8/13/2019 Misunderstanding Critical Thinking

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Barriers to critical thinking 1)Critical thinking does not come easily toeveryone. Barriers vary from person to person,but can usually be overcome. This section looksat some key barriers to critical thinking andencourages you to consider whether these mightbe having an impact on you.

Misunderstanding of what i smeant y criticismSome people assume that criticism meansmaking negative comments. As a result, theyrefer only to negative aspects when making ananalysis. This is a misunderstanding of the term.As we saw above, critical evaluation meansidentifying positive as well as negative aspects,what works as well as what does not.

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Others feel that i t is not good to engage incriticism because it is an intrinsically negativeactivity. Some worry that they will be regardedas an unpleasant sort of person if they are goodat criticism. As a result, they avoid making anycomments they feel are negative and make onlypositive comments. They may not providefeedback on what can be improved. This is oftenan unhelpful approach, as constructive criticismcan clarify a situation and help people to excel.

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Over estimating our ownreasoning abilitiesMost of us like to think of ourselves as rationalbeings. We tend to believe our own beliefsystems are the best (otherwise we wouldn thold those beliefs) and that we have goodreasons for what we do and think.Although this is true of most of us for some ofthe time, it isn t an accurate picture of howhumans behave. Most of the time our thinkingruns on automatic. This makes us more efficientin our everyday lives: we don t have to doubtthe safety of a tooth-brush every time we brushour teeth.However, it is easy to fall into poor thinkinghabits. People who get their own way, or simplyget by, with poor reasoning, may believe theirreasoning must be good as nobody has said itisn t. Those who are good at winning argumentscan mistake this for good reasoning ability .Winning an argument does not necessarilymean that you have the best case. It may simplymean that your opponents didn t recognise apoor argument, or chose to yield the point fortheir own reasons, such as to avoid conflict.Imprecise, inaccurate and illogical thinking doesnot help to develop the mental abilities requiredfor higher-level academic and professional work.

Critical Thinking Skills O Stella Cottrell ZOOS), Critical itinking SkillsPalgrave Macmillan Ltd