In higher education, critical thinking doesn’t mean criticising or finding fault. Instead, it means thinking in depth about something and we can do this by asking lots of questions for example:
Why? Who? What? Where? When? How? What if? What next?
- Critical thinking is about taking nothing for granted; so when you’ve asked the question, then it is good practice to question the answer.
- Critical thinking is about examining arguments to see whether they are well-reasoned and logical (here an argument is not a disagreement but a reason or set of reasons which leads to a conclusion).
- Critical thinking also involves reading between the lines and looking for what is not being said as well as what is being made obvious.
- Most of all, critical thinking is about keeping an open mind and being prepared to question your own points of view and understanding alternative ones.