Critical Thinking Experience Template

Introduction

Expert critical thinking strategies are integral to successfully completing your college course work and advancing in your career. The purpose of this first assignment is to have a framework of focus that will assure success with the upcoming course activities. Specifically, reflecting on previous critical thinking experience can be a powerful way to get the stage set for successful completion of this course.

As you complete this assignment, avoid performing research and using citations. Internet research is not needed because you are reflecting on your own experience not that of another author. There is no right or wrong answer-have fun!

Choose a Situation

Think back to a personal or professional situation when you used critical thinking strategies to solve a problem and make a decision. Example situations are: making a computer purchase decision; deciding which cell phone best meets your needs; choosing a school for your bachelor degree program; or another situation of your choice. As you think about a situation when critical thinking strategies were used, reflect on the ideas in the next section to guide the composition needed for this assignment.

Required Composition of 400-600 Words

To ensure your composition meets the 400-600 word requirement, consider some of the following ideas as you compose your reflection.
In the chosen situation, which of these common critical thinking strategies did you use: describing the problem, breaking the problem into manageable parts, laying out potential solutions, weighing the potential outcomes of the various solutions, choosing the best approach, implementing the decision, and evaluating the outcome?

Explain how you used the strategies and what you learned from applying them to your situation. Did you enjoy the critical thinking strategies? Explain why or why not. In what ways were your strategies satisfactory or unsatisfactory? Were the strategies you used successful? Explain why or why not. How much time did it take to use the various strategies? Were there any of the strategies that you would not use again? Would you consider experimenting with a different strategy in future situations?