MSLD 500_Module 5_Activity 5.3_Critical thinking about Critical Thinking Blog_Reyes,Cassandra

Take some time to reflect on the current state of your critical thinking competencies. Consider your thinking processes when you started the course. Have they changed at all? Have you been able to internalize any of the techniques and concepts you have learned? What will it take to make lasting, positive changes in the way you think?

I believe that I have started to think more critically since starting this course. Prior to taking this class I didn’t think much about the way that I thought, why I would think that way or why I would make some of the decisions that I did. After reading the text and taking the critical thinking test, I started to think more about how my thought process affected the way that I would make future decisions and how past decisions that I have made would have been more effective if I would have put some thought into the way I was thinking.

After analyzing some of the ways critical thinking worked, I started to use some of the suggestions in the text to make my thinking more effective and useful for everyday decisions and interactions. One of the best pieces of information that I walked away with was to think about how I was thinking, how I came to my decisions and how I processed and understood the information that was being placed before me. This tactic allowed me to open my eyes to a whole new way of thinking.

When I asked myself why I thought the way I did and how I came to those conclusions, I sometimes didn’t have the best answer. I didn’t know why I may have thought the way that I did, until I started to analyze my experiences, the way that I grew up and the things that I was taught. It was then that I realized that my past experiences, had an overall influence on the way I processed information, and the way I would act or react in any future experiences I would come across.

I believe that from this point forward critical thinking is something that I am going to have to train myself to do. It does not come naturally to me to truly think of the way I am thinking. I must admit that sometimes the actions or decisions I make are based on emotion rather than logic. Sometimes it is much easier to react on the way something makes you feel than really asking if it is a logical decision or in your best interest at that point in time.

Now that I have obtained the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively use critical thinking to my advantage I believe that I am going to be able to think logically more often and analyze a decision in its entirety before actually making a decision on how I am going to move forward. I think this will help me make more judgments based on reason instead of sentiment. This will help me not only in my work environment and how I interact with my coworkers, boss and organization as a whole but also in my personal life, as my husband and I continue to grow with each other and enhance our relationship and will be able to raise our child with the same understanding and image of the morals we both entail.