why critical thinking is important?

Whether you’re aiming to improve your performance at work or simply trying to live a more fulfilling life, you’ll need a variety of hard and soft skills to move the needle. Some skills come naturally to some people, while others need to develop them actively.

One of these skills is critical thinking. But critical thinking itself is made up of several types of skills that contribute to solving problems more effectively.

Let’s explore the different types of critical thinking skills and how you can start improving them to level up your career.

Critical thinking is the ability to analyze facts and form a judgment. It is a form of emotional intelligence.

Someone with critical thinking skills can think clearly and rationally when the situation demands it. It allows them to perform problem-solving and decision-making more effectively.

As a result, you can look further than what you see at face value. You’re able to analyze what you see from a situation and gain some insight that goes further than what’s obvious to anyone from the outside.

Critical thinking also requires being able to understand the logical connection between two or more ideas or concepts. For example, a team working on a company’s pricing strategy needs to think critically about several concepts.

Both the marketing and sales teams must work together. They need to analyze how to maximize sales. But they need to do so while also meeting profit goals. It’s important to understand the logical connection between sales strategy and marketing logistics. It’s the only way to get a good outcome.

Critical thinking is different from creative thinking. Creative thinking is the ability to generate brand new, innovative ideas. On the other hand, critical thinking requires you to carefully and logically analyze what information is given to you. Both are important to maximize results in any given situation.

What defines critical thinking? How does it affect the decision-making process? Here are five characteristics that make up the ability to think critically.

Critical thinkers have specific traits that allow them to think the way they do. Some people are predisposed to these traits, while others need to develop them actively.

Some of these dispositions include:

Good critical thinkers need to make solid arguments.

An argument is making a statement aided by supporting evidence. It’s important to use well thought-out arguments when you’re in a constructive conflict. When analyzing a situation critically, you’ll need to make several arguments in your own mind to come to a judgment.

In addition to arguments, critical thinking also requires inferring conclusions. From the facts and arguments presented to you, you need to use reasoning skills to come to a logical conclusion.

This conclusion will determine the best course of action to take.

Critical thinking is sometimes a matter of discerning truth from fiction. Not all facts presented to you may have the same level of truth. Certain conditions need to be met for something to be considered believable, and a critical thinker needs to be able to understand that.

Metacognition is the ability to think about your own thinking. Critical thinkers should be able to analyze their thoughts so that they can judge whether or not they’ve thought everything through. This helps them come up with better hypotheses.

The critical thinking skills definition is: soft skills that help you in the critical thinking process. Developing these skills can improve your ability to think critically.

Critical thinking skills are considered one of many durable skills in the workplace. Many of these are soft skills that are also useful in other situations.

According to research by America Succeeds, critical thinking is in the top five most requested durable skills in job postings. Those top five durable skills get requested 2.6x more often than the top five hard skills. This goes to show that soft skills like critical thinking skills are in demand in the workplace.

Critical thinking skills are important for several reasons. These include helping you work independently and solve problems. Not all positions require ongoing critical thinking. But, those skills definitely matter to anyone who wants to uplevel their career. And even the most easygoing positions require at least some level of critical thinking skills.

For example, working as an accountant can be straightforward in most cases. But it may require critical thinking skills. For instance, what if certain expenses aren’t easily distributed in simple categories? Without critical thinking skills, an accountant will struggle to work independently and solve problems on their own.

Critical thinking abilities also matter in everyday life. Having a foundation for critical thinking can help you analyze several possible solutions for problems that pop up in the home. It can also help you:

Let’s explore these six critical thinking skills you should learn and why they’re so important to the critical thinking process.

This critical thinking skill is necessary for metacognition, which is the fifth characteristic of critical thinking. It involves knowing when others have a cognitive bias and when you have one yourself.

Biases can influence how someone understands the facts presented to them. But when you’re aware of those biases, you can question yourself on those biases and consider other points of view.

Identifying biases is especially important for people who make hiring decisions. That’s because biases against groups of minorities can lead to inequalities in the workplace when not identified.

For example, imagine a hiring manager comparing two resumes. Their gut feeling could guide them to discount one of the resumes due to a bias against the opposite gender. But let’s say this hiring manager realizes they have this bias. They can then question themselves on whether or not this bias is influencing their judgment.

