Components of Critical Thinking and Its Practical Uses

Thinking

Thinking takes a great place in modern scientific studies. It is one of the important mental abilities that play a major role in the life of the human being and in the cognitive life of humans.

Thinking is defined as a series of mental activities that the brain performs when exposed to an external stimuli through the five senses. Brain activity that responds to millions or billions of visual and invisible stimuli.

Human behavior in the form of a mental process. This process consists of three main elements the first component of cognitive processes Of complex, solution problems, and complex, Kalastieb, application, and the other, the second element is the personal factors, Kalmeul, trends, objectivity, and the third element is the knowledge of the individual about the content of the subject, or a particular substance.

Definition of critical thinking

The term critical thinking comes from the Greek word Criticus or the Greek Kritikos, which means: the ability to think, To distinguish or make judgments, and critical thinking is defined as one of the patterns of thinking used by man in his routine life matters, which some scholars define as composite thinking associated with an unlimited number of behaviors taken in an unlimited number of situations, that they It is related to logic, learning, problem solving, and knowledge.

Thought based reasoning can be called reasoning, analysis is the name of critical thinking, and a person who has the ability to think critically is able to judge the validity of the results based on the information available to him. It avoids rushing to generalize, or acknowledging information without verifying the veracity of such information, or relying on information based on comparison.

The importance of critical thinking

Critical thinking draws the attention of researchers and scholars because of its importance to the individual and society; it contributes to the formation of more open people to new ideas, and adaptability to them. The importance of critical thinking can be illustrated by the following:

Individual critical thinking gives wisdom in choosing the opinions and ideas that suit it, and is not influenced by all the ideas and opinions that are presented to it. Critical thinking protects the minds of young people from the different cultural ideas disseminated by societies, where they are able to analyze ideas and the information they are exposed to.

Critical thinking gives people the ability to analyze issues and problems, making them better able to make the right decisions in their life situations.

Protects the individual from his or her loss as a result of the ideas of globalization. He does not risk losing his cultural identity because he analyzes the ideas he receives before accepting them.

Critical thinking is an important element in public education, especially in the teaching of science, because students are better able to deal rationally with problems and have the ability to engage in logical arguments.

Criteria for critical thinking

In order for the individual to determine the efficiency of critical thinking, he or she must know the basic criteria that can be relied upon.

These criteria include:

Clarity

The most important criteria on which to rely; to evaluate critical thinking. This criterion sets out clear formulation of ideas, articulation in clear and understandable terms, and knowledge of the purposes to which the speaker aspires.

Health

This criterion means the validity of the information or ideas provided, and determining the reliability of their sources.

Accuracy

It is the criterion that determines the extent to which the subject has been met for its right to treatment. The idea should be specific and detailed at the same time.

Linkage

The strength of the correlation between questions, interventions and clarifications to the problem is determined by this criterion.

Depth

Depth indicates the extent of the individual's ability to diverge, and scrutinize the details of the problem, or idea, the analysis is not superficial.

Wideness

It is the standard by which the person is taken to the aspects of the idea, or the problem that he fully criticizes.

Meaning and significance

It means that the ideas and problems dealt with by the person of value and importance.

Logic

A criterion that examines the sequence of ideas logically, so that it ultimately gives meaning or a clear result and result from the previous sequence, it is an acceptable introduction.

The basic components of critical thinking

Critical thinking consists of five main components that are not thought only by their existence together, where it is necessary to start the process of thinking, and these components are:

Knowledge base

A set of information, values, beliefs, and beliefs that a person is convinced of, recognizes and validates, and requires the existence of this component, so that the individual generates a sense of contradiction.

External events

The events that the individual is subjected to, which generates a sense of contradiction in a different amount depending on the level of cognitive growth of the individual.

Personal theory

The personal view of the individual, and its individual color, which helps him to interpret external events, and creates a sense of contradiction, or make the face of the ordinary is not stimulating his thinking.

Discrepancy

This feeling begins when an individual feels contradictory or anxious. He begins to search for sources of knowledge that help him to interpret the contradiction he feels. This feeling is usually an intermediate variable that leads to the steps of thinking.

Discrepancy the Resolving

This is the thinking stage that is the basis of the critical thinking process. It is the step in which the individual tries to resolve the contradiction that he or she has experienced by external events.

Relationship between thinking and problem solving

There is no doubt that there is a close relationship between thinking and problem solving. The reason is that solving the various problems can only be achieved in one exclusive way thinking about its different types and types.

This happens by colliding with a problem and using this rational ability to find the best A possible solution to the problem has become more and more attention in the recent issue of problem solving within the psychology of thinking as well as finding new ways to solve problems through what is known as creative thinking and demonstrating the importance of this thinking in human creation of unusual methods and the development of assumptions and expectations To make it more capable of dealing with different problems and making more precise decisions.

Ways to use thinking to solve problems

The method of conclusion

It is the way in which a particular rule is applied to a partial state, and to try to understand specific ideas based on the general rule or what is also known as the part-to-all response.

The method of induction

It is a series of actions performed by the person in the treatment of the multiple cases that go through, where his daily thinking activity to the conclusion and induction.

The underlying assumption method is the set of assumptions a person assumes about a problem or the formation of a set of attitudes and beliefs about the problem.