Assignment on:

Food for thought to enhance critical thinking

Submitted to:

Sir Sayed Wajahat Hussain

Submitted by:

Fahad Sattar

Roll No:

06

Class:

BBA (HONS) 4th R(1)

Date:

07-01-2013

Food for thought to enhance critical thinking

Food for thought:

“Anything that provides mental stimulus for thinking is called food for thought”. Or something worth thinking about seriously is also called food for thought.

Food for thought increases our thinking ability and helps us to increase our knowledge about any topic of interest and it make us broad minded so that we can think about any topic rationally and positively.

Critical thinking:

“Good critical thinking is skillful and responsible thinking in which you study the problem from all angles and then exercise your best judgment to draw conclusions.”

It is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true, sometimes true, partly true, or fall. Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically and consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked.

Food for thought to enhance critical thinking:

There are something’s which enhances our thinking power and these things are called food for thought. The things which come under the head of food for thought are given below.

Activities:

1) Analyze:

Practice analytical thinking as often as possible. This involves mentally breaking down a structure and examining its parts. For example, consider a charismatic person and try to determine how her personality traits compose her overall charm. In addition, always look for patterns and use them to make predictions. You can find patterns while watching television shows, reading a book or reflecting on specific behaviors of people in your life.

2) Question:

Rather than being a passive listener, learn to question information given to you. You should especially question statements that involve "never" or "always." For example, if someone claims, "Humpback whales never feed in the winter," you should conduct your own research before accepting the statement as a fact. Not only will this strategy develop critical thinking skills, but it will also prevent you from blindly following your peers.

3) Discuss:

Work in a group setting and hold discussions with peers. By listening to the opinions of others, you will learn to explore alternative perspectives and practice objective thinking. If you follow a certain religion or belong to a political party, open your ears to people on the other side of the fence.

Methods:

1. Use “Wasted” Time. 2. A Problem A Day. 3. Internalize Intellectual Standards. 4. Keep An Intellectual Journal. 5. Reshape Your Character. 6. Deal with Your Ego. 7. Redefine the Way You See Things. 8. Get in touch with your emotions.

9. Analyze group influences on your life.

Exercises:

1) Logic Puzzles:

Logic puzzles require deductive reasoning or the process of elimination. They also increase critical-thinking skills, because you must concentrate on the details of the puzzle. Sudoku and Sudoku variants, such as Pic-a-Pix are classic and popular logic puzzles. Sudoku is a logic puzzle that deals with numbers. Pic-a-Pix are picture logic puzzles.

2) Values:

Practice critical thinking by applying reason to values. According to Open Course Ware in Critical Thinking, moral claims are statements about right and wrong, good and bad, or what might or might not be valuable.

3) Practice:

However, merely knowing the principles that distinguish good and bad reasoning is not enough. We might study in the classroom about how to swim, and learn about the basic theory, such as the fact that one should not breathe under water. But unless we can apply such theoretical knowledge through constant practice, we might not actually be able to swim.

Similarly, to be good at critical thinking skills it is necessary to internalize the theoretical principles so that we can actually apply them in daily life. There are at least two ways one is to do lots of good-quality exercises. Exercises include not just exercises in classrooms and tutorials. They also include exercises in the form of discussion and debates with other people in our daily life. The other method is to think more deeply about the principles that we have acquired. In the human mind, memory and understanding are acquired through making connections between ideas.

4) Attitudes:

Good critical thinking skills require not just knowledge and practice. Persistent practice can bring about improvements only if one has the right kind of motivation and attitude. The following attitudes are not uncommon, but they will not help you improve your thinking.

5) Socratic Thinking:

The Socratic Method considers disciplined questions or inquiries that trigger critical thought to answer. Challenge yourself by pondering complex issues or hypothetical problems. Many exercises in the Socratic Method can be based on current events, politics and religion. When examining these topics, analyze the concepts, differentiate between opinion and fact, and propose solutions. For additional mental exercise, reapply the Socratic Method to your solutions and test their validity.