Inference is the ability to draw conclusions based on the information you have. Without inference, it can be difficult to take action once you’ve analyzed the facts presented to you. Processing information is key to coming up with a reasoned judgment.

For example, let’s go back to the accountant struggling to assign the correct category to a business expense. They can analyze other similar situations and infer the most logical category based on that information.

Before you analyze facts and infer a conclusion, you need to find out what those facts are. Researching skills allow you to discover facts and figures to make an argument.

Not all situations will have the required information available to you. Researching skills are necessary to dig into a situation and gather the information you need to think critically.

Some situations don’t require further research. For example, a first responder who arrives on the scene of an automobile accident won’t perform further research. They’ll have to analyze what they see in front of them and decide which injuries are the most urgent to care for.

On the other hand, someone performing a market analysis will need to research competitors and gather information before coming up with an opinion.

Identification is different from inference and research. It involves being able to identify a problem but also what’s influencing that problem.

In short, identification is necessary for someone to realize that they need to think critically about something. Without proper identification skills, it will be difficult for someone to know when it’s time to analyze a situation.

For example, let’s say you’re entering numbers in a spreadsheet. The numbers aren’t coming out as they usually do. Without identification skills, you could easily keep going without realizing there’s an issue. But when you identify what’s going on, you can see that something is broken in the spreadsheet’s formula.

Only once you identify the fact that the formula is broken can you start analyzing what’s going on to solve the issue.

Don’t be afraid to question everything and explore what you’re curious about. That’s because intellectual curiosity is a valuable skill, especially when it comes to critical thinking.

One way to practice curiosity is to adopt a beginner’s mindset. When you come into every situation with the mindset of a beginner, you’re able to keep an open mind. You’ll be able to perceive things you may not have noticed when keeping your mind closed.

Not all information is equally pertinent. In order to make a critical judgment, it’s important to be able to judge the relevance of the information you have.

Take, for instance, basic online researching skills. You have access to a plethora of information on virtually every topic imaginable. But performing online research requires you to constantly judge the relevance of what you see.

Without judging relevance, you’d spend too much time on details that don’t matter as much for the final desired outcome. But when you’re able to discern what’s most pertinent, you can give that information more weight as you’re thinking critically.

So what would critical thinking skills look like in a real-life situation?

Let’s imagine you’re working in software quality assurance (QA) as a team lead. But every time your team needs to enter bug regression, everyone gets bottlenecked because you must manually populate the spreadsheet used for the regression. While you do this task, your team cannot be productive without you.

This process happens once a week and easily wastes half an hour for each team member.

First, you must identify what’s going on. The team gets bottlenecked because only you, as the team lead, can access the information required to fill in the regression spreadsheet.

Next, you can research information. You can inquire to higher-ups about the reason why only you have access to this information. You can also speak to other teams about what potential solutions they’ve come up with to solve this problem.

Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to analyze the information and judge relevance. Some teams have solutions that don’t apply to you, so that information isn’t relevant anymore.

Figure out if there are any personal biases before you analyze your information.

For example, it’s possible that you don’t get along with one of the other team leads. As a result, you could discount the information they’ve given you. But by identifying this bias, you can look past your personal opinion of this person and see how valuable their solution is.

Based on what you’ve analyzed, it’s time to brainstorm and come up with a solution. You realize that creating a simple, automated script will save your team’s time. And it will do so without consuming too many resources from the engineering department.

Next, present your solution to your manager. Explain how you came to this conclusion.

Now, let’s say your spreadsheet automation solution is approved. It’s important to go back and analyze what happens after implementing the solution. But only do this once the spreadsheet has been in place for long enough to gather plenty of information.

Here’s an example. You could realize that the solution did solve the bottleneck. But, the script also slows down the spreadsheet and makes it difficult to work with. This would require you to go back to the drawing board and start the process all over again.

Want to start improving your own critical thinking skill sets? Here’s how you can improve critical thinking skills using 13 techniques:

Critical thinking is a skill that is vital in order to make conscious, well-informed decisions. The decisions you make in the present will impact the quality of your life in the future. If you want to make sure you live your best life, you must put critical thinking at the forefront of everything you do.

