Stages of Critical Thinking

Complete the matrix by identifying the six stages of critical thinking, describing how to move from each stage to the next, and listing obstacles you may face as you move to the next stage of critical thinking.

Stages of critical thinking
How to move to the next stage
Obstacles to moving to the next stage
EXAMPLE:

The Unreflective Thinker
Examine my thinking to identify problems that affect my thinking. Deceiving myself about the effectiveness of my thinking
The Challenged Thinker
Start taking active steps to take control of my thinking, commit to developing my abilities, be willing to discover my own prejudices and misconceptions Not knowing how to take control of my thinking or how to develop my abilities. The Beginning Thinker

Begin recognizing my mistakes, when I am being egocentric, and when others are being egocentric. Realize that sporadic attempts are not enough, I need a systematic approach. Not knowing what your mistakes are or thinking that your attempts are enough when they are not. The Practicing Thinker

Determine what I am doing day to day to command my thinking, and commit to develop a higher level of thinking. Not being capable of developing a higher level of thinking on your own and not knowing who can help. The Advanced Thinker

Develop a new depth of understanding, and recognize the problems in my thinking. Not knowing what to do with your problems in your thinking once you have an understanding of what they are. The Master Thinker

Integrate my thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions into being in charge of how I think, feel, value things, and act. Unable to understand what your feelings and emotions are and unable to take charge of them.

Write a 150- to 200-word explanation of your current stage of critical-thinking development and explain why you placed yourself at that stage. Format your paragraph consistent with Associate Level Writing Style Handbook guidelines.

Strategies to Develop Critical Thinking

Now that you identified your current stage as a critical thinker, it is necessary to adopt strategies to develop your thinking. Of the nine strategies you read about this week, choose three that you can begin to practice. Identify the strategies and describe how you can implement each strategy in your daily life.

EXAMPLE
Strategy: Deal with my emotions.
Implementation Plan:
When I am faced with a decision, I will examine the positive and negative emotions associated with my decision. This will help me limit the influence of my emotions on my decisions.

Strategy 1: Use “Wasted” Time

Implementation Plan:
When I am sitting in traffic on my way home from work I will take this time to think back on my day and when I did great with my thinking and of times where I could have improved my thinking.

Strategy 2: A Problem A Day

Implementation Plan:
I really like this one. I will decide on a problem for the day on my way into work. In my slow moments and free time I will analyze the problem at hand and develop a strategy on how to solve this problem.

Strategy 3: Deal with my Egocentrism

Implementation Plan: Now that I have a better understanding of what egocentric thinking is I can learn how to handle it. I will start to point out to myself when I am thinking this ways to replace this thinking with better ways.

Write a 150- to 200-word summary of your thinking. Describe critical thinking and reflect on your current stage of critical thinking and your identified strategies. Determine what you can do to develop stronger critical thinking skills.

Write a 150- to 200-word explanation of your current stage of critical-thinking development and explain why you placed yourself at that stage. Format your paragraph consistent with Associate Level Writing Style Handbook guidelines.

I would place myself in The Beginning Thinker stage. I have place myself her for a few reasons. One being that I am still learning what exactly thinking is, since it is not what I thought. I am still in the process of developing a sense of intellectual confidence and being comfortable with it. I have started to recognize my problems with my thinking but am still learning how to solve the problems as I come across them. I am determined to focusing on finding the mistakes as I make them and correcting the ones I know how to and figuring out how to correct the one I am not comfortable with knowing how to correct. I am also finding it difficult to develop a systemic approach to improving my thinking. I am close to becoming a Practical Thinker but I feel that I need to become more confident in my thinking before I can place myself in that category.

Write a 150- to 200-word summary of your thinking. Describe critical thinking and reflect on your current stage of critical thinking and your identified strategies. Determine what you can do to develop stronger critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking is when one strives to improve basic thought. Critical thinking involves one to be self-guided and self-disciplined to be able to improve the critical thinking skills. My currant stage is in the beginner thinker stage. I feel that I am fairly close to being a practical thinker. Since the concept of critical thinking is still a new process to me I feel that being in the beginning is a good place to be. The strategies I identified for improvement are to use “wasted” time, a problem a day, deal with my egocentrism. Practicing these strategies daily should help me to develop my critical thinking skills. The only way to improve any skills is by practice. Once I feel that I am comfortable with the beginning thinker stage I can continue onto the practical thinking and continue to improve from there until I reach master thinker. Once I reach the final stage of critical thinking I will continue to practice my skills.