Critical Thinking and its Vulnerabilities (original) (raw)

Critical thinking vs. organizational thinking

Cadernos ebape.br, 2024

This presentation serves a triple purpose: to better situate the call for work that we had launched, elucidating a little more our intention with the problematization of critical thinking versus organizational thinking; present to the public a distinction between formal organizational thinking and organizational thinking, placing them on their respective theoretical and practical planes; to anticipate to the reader the ideas underlying the texts of the authors who set out to systematize opinions and arguments in response to the provocation that our call for work launched to the academic community.

Critical thinking and the disciplines reconsidered

Higher Education Research & Development, 2013

This paper argues that Moore's specifist defence of critical thinking as ‘diverse modes of thought in the disciplines’, which appeared in Higher Education Research & Development, 30(3), 2011, is flawed as it entrenches relativist attitudes toward the important skill of critical thinking. The paper outlines the critical thinking debate, distinguishes between ‘top-down’, ‘bottom-up’ and ‘relativist’ approaches and locates Moore's account therein. It uses examples from one discipline-specific area, namely, the discipline of Literature, to show that the generalist approach to critical thinking does not ‘leave something out’ and outlines why teaching ‘generic’ critical thinking skills is central to tertiary education, teaching and learning, and employment opportunities for students. The paper also defends the assessment of critical thinking skills.

Value of Critical Thinking in the Labour Market: Variations in Employers’ and Employees’ Views

Social Sciences

The fragmentation and narrowness of research on critical thinking in the labour market and the lack of critical thinking analysis in the context of the interplay between lifelong learning, education and the labour market presuppose the relevance of this article. The article analyses the views of employers and employees, highlighting their attitude toward the importance and manifestation of critical thinking in the labour market and the need for improving critical thinking competency. The article aims to answer the following problematic questions: (1) How important are critical thinking skills and dispositions in the labour market? (2) How do employers’ and employees’ opinions vary regarding critical thinking in professional activities? (3) What need is there to improve critical thinking skills and dispositions? Quantitative research methodology was chosen for data collection using a questionnaire. It was found that both employers and employees consider inference and argumentation to...

Critical Thinking – Tightening the Link Between Business and Education

Forum Oświatowe, 2018

In this paper, one will find a discussion, based on the desk analysis of works dedicated to policy refocus towards critical thinking skills and the socio-educational factors relevant to business. It will be argued that critical thinking (CT) capacity is important not only for problem solving but most importantly for overall corporative success and for further development in business and the economy of the future. The paper consists of CT definitions, its position in educational policy and the global market economy, its relevance to business and its embedment in education.

Towards an Operational Definition of Critical Thinking

2019

This paper offers a state-of-the-art working definition for the concept of Critical Thinking (CT hereafter) in an attempt to provide a framework for the development of an operational definition for this complex concept. Having studied various definitions and models, proposed for CT by major figures in the field, the key defining features of this rich concept were identified and classified. Based on these key descriptors, a working definition consisting of three main components namely Mind Analysis, Data Evaluation, and Thinking in Education has been proposed and then each dimension of this definition is defined and elaborated further so that the complexity of the concept could be framed in an extended model. The elaborated conception of CT proposed in this paper seeks to include the core elements of CT so that it can be expandable into an operational definition with measurable items. There are two main reasons for conducting this research: Firstly, CT has evolved into a multifaceted...

What Critical Thinking and for What?

SOCIAL WELFARE: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

The article discusses the construction of the critical thinking concept in higher education and its change in scientific publications between 1993 and 2017. Based on a systematic literature review, the following research questions are raised: how does construction of critical thinking concept change in the context of higher education during time? How are personal, interpersonal, and social aspects expressed in the concept of critical thinking in the context of higher education? The systematic literature review revealed significant grow of publications starting from 1998. It is also disclosed slight change in treating critical thinking as purely general or domain-specific competence. The authors of the researched articles do not make clear division between critical thinking as a general and as a domain-specific competence. Researchers in different fields tend to associate critical thinking with the development of a person’s cognitive and intellectual capacities, including skills and...

Catching the wave: understanding the concept of critical thinking

Journal of advanced nursing, 1999

Catching the wave: understanding the concept of critical thinking As a practice-orientated profession, nursing is clearly guided by theoretical concepts. Concept clari®cation attempts to show speakers and readers how they can liberate themselves from the judgement limitations imposed by rigid, unexamined beliefs, by exposing differences in the interpretation of language and how that interpretation creates meaning. Critical thinking is one way nurses apply the process of inquiry. As a method of assessing, planning, implementing, evaluating and reconstructing nursing care, a critical thinking approach encourages nurses to challenge established theory and practice. Existing literature on critical thinking is confusing in its description of the process, and ambiguous in drawing relationships between critical thinking and the language currently used to illustrate the process of nursing. This paper examines elements and components of critical thinking as they relate to the language of nursing: problem solving, decision making, clinical judgement, re¯ection, and the nursing process. The purpose of this analysis is to illuminate the meaning and clarify the intent of critical thinking application to nursing practice. The paper begins by brie¯y outlining the historical aspects of critical social theory, suggesting that the foundational tenets of critical theory have in¯uenced the development of critical thinking. The paper also critically compares the language used to describe critical thinking and that language that has traditionally de®ned nursing.

LOOKING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Insights into Critical Thinking

The central purpose of this doctoral thesis has been to deepen our understanding of the nature of critical thinking by combining theoretical, empirical and methodological perspectives. The concept of critical thinking has a central role both in research on the philosophy of education and in empirical research on learning and teaching in higher education. Although it is true that the philosophical and empirical analyses of critical thinking and knowledge differ fundamentally, the present thesis argues that there are shared concerns between these two scholarly traditions. The thesis consists of four studies, each of which approached this aim from different viewpoints. The methods involved both a philosophical approach and an empirical multi-method approach. The dialogue between the empirical and theoretical analyses offers new insights into conceptualising critical thinking and its prerequisites and extends our understanding of variations in critical thinking. Based on the theoretical...

Critical Thinking and the Discplines Reconsidered

Higher Education Research and Development, 2013

This paper argues that Moore's specifist defence of critical thinking as ‘diverse modes of thought in the disciplines’, which appeared in Higher Education Research & Development, 30(3), 2011, is flawed as it entrenches relativist attitudes toward the important skill of critical thinking. The paper outlines the critical thinking debate, distinguishes between ‘top-down’, ‘bottom-up’ and ‘relativist’ approaches and locates Moore's account therein. It uses examples from one discipline-specific area, namely, the discipline of Literature, to show that the generalist approach to critical thinking does not ‘leave something out’ and outlines why teaching ‘generic’ critical thinking skills is central to tertiary education, teaching and learning, and employment opportunities for students. The paper also defends the assessment of critical thinking skills.