Studies indicate that critical thinkers are happier and much more content with their lives. This satisfaction stems from a deeper understanding of the self. Critical thinkers are great at self-reflection, and they understand their aspirations and motivators. In addition, critical thinkers can process information better and analyze everything that happens, allowing them to grasp the most important lessons and apply them to their life.

Critical thinking is a skill that prevents you from being stagnant or stuck in life. Instead, you can stay proactive in changing any situation and promoting personal growth. All of these elements combined will truly increase your overall satisfaction and happiness in all aspects of your life. Below is a detailed overview of critical thinking, and why it’s important:

Critical thinking has been a buzzword for decades. In fact, many types of research indicate that the art of critical thinking is rooted in the teachings of famous philosophers, Socrates and Plato. Though exact definitions may have changed through the years, most experts will agree that the term ‘critical thinking’ typically refers to reflective thinking before deciding to act. You’re not one of the sheep following the herd or mindlessly going through the motions – you’re a critical thinker.

It can be quite challenging to define critical thinking because many people associate the word “critical” with negative connotations. After all, no one likes to be criticized and people generally dislike fault finding. However, critical thinking is anything but that, though the concept itself is rather complex when applied to everyday living.

Some would say critical thinking is the process of analyzing information to formulate a sound judgement. Simply put, it is the act of thinking about thinking. You explore all avenues and every side of what you encounter before formulating a conclusion. You challenge yourself and your own thoughts when you’re a critical thinker.

Critical thinking is important in our society because it is a universal concept that applies to anyone, regardless of race, culture, economic status, or religion. Moreover, our future hinges on critical thinking, because societies and economies need it to solve problems effectively and efficiently. Below are some compelling reasons why it is vital to have critical thinking skills:

Critical thinkers generally express themselves well, because they can think clearly and systematically about any issue in front of them. They break down messages that they see and understand what is conveyed clearly, preventing miscommunication and misunderstandings.

Besides, this provides people with tools to self-reflect and evaluate what they need to do. When you can live life with peace of mind, you can:

Remember, living with stress can make you sick. It impacts your immune system negatively, making you more susceptible to bacteria and viruses. Besides, lower immunity means leaving your body vulnerable to chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. You can avoid all that by practising critical thinking, leading to a peaceful and happier existence.

Those who practice critical thinking do not only solve problems efficiently. Instead, they analyze ideas and come up with creative ways and alternative solutions. With a critical thinking mind, you can always adjust to any situation, whether with your family or work. As a result, you can make better choices for yourself and your family.

If you exercise critical thinking, you can readily deal with issues that come your way. And with consistent practice, your thought process is already done on the subconscious level, meaning you instinctually follow things because you are in tune with your mind and have a deep understanding of why you think the way you do. With critical thinking, you are happier with outcomes because:

All of these elements combined equate to sound decisions that you will not live to regret.

Again, remember that being critical is different from critical thinking. Exercising the latter will promote harmonious relationships may it be in your family, work, or community. Why? By thinking critically, you willingly understand the perspectives of others. You do not impose your thoughts on them, but you are more open-minded towards varying opinions and views.

For example, critical thinking can stop you from saying hurtful words during an argument. A sound mind can also help you stay calm and collected amid adversity. As a result, you have a clear head that propels you to make the right choices that promote harmony and cultivate relationships for the better. In contrast, the lack of critical thinking is counterproductive, resulting in confusion, stress, and sadness.

Since the advent of the digital revolution, there has been no shortage of information coming from everywhere. This includes fake news, historical revisionism, and outright wrongful information. All of these digital “noises” can make anyone feel confused.

And this is precisely why you must exercise critical thinking even more. You ought to look at all sides of the story before you decide what to believe in. With critical thinking, you can do the following:

All career paths desire a critical thinker. In fact, HR reps want you to fill in their job posts if you think critically. This kind of level-headedness is not just for scientists but also for lawyers, doctors, journalists, engineers, teachers, accountants, and more. In every single profession, you must think critically.

According to the World Economic Forum, the most desirable skill to have in the workplace is critical thinking. This skill helps you:

Critical thinking is one of the bastions of democracy. As former POTUS Thomas Jefferson once said: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people!” Without this, everyone can readily succumb to manipulation and propaganda.

