Figure 1. Don’t accept the things you read and hear as fact—use critical thinking to evaluate information and find out the whole story.

Critical thinking is one of those academic terms that is so hard to define. But in reality, critical thinking is not an abstract, academic skill irrelevant to the world outside the classroom. In fact, critical thinking is one of the most transferable skills – meaning connected to non-academic tasks and behaviors.

Think, for example, about attending college. Did anyone ever tell you that college wasn’t for you? Or that you wouldn’t get into this college? Or that a student like you (whatever that might have meant in your case) didn’t belong in college?

Unfortunately, this kind of negative energy is a reality of life. It’s so important to be able to think critically before deciding what to do with this kind of information.

Let’s use these questions, from our module, to analyze this negative information from our past.

1. What’s happening? Gather the basic information and begin to think of questions.
2. Why is it important? Ask yourself why it’s significant and whether or not you agree.
3. What don’t I see? Is there anything important missing?
4. How do I know? Ask yourself where the information came from and how it was constructed.
5. Who is saying it? What’s the position of the speaker and what is influencing them?
6. What else? What if? What other ideas exist and are there other possibilities?

For the sake of argument, let’s imagine that it was your grandfather who told you that you didn’t belong in college.

1. What? – he said you didn’t belong in college.
2. Why? – he’s your grandfather, what he says matters a lot to you, and college is important.
3. What don’t you see?  – there’s a lot you may not see or know about your grandfather, the conversations that he’s had with different people about you and college, the questions he has, and his own experience with college.
4. How do you know? – did you hear your grandfather say this directly or did your mother relay this information to you? How accurate was she? Did she have her own agenda in sharing this with you?
5. Who is saying it? – is your grandfather trying to protect you from failing? Is he reacting out of fear of the unknown? Does he worry that you might get into trouble in college? Is he worried about how the family will manage if you are busy with college? What is motivating your grandfather?
6. What else? – could this all be about something else? Is your family worried about how much college will cost? Are they worried about the particular school you chose? Are there other things going on in the family that are stressing everyone out and as a result they feel resistant to anyone trying something new (like college)?

As you can see, there’s a lot to think about and investigate. Instead of feeling crushed by your grandfather’s negative viewpoint, you might first stop and consider all the ways in which this might have nothing to do with you and your ability to succeed in college.

Using Your Critical Brain

Let’s try another scenario. You want to be a finance major. You are supposed to take the Introduction to Finance class this spring, but your friend says the professor who is teaching the class is really hard and you should put the class off until next spring. How can you use your critical thinking skills to consider this scenario?

1. What? What’s happened here?

Good. Your friend is warning you about a tough professor teaching a class that’s key for your major. This seems important.

2. Why is it important?

Well, if you take the class and do poorly, that could sabotage your just as you embark on your major.

3. What don’t you see?

Do you actually know how well you might do with this professor? How reliable is your friend in terms of his knowledge of the professor and his judgment in professors? Maybe he likes different things? Maybe he isn’t as good as you are at finance?

4. How do you know?

Your concerns about this professor are based on one person. Can you learn anything else about the reliability of your friend’s judgment here? Is he a finance major? Is his opinion based on personal experience or what he heard from other students? If he took the class, what grade did he get? Can you get other student opinions about this faculty member?

5. Who is saying it?

Maybe your friend wants to protect you, but maybe he’s concerned that you will want to work really hard and won’t be supportive of your joint social life? Is there anything else going on with him and his life you might want to consider? Is your friend trying to undermine your academic success, maybe because he’s feeling anxious about his academics (it happens)? Does he always give you advice about your classes? How reliable has he been in the past? Does your friend have a problem with certain professors (those who lecture, for example), while you don’t?

6. What else?

Is it okay to put this class off? Does anyone else at the school teach this class or will putting it off mean you just have to take it next semester or next year with the same tough professor? If you are proactive about this professor, can you still manage the class? What approaches have other finance majors taken?

Applying Critical Thinking Skills

The point of critical thinking is to rethink a situation in which you think you know all the questions and answers and reframe the scenario. When you do so, new questions and new answers emerge. You get a broader understanding, new insights, and usually more ways to think about the issues. Critical thinking may produce more uncertainty, and that’s okay.

Let’s try some simple examples to see if you can use your critical thinking skills.

Okay, those two practice questions were tricky, but they are extreme examples to point out the fact that we make assumptions all the time and fail to recognize the nuance and complexity in every situation. Let’s try a more common, more relevant example.