Critical Thinking Review

According to the authors, Paul & Elder there are five elements of thought; they are: The best thinkers think to some purpose, the best thinkers take command of concepts, the best thinkers assess information, the best thinkers distinguish between inferences and assumptions, the best thinkers think through implications. My choice out of the five is “the best thinkers think to some purpose.”.  My choice is Option B: Problem-resolution paper.

My rationalization or reason and explanation for my choice of this issue, as it relates to a Masters-Degree in Post Secondary Education and the importance, the necessity, criticality, in order for one to be an effective educator, one has to be able to resolve within oneself, and identify, become aware first, of ones own problems in ones own thinking, before one can teach anyone, anything, one must have clarity in ones own mind, free oneself of ones own insecurities, baggage from past hurts, stop looking backwards so that one can move forward, know who he/she is, have the confidence in ones own abilities, the skills necessary in order to be a “far-minded thinker”, a “critical thinker”, as a teacher, realizing ones strengths and weakness, goals, directions and thus strive to develop “countervailing traits”. .

As a future educator, it will be my duty to promote “thinking to some purpose”, to build my students knowledge base, based upon my own knowledge base, “activated knowledge”, and “intellectual confidence in reason”, and my willingness to be open-minded in order to bring about change, and new ideas to the field of education as it relates to “principles that will enable one to analyze, the decision one makes, assessing ones beliefs through ones own experience, “intellectual perseverance”, that where ones position or status in life today is because of ones on ability to shape, frame or pattern ones life are basically formed on ones own thinking and behavior.

In order to improve ones thinking or develop within ones students “critical thinking skills”, one has to possess, as a teacher, those skills and abilities oneself, “intellectual fair-mindedness”, in order to accomplish the end results.

Normally, it is always the norm, to assume or gravitate to the familiar, old ways of doing things, “something we previously learned”. To be honest, there is no excuse for being uninformed in this day and time intellectually. But when we began to think logically, with the availability of information as it exist today; therefore, the excuse one does not know will not fly, an analogy “that dog won’t hunt”, so to speak. Ignorance in this day and time simply will not work in the 20th or 21st century.