These Critical Thinking Skills Will Redefine Your Future

Remember the teen contestant from Slumdog Millionaire? How did he tackle the situation when he was interrogated for cheating? In such time-bound or tough situations, Critical thinking skills are required to overcome them. It is an affluent concept among the many skills like Behavioural skills, Personality Skills, Career Skills, etc. with its roots in the mid-late 20th century, Critical skills have been developing throughout the past 2,000 years and can be utilized in critical, unexpected, or essential situations. Let’s read through the blog to understand the definitions, importance, etc. of critical skills.

What are Critical Thinking Skills?

Critical thinking is the capability to think rationally and understand the logical connection between ideas. Since the time of early Greek philosophers such as Plato and Socrates and has continued to be a subject of discussion into the modern age. For example, the ability to identify fake news. It is the analysis of facts to pass judgment. The subject is a little complex, and several different definitions exist for this which generally include the rational, sceptical, unbiased analysis, or evaluation of factual evidence.

Someone with critical thinking skills can:

• Recognise the connections between ideas.
• Assess the significance and relevance of arguments and ideas.
• Recognise, construct, and evaluate arguments.
• Recognise contradictions and reasoning flaws.
• Problems should be approached in a consistent and systematic manner.
• Consider how they justify their own assumptions, views, and values.

Also Read: How Creative Thinking Can Help You In Interviews?

Characteristics of Critical Thinking

What exactly is critical thinking? How does it influence decision-making? The ability to think critically is comprised of five characteristics.

1. Personalities
Critical thinkers possess particular characteristics that enable them to think in this manner. Some people are born with certain characteristics, while others must deliberately cultivate them.

Among these inclinations are:

• Open-mindedness
• Evidence and logic must be respected.
• Being able to examine various views and points of view: possessing cognitive flexibility
• Not being confined to a single position
• Skepticism
• Precision and clarity

2. Argument
Solid arguments are required of critical thinkers.

An argument is a statement that is supported by evidence. When engaging in constructive conflict, it is critical to employ well-thought-out arguments. When critically analysing a scenario, you’ll need to develop multiple arguments in your head before reaching a conclusion.

3. Reasoning
Critical thinking necessitates inferences in addition to arguments. You must use your reasoning skills to reach a reasonable conclusion based on the information and arguments supplied to you.

This conclusion will guide the optimal course of action.

4. Criteria
Sometimes separating fact from fiction requires critical thinking. Not all facts offered to you will be equally true. Certain requirements must be met for something to be considered credible, and a critical thinker must comprehend this.

5. Metacognition
Metacognition is the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking. Critical thinkers should be able to analyse their own thinking in order to determine whether or not they have considered everything. This assists them in developing better hypotheses.

The Process of Critical Thinking

You should be conscious that none of us always think critically all the time.

When our self-control is disturbed by anger, grief, or delight, or when we are simply ‘bloody-minded,’ we can consider nearly anything but critically.

On the other hand, because our critical thinking ability fluctuates depending on our current mentality, we can usually learn to increase our critical thinking ability by adopting particular habitual tasks and applying them to all situations that arise.

Improving your critical thinking abilities requires patience and practice once you comprehend the theory of critical thinking.

Try out this short exercise to get you thinking critically.

Consider anything that was recently told to you. Then consider the following questions:

Steps to Follow While Critically Thinking

A person can be a  successful critical thinker by being impartial. This means analysing a problem only on the facts instead of getting your emotions involved in the situation. You need critical thinking skills at every career level in all industries. Good critical thinkers find it easy to work with groups and independently to solve problems. Let us understand the steps with the help of an example.

• Identify the Problem – Imagine you’re at work. Someone, potentially your manager, presents you with a problem of wrong data. Then the first thing you will do is to identify the problem. What is the problem? Here is the bad data circulated in the whole department.
• Understand the Reason Behind it – Then after identifying the problem you will try to understand the reason behind this scenario. What is the reason behind it? You found out that there is a problem with the software.
• Research and Collect Data – As you have found out that the problem is in the software, then you will research more on the subject. After researching and collecting data on the issue you found out that the software is mixing previous year and current year data together.
• Organise Findings and Data -After this, you have to make amendments to the software and try to organise the data correctly according to its respective year.
• Implement Solutions – After that, you need to call the software engineers to solve this problem and inform everyone in the department not to make reports on the basis of the data circulated.
• Analyse the Implemented Solutions – After this, you need to check whether there is someone in the department who is still facing a problem or still making reports on the basis of previous data.
• Identify ways to Refine Solutions – If there are some employees then make them use the new data and make sure to check data priorly before sending it to the department.

Must Read: Critical Thinking Skills For Freshers

Importance of Critical Thinking in the Workplace

Employers know the worth of critical thinking and they look for candidates with critical thinking skills to fill the vacancies. So focusing on your own critical thinking at work has the possibility of advancing your career:

• Encouraging teamwork
• Resolving conflict
• Demonstrating leadership
• Saving time

What are 5 Critical Thinking Skills?

