How to Understand Critical Thinking Skills

1. Observation

The first step is observation. How can you find the possible solutions for a problem when you don’t even know what the problem is in the first place? To maximize this critical thinking skill, remember that you should not take everything at face value. Maintain open-mindedness and try to gather as many pieces of information as you can before moving on to the next step.

2. Analysis

Once you have all the necessary information, you can move on to processing the information that you’ve received. To analyze information, you need to take all the information you’ve received from many different viewpoints, synthesize them into a single stream of information, and determine exactly what that information means for you. This step is about taking many different viewpoints and understanding what they mean when you put them all together.

3. Deduction

Once you have a single stream of information, you can use deductive reasoning to create more information to add to what you’ve gathered from others. Deduction involves figuring out the motives for different behaviors or sussing out important facts based on a few data points. For instance, if you notice that many college students are celebrating at a bar, and you know that your sister just got her graduation cap, then you’re using deductive reasoning to come to the conclusion that the college semester has just ended.

4. Problem-solving

Once you have the information you need, it’s time to determine the best solution for the information at hand. You’ve been able to discard your personal biases, draw conclusions, create hypotheses, and now it’s time to become a problem solver and figure out how you can fix the issues you’re experiencing. Problem-solving skills themselves will be important here, as determining the correct end goal from a problem is not always easy.

5. Communication

Now that you have all the information possible and you know how you’re going to fix the problem, the next step is communication. While some amount of communication is important during the observation process, this part of critical thinking is more about discussing how you plan to fix the problem with colleagues and helping to resolve issues with your team members.

Tips for Thinking More Critically

Critical thinking learners need to be constantly defining critical thinking for themselves and working on getting better and better at the critical thinking process. Here are a few tips to encourage that growth on a daily basis.

• Always be willing to accept criticism from your peers. Working together can help all of you develop reasoned judgment and draw appropriate conclusions.
• Try to get input from as many of your co-workers as possible. Multiple people working together will generally come to better conclusions than a single person working alone.
• List critical thinking skills that might be important according to the job description. Specific analytical skills may be mentioned in the job description that you can list in your resume and cover letter.