Introduction
The effective use of critical thinking skills essentially depends on one’s awareness of the components included in their definition. According to Facione and Gittens (2015), they vary from positive and negative habits of processing any information to core abilities, allowing individuals to benefit from them. Hence, it is important to understand what the term means and reflect on its proper application to one’s daily life.
Critical Thinking: Definition
In general, critical thinking is a notion encompassing a set of a person’s abilities to use any type of data for making correct conclusions on different matters. In this situation, no outside support is used to achieve the intended outcome of the thinking process, and one relies solely on their expertise as the main guidance. As a result of adopting this approach to the specified task, people can manage to successfully resolve difficult issues in various spheres of life and avoid crises of any kind. Meanwhile, they can be confident in the fact that they are not being misled by others in any possible way.
Discussion of Chapters
The emphasis in chapters 12, 13, and 14 for examining critical thinking skills is conditional upon their applicability to numerous settings. Thus, the abilities mentioned in chapter 2.3 “Looking Ahead,” are significant for any scenario as they are suitable for determining the instruments for analysis (Facione & Gittens, 2015). In other words, comparative, ideological, and empirical reasoning can be performed while relying on them, which explains the importance of these pieces for researchers, which means those general principles are applied.
Two Concepts and Critical Thinking
In these chapters, the authors highlight two concepts, which are the ability to recognize the existence of a problem to be solved and a positive outlook on one’s skills in evaluating the matter. The former implies one’s expertise in detecting the presence of a challenge, and the latter means the focus on its prompt resolution (Facione & Gittens, 2015). Hence, the authors find these concepts important to critical thinking as they determine the progression from the emergence of risks to their elimination.
Challenges
The greatest challenge for this session is explicitly linked to the need to apply the studied concepts to one’s daily tasks. In other words, the discussed phenomena are not to be purely theoretical but put directly into practice. For this class, in particular, it means that all the actions, which were previously performed unconsciously, should be monitored to determine their precision (Kleemola et al., 2021). This endeavor seems complicated but extremely important for aligning tasks to global goals in life.
The Use of Concepts to Overcome Challenges
The concepts from the first three chapters seem beneficial for making critical decisions in one’s life. Therefore, I would use them to analyze the options when facing a difficult choice and select the appropriate one for my future well-being. In particular, this mechanism can be applied to me as a person, as a member of my family, and as a full-fledged participant in societal affairs. By implementing this solution in practice, I will be able to gain more confidence in my opinions.
Conclusion
To summarize, the concept of critical thinking is essential for everyone’s well-being as it helps make proper decisions promptly. Moreover, its multi-faceted nature implies that it applies to numerous situations and settings and, consequently, is universal. From this point of view, corresponding abilities are not merely a theoretical approach to challenging tasks but also an integral part of all processes in different spheres.
References
Facione, P., & Gittens, C. A. (2015). Think critically (3rd ed.). Pearson.
Kleemola, K., Hyytinen, H., & Toom, A. (2021). Exploring internal structure of a performance-based critical thinking assessment for new students in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1-14. Web.