Critical Thinking Experience

Write 3-4 pages in which you analyze a real-world professional or personal situation where you used critical thinking strategies to solve a problem and make a decision.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Communicate effectively in writing.
  • Write coherently to support a central idea, using an appropriate format, with the correct grammar, usage, and mechanics expected of an IT professional.
• Competency 5: Apply critical thinking to solve problems.
  • Explain strategies for keeping a positive attitude while resolving a problem.
  • Describe ways to determine the accuracy of information about a problem.
  • Describe ways to break a problem into smaller parts.
  • Explain strategies for determining what information about a problem is missing.
  • Describe strategies for organizing information about a problem.

Preparation

Consider how you have used critical thinking in the past. Choose a real-world professional or personal situation in which you used critical thinking strategies to solve a problem and make a decision. Examples might include deciding to accept a job offer or transfer, determining which computer or new car to purchase, choosing a school for your bachelor degree program, et cetera.

Directions

Complete the following:

• Write a brief description of the situation.
• Describe how you broke the problem into smaller, more workable parts.
• Explain how you were able to determine what necessary information you had, and what information you still needed.
• Describe how you determined the accuracy of any assumptions or conclusions.
• Describe how you organized your information. Did you engage in meaningful self-dialogue? Did you write down prompts or lists?
• Briefly describe what it felt like to go through the decision-making process.
• Explain what strategies you used to maintain a positive attitude as you resolved the problem (or what strategies you might have used).

For this assessment, you do not need to conduct any research or cite any resources. If you choose to reference or cite a resource, be sure you follow APA guidelines and add a references page.

Additional Requirements

• Title page.
• Format: APA 6th edition.
• Font style and size: Times New Roman, 12 point. (Use this standard typographical formatting for all of your assessments in this course.)
• Length of paper: 3-4 double-spaced pages, excluding the title and references pages.
•  Context:

Every day, in every venue, we think. When we communicate with our spouses, try to reason with our children, or work through a complicated work problem, we are thinking. The way we think determines how we see the world around us, which significantly influences the quality of our lives. We may tend to assume our thinking is automatic, and may not pay much attention to our thought processes.

However, we can learn a great deal from examining our thinking. When we think through a problem, our thought processes are naturally influenced by our experiences, biases, and assumptions about the situation. These factors can cause us to overlook flaws in our logic and make poor decisions. We can make better decisions when we identify and question the assumptions we make in our thinking. When we consider the implications of our choices and actions, we can more accurately project their outcomes.

According to Forbes magazine (2012), critical thinking is "the mental process of objectively analyzing a situation by gathering information from all possible sources, and then evaluating both the tangible and intangible aspects, as well as the implications of any course of action." Critical thinking is a way to intervene in your own thought process to find the holes in your thinking. Using critical thinking skills to help identify your purpose, examine your biases, and consider the implications of each of your options can help you make better decisions in your professional and personal life.

Reference

Green, H. (2012, March 27). How to develop 5 critical thinking types. Forbes. Retrieved from www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/03/27/how-to-develop-5-critical-thinking-types/