Here are some of the top critical thinking skills that you should master as a student which will help you redefine your future. Read to know more!

• Analysis
• Interpretation and Inference
• Explanation
• Self-regulation
• Problem-solving

Analysis

The central part of critical thinking is the ability to carefully examine a situation or problem. People with analytical skills can examine information, understand what it means, and properly explain to others the implications of that information.

Communication

You need to share your conclusions with your employers or with a group of colleagues. You need to be able to communicate with others to share your ideas effectively. So, you should know how to communicate effectively and efficiently.

Creativity

Critical thinking often involves creativity and innovation. You might need to spot patterns in the information you are looking at or come up with a solution that no one else has thought of before. 

Problem Solving

Problem-solving is another critical thinking skill that involves analyzing a problem, generating and implementing a solution, and assessing the success of the plan. Employers don’t simply want employees who can think about information critically but they are expected to be able to come up with practical solutions.

Also, Check out 10 Organizational Skills Every Student Must Have!

Tips to Improve Critical Thinking Skills

Here are some tips for you to improve your Critical thinking:

• Keep your Biases at Bay – We mostly think from our own perspective to deal with problems. However, we should make decisions if we try thinking from someone else’s point of view.
• Consider the Consequences – Every choice we choose has its own consequences or maybe others involved in the problem. We should be prepared for the worst-case scenario.
• Research Properly – Critical thinking requires letting go of beliefs to solve problems. Reluctance to learn, research, or acquire new beliefs will only hold you back and certainly won’t help you with critical thinking.
• Don’t overcomplicate things – Overcomplicating things is something a lot of us have in common. It’s a necessity to think things through but it only makes things difficult if you begin overthinking. 

Some Other Tips

• Play games that test your critical thinking abilities.
• More questions, even simple ones, should be asked.
• Examine your assumptions
• Improve your technical knowledge so that you can recognise difficulties more easily.
• Find new ways to address difficulties (both at work and at home).
• Recognise your thought processes, such as the availability heuristic.
• Think for yourself: don’t accept other people’s opinions without first challenging them.
• Seek out other points of view.
• Begin practising foresight by engaging in active listening.
• Before you act, consider the repercussions of various acts.
• Seek out a mentor who can assist you in developing these talents.
• Get professional guidance.

Relevant Read: Learning Skills For Students & Working Professionals

Critical Thinking Skills Example

Here are some examples of Critical Thinking that we can see on a daily basis.

• A person trying to interpret an angry friend’s needs, expressed through a rush of emotion and snide comments, to give that friend some help and support.
• A manager tries to be as objective as possible when settling a dispute by summarizing the alternatives, with fairness to all sides of a disagreement.
• A team of scientists working with great precision through a complex experiment in an effort to gather and analyze data.
• A creative writer organises ideas for the plot of a story and attends to the complex motivations and personalities of the fictional characters.
• A person running a small business trying to anticipate the possible economic and human consequences of various ways to increase sales or reduce costs.

How to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in Students?

Here are some tips to develop Critical Thinking Skills in Students:

• Project-Based Learning– To develop critical thinking in students, it is necessary to encourage them in project-based learning. It helps students to figure out real-world problems on their own. Project-based learning allows students to gain practical knowledge, and develop various ideas and concepts that are prevalent to a successful life beyond school.
• Freedom To Learn– One of the best ways to develop Critical Thinking Skills in students is to give them the freedom to learn. When students try to learn on their own, they learn more effectively. There are various learning methods and students must be given the choice for choosing the method of learning they are the most comfortable in. This creates a sense of ownership of the problem and allows students to find solutions for the same.
• Analyze and Assess- Analysis is one of the significant critical thinking skills. Students must be encouraged to analyze and assess the consequences and effectiveness of the ideas. This allows students to figure out whether the ideas are logical or not.
• Ask Open Ended Questions– Ask thoughtful questions and allow students to answer with valid reasoning. This will prepare students for an end-to-end conversation and will help them develop communication skills as well.

Must Read: Importance of Soft Skills for Career Growth

Critical Thinking Skills for Resume

• Apart from your hobbies and extracurricular activities for your CV or Resume, add Relevant Skills also. Explain critical thinking by using the keywords mentioned above related to your skills in your resume.
• Accentuate Skills in Your Cover Letter: Mention some of these skills in your cover letter.
• Use Skill Words in Your Job Interview: Discuss a time when you faced a problem at work and explain how you applied critical thinking to tackle it.

FAQs

We hope that this blog familiarizes you with all the essential Critical thinking skills for your resume! Once you master these important critical thinking skills, you can lay the groundwork that encourages effective interaction to consistently balance your life and work.

If you’re looking for job opportunities and need help creating a job-winning resume, our experts at Leverage Edu can help you with the best guidance.