For society to effectively function, everyone must use their knowledge to assess different information and situations. Critical thinkers make good citizens because they can see the big picture without clouding their judgements with biases.

Critical thinkers consider multiple sides of an issue or topic before making their judgment. They ask questions about what they see or hear instead of blindly accepting the information they are given. Critical thinking skills typically ensure you are not biased.

A well-developed set of Critical Thinking skills builds self empowerment and confidence. It enables you to efficiently gather knowledge, quickly process information, and intelligently analyze data.

Some people are inherently gifted with certain abilities, while others must work hard to cultivate them. Being able to think critically is one such skill. However, critical thinking itself is made up of a variety of abilities — both hard and soft skills — that help in problem-solving. So what is critical thinking exactly? Read on.

Critical thinking is the process of questioning, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and forming an opinion about what you read, hear, say, or write. The term ‘critical’ originates from the Greek word kritikos, which means ‘ability to judge or distinguish’. Making trustworthy decisions based on accurate information is what critical thinking is all about. It is built on universal intellectual ideals: clarity, correctness, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, excellent reasoning, depth, and fairness. As a result, employers place a premium on the capacity to think critically.

We’ve now got clarity on the question of what is critical thinking. Let’s now understand why it is important.

Critical thinking is a crucial aspect of any career where the goal is to objectively infer facts without bias, examine the context, solve creative challenges, and come up with practical answers.

Big life-changing decisions, such as whether to change careers or not, benefit from critical thinking. It motivates you to investigate and choose objective reasoning over your immediate emotional reaction.

Every difficult situation can be further simplified if one has the ability to think critically. Critical thinking invokes a sense of introspection which hones personal growth and amplifies general satisfaction.

Critical thinkers excel at researching and locating the most significant pieces of information that make them well-informed on any given issue. This is useful in workplace interactions and in establishing oneself as an industry thought leader.

Critical thinkers are more self-reflective and can modify their views and attitudes in light of new facts because they deflect the impulse to defend their personal convictions.

There are three main types of critical thinking: analysis, inference, and evaluation.

So, what is critical thinking when it comes to real-world situations? It’s asking yourself these kinds of questions: Should you go to college, or should you enroll in an online course? Should you be working part-time? Should you aim to work for a startup, non-profit, or for-profit organization? Each of these solutions has advantages and disadvantages. For instance, it takes time to decide on a profession. We must develop an argument for each possible alternative and evaluate the economical, social, and professional contexts. We must ask ourselves why this is the best option for us. After making a decision, we must endeavor to forecast the consequences of that action one, five, and 10 years in the future, And that’s before we eventually reach a moment where we can determine whether to change careers.

The Process of Thinking Critically

Here are 6 steps to understand the process and give us clarity on what critical thinking is:

In order to explain the problem or scenario and ensure that all team members are on the same page:

Once everyone in the team feels that they have understood the problems deeply, they are ready to move on to analysis.

To discuss the issue further, explore the intended and actual relationships among the statements and the questions from the team members. Consider each individual’s viewpoint, beliefs, and assumptions. Examine the facts and any metrics available to back up the information.

Once everyone on the team feels that they have explored the questions thoroughly, they are ready to move on to inference.

To locate and collect the components required to arrive at logical conclusions, the team will have to use the information from the analysis phase, including the facts, assertions, guidelines, arguments, convictions, and views, to generate ideas. This is the time to list potential solutions and talk about the practicality of each one.

Once everyone on the team feels like they have explored all the data, and questions, they can move to the evaluation stage.

This means evaluating the validity of the conclusions reached during the inference phase and to examine any fresh information and concepts developed since the last session. Examine the viability of potential ideas with new eyes and look for logical and cognitive flaws.

Explain the steps the team took to come up with the answers. Setting the mental process in context helps to understand how it developed.

Carefully examine assumptions and assess any biases the team may have. In order to challenge, confirm, validate, or link one’s reasoning or outcomes, evaluate the team’s inferential judgments.

Critical thinking disposition is a quality or mental practice that is incorporated into one’s beliefs or behaviors in order to solve issues and make decisions effectively.

