At some moment in high school education, students are asked to think critically. While they try to learn and memorize material to reproduce their knowledge, students forget to analyze and draw their own conclusions. These skills are required to get a college degree and become successful in the career. Students can learn how to improve their self-evaluation to achieve a better result; apparently, quality thinking is a work that also requires learning and practicing.
People can develop critical thinking starting with the easy technique of asking basic questions. Searching for a solution, we may let our mind make the problem even more sophisticated. Asking simple questions like “What is your final aim?” or “Why is this plan better than that?” will help to avoid meandering mind. Next, we need to question our assumptions. If we lack a solid evidence, assumptions are unavoidable as they fill the gaps in our knowledge. But they can result from our cognitive biases, which prevent us from thinking objectively. For this reason, critical thinkers always question what was behind any of their decision to detect an unfair judgment.
Evidence plays a great role if we try to think objectively. Nevertheless, facts frequently look differently in a different light which makes us confused. To evaluate a ready-delivered fact we need to question how it was gathered, who did it, and for what. We may take wrong decisions if mislead by a reputable person. In some cases, we need more confidence in out own potential to decide what is correct in this particular case. Thinking for ourselves is what we are told to do since childhood; nevertheless, it is always easier to rely on the expert’s opinion.