showing why students think the way they are thinking. For example, one can answer questions like, why do you think, why do you like, explain your thoughts, what is your perspective e.tc. All these are best questions for demonstrating one's critical thinking skills. Finally, the activity should have room for the improvement of thinking. Students will achieve this by creating a culture of inquiry. This is where students think about their thinking activity and also reflect on the practice logical constructs of their thoughts. This one allows the student to reconsider and revise their learned or demonstrated thinking skills. Conclusion This paper intended to examine how critical thinking skills can be learned and demonstrated by higher education students. The goal for every student is to acquire critical thinking skills. It is through learning activities where students can learn and demonstrate their critical thinking abilities. However, like with any skill, even critical thinking requires practice, patience, and learning. This effort is not a one-day task, it takes some time, but the effort is rewarding. Students who think critically have an easier time solving real-world problems than those who don't. Finally, it is material that critical thinking skills be encouraged and reinforced in higher education and all levels of education. This effort will be a good way to plant the seed of critical thinking to all students in the hope that the skills will grow over time. References Davis, J. (2013). Improving Students Critical Thinking and Classroom Engagement by Playing the Devils Advocate. An Online, Openaccess Peer-Reviewed Education Journal Of The Graduate Centre, CUNY. Retrieved from https://traue.commons.gc.cuny.edu/issue-2-fall-2013/davis/ Haynes, A., Lisic, E., Goltz, M., Stein, B., Harris, K. (2016). Moving Beyond Assessment to Improving Students Critical Thinking Skills: A Model for Implementing Change. Journal Of The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning, 16(4), 44. https://dx.doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v16i4.19407 Hsiao, W., Chen, M., Hu, H. (2013). Assessing Online Discussions: Adoption of Critical Thinking as a Grading Criterion. International Journal Of Technology, Knowledge Society, 9(3), p15-25. Retrieved from https://web.b.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=trueprofile=ehostscope=siteauthtype=crawlerjrnl=18323669AN=95552731h=yu7k1QTJ%2b3YqrzJDUbIv7SOis81%2fTeVmIp77FYO0ZjJgGuzDTJOuD%2bIQPd6GG5BclfpMYOrqje74G8DE3dpSdA%3d%3dcrl=fresultNs=AdminWebAuthresultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuthcrlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d18323669%26AN%3d95552731 Lai, E. (2011). Critical Thinking: A Literature Review. Research Report. Retrieved from https://images.pearsonassessments.com/images/tmrs/Collaboration-Review.pdf MULNIX, J. (2012). Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking. Educational Philosophy And Theory, 44(5), 464-479. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00673.x Popil, I. (2011). Promotion of critical thinking by using case studies as teaching method. Nurse Education Today, 31(2), 204-207. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2010.06.002 Railean, E., Elc?i, A., Elc?i, A. (2017). Metacognition and Successful Learning Strategies in Higher Education (p. 42). [S.l.]: Information Science Reference. ?enda?, S., Ferhan Odaba, H. (2009). Effects of an online problem based learning course on content knowledge acquisition and critical thinking skills. Computers Education, 53(1), 132-141. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.01.008 Wisdom, S., Leavitt, L. (2015). Handbook of research on advancing critical thinking in higher education (p. 371). IGI Global.