Here are 12 dispositions for critical thinking:

Improving critical thinking skills is crucial. Here’s how you can do it in a few steps:

Critical thinking is mostly considered a soft skill that can help you advance your career. But there are technical aspects to it as well. And if you’re unsure what you want to do, then you might consider exploring some online courses offered by Emeritus that offer training in soft skills as well as technical skills.

By Siddhesh Shinde

Write to us at content@emeritus.org

Critical thinking is a vital skill, yet it’s often neglected. In higher education, we know the importance of learning objectives that let us measure learner success. Starting with a clear definition of critical thinking allows us to identify the associated skills that we want to imbue in our students and ourselves.

According to the Oxford Languages dictionary, critical thinking is “the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.” It sounds relatively simple, yet we often form judgments without that all-important objective analysis/evaluation piece.

Employers on the Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) Social Sciences Advisory Board tell us that they want to hire people with critical thinking skills, but applicants often lack this ability. According to Professor of Science Dr. Norman Herr, critical thinking skills can be boiled down to the following key sequential elements:

As educators, we must teach our students those critical thinking skills and practice them ourselves to objectively analyze an onslaught of information. Ideas, especially plausible-sounding philosophies, should be challenged and pass the credibility litmus test.

The School Library Journal lists four types of information that should raise red flags when we’re watching the news, reading social media, or at any point in our everyday lives when we are confronted with something purported to be “fact:”

SNHU, and other colleges and universities across the U.S., must use updated tools to help their students think critically about the information they consume. Currently, many institutions of higher learning fail to teach students how to identify misinformation sources. Sam Wineburg and Nadiv Ziv, professors of education at Stanford University, argue that many colleges offer guides to evaluating website trustworthiness, but far too many of them base their advice on a 1998 report on assessing websites. They warn that it makes no sense for colleges to share 20-year-old advice on dealing with the rapidly-changing online landscape, where two decades feels like a century.

Further, as educators in institutions of higher education, we must afford learners as many opportunities as possible to hone their critical thinking skills when interacting with instructors and fellow students. Greg Lukianoff and Johnathan Haidt, authors of The Coddling of the American Mind, contend that “one of the most brilliant features of universities is that, when they are working properly, they are communities of scholars who cancel out one another’s confirmation biases.” Without exploring opposing viewpoints, students may fall prey to confirmation bias, further cementing ideas that they already believe to be true. Being inclusive when it comes to viewpoint diversity is indispensable for avoiding these echo chambers that circumvent having one’s ideas challenged.

As we teach our students the importance of critical thinking, how do we equip them to sift through the onslaught of information they encounter every day, both personally and in their educational pursuits? And how do we do the same for ourselves?

Here are four critical thinking examples that anyone can apply when evaluating information:

Anyone in a teaching position should point their students toward reliable references. For example, at SNHU, instructors can point their students towards the Shapiro Library for their assignments. No matter where you teach, the main objective is to give them opportunities to apply critical thinking skills by evaluating material that they encounter in everyday life. Another way to do this at SNHU or in any online classroom is by incorporating elements of the four points into your announcements, discussion posts and feedback. For example, you might post two articles with differing viewpoints on the week’s material. For each, break down the publication’s possible slant, the way in which any research-based material is presented and the author’s credentials. Hypothetically, ask students whether those factors might be playing into the opinions expressed.

Misinformation, if not addressed, easily turns into disinformation when it is readily shared by students, individuals and groups that may know it is wrong. They may continue to intentionally spread it to cast doubt or stir divisiveness. Students listen to their peers, and the more critical thinking is addressed in a course, the more we prepare students not to fall into the misinformation trap.

Courtney Brown and Sherrish Holland, of the Center for the Professional Education of Teachers, argue that for educators, the challenge is now far more about how they need to inform their students to interpret and assess the information they come across and not simply how to gain access to it. The term “fake news” is used to discredit anyone trying to clarify fact from fiction. Fake news is a cover for some people when they are being deliberately deceptive. As educators become clearer about the distinction, it can be better communicated to students.

Even if you don’t teach, use those points in conversations to help others hone their critical thinking skills, along with a dose of emotional intelligence. If someone shares misinformation with you, don’t be combative. Instead, use probing statements and questions designed to spark their critical thinking.

