What is thinking?
In 1913, Dewey’s tries to explain the term ‘thinking’ and said that thinking is a ‘stream of consciousness’ but according to my opinion, thinking is not only stream of consciousness but also stream of unconsciousness because we always do not think consciously or our mind sometime thinks in unconsciousness. E.g. dream and reverie come at night and day respectively.
In educational context, the term thinking is used as a process for remembering, planning what to do and say, solving problems, making decisions and judgments etc.
There are three perspectives of thinking:
1) Psychological Perspectives:
In it, thinking is used as internal, mental process that constructs and operates on mental representations of information.
2) Sociological perspectives:
When a person begins to think for themselves, ask questions and generally experiment, he or she gradually becomes independent and develop his or her mind and begin to act back on the social. Here, thinking which can be applied in different contexts may be of benefit to learners who can see that aspects of their own experience may be relevant in a new situation.
3) Philosophical perspectives:
According to McPeck (1981), thinking is always context specific. Though, it is said that thinking is identified in different context.
What is critical thinking?
Generally, critical thinking is related to looking for evidences, being fair-minded and accurate. It is an originality of ideas.
Foundation of Critical thinking:
A Greek philosopher and thinker, Socratic, who found the method of questioning which is now known as ‘Socratic Questioning’ and it is the best known ‘critical thinking teaching strategy’. Socratic by his method of questioning said that people could not justify their confident claims to knowledge even if they have knowledge, high power and high position because of confused meaning, inadequate evidence or self-contradictory, deeply confused logical consistency, clarity etc. That’s why, he emphasizes on the importance of seeking evidence, closely examine reasoning and assumptions, analyzing basic concepts to justify the claims.
Plato and Aristotle, other Greek philosophers, followed Socratic practice and emphasize on the appearance of things which are looked at differently by only a trained mind. In a critical thinking, trained mind plays an important role to understand deeper realities, to think systematically, to trace implications broadly and deeply.
In the middle ages, critical thinking was embodied in the writing and teaching. Thomas Aquinas aware us that reasoning in critical thinking is to be systematically cultivated and “cross-examined” and rejects beliefs which does not have reasons.
In England, the book named, The Advancement of Learning by Francis Bacon and in France, the book called, Rules for the Direction of the Mind by Descartes focus on the agenda of critical thinking. Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore is also best example of it. In short, from ancient to 20th century, idea of critical thinking was founded by different thinkers.
The common denominators of critical thinking are the most important by-products of the history of critical thinking:
Critical thinking looks not only at what is said but also what is said and it must be analyzed and assessed not only on the appearance of thing but also on its clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breath and logicalness.
Hence, in critical thinking, thought and reasoning are now baselines which are focused by questioning.
In 1913, Dewey’s tries to explain the term ‘thinking’ and said that thinking is a ‘stream of consciousness’ but according to my opinion, thinking is not only stream of consciousness but also stream of unconsciousness because we always do not think consciously or our mind sometime thinks in unconsciousness. E.g. dream and reverie come at night and day respectively.
In educational context, the term thinking is used as a process for remembering, planning what to do and say, solving problems, making decisions and judgments etc.
There are three perspectives of thinking:
1) Psychological Perspectives:
In it, thinking is used as internal, mental process that constructs and operates on mental representations of information.
2) Sociological perspectives:
When a person begins to think for themselves, ask questions and generally experiment, he or she gradually becomes independent and develop his or her mind and begin to act back on the social. Here, thinking which can be applied in different contexts may be of benefit to learners who can see that aspects of their own experience may be relevant in a new situation.
3) Philosophical perspectives:
According to McPeck (1981), thinking is always context specific. Though, it is said that thinking is identified in different context.
What is critical thinking?
Generally, critical thinking is related to looking for evidences, being fair-minded and accurate. It is an originality of ideas.
Foundation of Critical thinking:
A Greek philosopher and thinker, Socratic, who found the method of questioning which is now known as ‘Socratic Questioning’ and it is the best known ‘critical thinking teaching strategy’. Socratic by his method of questioning said that people could not justify their confident claims to knowledge even if they have knowledge, high power and high position because of confused meaning, inadequate evidence or self-contradictory, deeply confused logical consistency, clarity etc. That’s why, he emphasizes on the importance of seeking evidence, closely examine reasoning and assumptions, analyzing basic concepts to justify the claims.
Plato and Aristotle, other Greek philosophers, followed Socratic practice and emphasize on the appearance of things which are looked at differently by only a trained mind. In a critical thinking, trained mind plays an important role to understand deeper realities, to think systematically, to trace implications broadly and deeply.
In the middle ages, critical thinking was embodied in the writing and teaching. Thomas Aquinas aware us that reasoning in critical thinking is to be systematically cultivated and “cross-examined” and rejects beliefs which does not have reasons.
In England, the book named, The Advancement of Learning by Francis Bacon and in France, the book called, Rules for the Direction of the Mind by Descartes focus on the agenda of critical thinking. Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore is also best example of it. In short, from ancient to 20th century, idea of critical thinking was founded by different thinkers.
The common denominators of critical thinking are the most important by-products of the history of critical thinking:
Critical thinking looks not only at what is said but also what is said and it must be analyzed and assessed not only on the appearance of thing but also on its clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breath and logicalness.
Hence, in critical thinking, thought and reasoning are now baselines which are focused by questioning.
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