Here are some examples:

“That’s very interesting. Do you think the person they’re quoting might be letting his business interests color what he’s saying?”

“I know that sometimes the media oversimplifies research. I wonder who funded that study and if that’s influencing what they’re saying.”

Of course, you need to adapt to the situation and to make what you say sound organic and conversational, but the core idea remains the same. Inspire the other person to use critical thinking skills. Give them reasons to look more deeply into the topic instead of blindly accepting information. Course activities that stimulate interaction and a deep dive into course-related ideas will encourage perspective-taking and foster new avenues of thought along the path to life-long learning. As American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” While Mead was referring to younger children, this statement is apropos for learners in higher education who are tasked with dissecting volumes of information.

It’s crucial to teach our students to question what they read and hear. Jerry Baldasty, provost at the University of Washington, believes that democracies live and die by the ability of their people to access information and engage in robust discussions based upon facts. It is the facts that are being attacked by misinformation. The result is a growing distrust of our core societal institution. People have lost confidence in religious organizations, higher education, government and the media as they believe deliberately deceptive information they come across.

Baldasty argues, “this is why it is crucial that we educate our students how to think critically, access and analyze data, and, above all, question the answers.” Students need critical thinking skills for much more than their self-enlightenment. They will become our leaders, politicians, teachers, researchers, advocates, authors, business owners and perhaps most importantly, voters. The more we can imbue them with critical thinking skills, the better.

Critical thinking skills can be fine-tuned to help in more high-level situations, such as workplace problems or when doing an assignment for school. To master critical thinking skills, it’s important to recognize what exactly they are and the scenarios in which they will come in handy.

When you're a critical thinker, you are inquisitive and curious about the world around you. You’re able to see things in a bigger picture and analyze the different elements in any given situation.

Critical thinking skills come with the ability to back up your thoughts and proposed solutions, present your arguments to other people, and advocate for yourself and others. Critical thinkers contemplate their ideas before speaking and are not reactive or quick to jump to conclusions.

Critical thinking skills differ from individual to individual and are utilized in various ways. Examples of common critical thinking skills include:

Being a critical thinker makes you a well-rounded individual, one who has looked at all of their options and possible solutions before making a choice. It means you have put care and thought into the situation at hand and take it seriously.

According to the University of the People in California, having critical thinking skills is important because they are [1]:

Critical thinking skills are used every day in a myriad of ways and can be applied to situations such as a CEO approaching a group project or a nurse deciding in which order to treat their patients.

We make decisions every day that utilize our critical thinking skills. For example, we determine whether to merge into a different lane on the highway by quickly analyzing the information we have about the road, speed limit, and surrounding cars.

Critical thinking skills allow us to make decisions that help us move forward and progress as individuals. With critical thinking skills, we can decide which jobs to take, which people to surround ourselves with, and what kind of education we want to pursue.

Everyone can benefit from using critical thinking skills, whether they’re a manager or a subordinate employee. Whatever your title or position, being a critical thinker will not only help when working by yourself but also when working with your teammates.

You can help promote critical thinking skills such as analysis and problem-solving to your team. Your ability to communicate problems, solutions, and the things you’ve learned will help you and your teammates grow together and develop a greater understanding of the work that is being done within the organization.

When difficult situations arise, or you’re unsure of a decision to make, critical thinking is very beneficial. You can ask co-workers for advice on how to more efficiently complete your task, assistance, or their opinions on solutions to any given problem.

You can develop critical thinking skills every day simply by making choices, but there are ways to develop yours at a quicker rate and put them to use.

A great way to begin your critical thinking journey is to ask a lot of questions—be inquisitive about everything and anything. Separate your emotions from the facts and information you’re receiving, and ask questions to further your research. The more details, facts, and general information you receive, the more likely you are to make informed, critically thought-out decisions.

Learn tips and tricks on how to become a better critical thinker and problem solver through online courses from notable educational institutions on Coursera. Start with Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking from Duke University or Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age from the University of Michigan.

• Now let us understand the benefits of critical thinking.
• 1] It helps to improve decision making.
• 2] Enhances problem-solving ability.
• 3] Refine your research skills.
• 4] Polishes your creativity.
• 5] Stimulates Curiosity.