Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving

Introduction

decorative imageThinking critically and creatively will help you not only with academic work, but also in everyday work and activities.  For example, an academic assignment might ask you to research and analyze the effects of multitasking, referencing emerging brain science, and offer creative solutions to accomplishing work without multitasking.  A life problem may deal with getting positive results from a company with bad customer service, a company that you perceive is avoiding an issue with you as a customer.  Addressing these situations involves some conscious application of thinking skills.  The readings and activities on this page (Critical Thinking) and the next (Critical, Lateral, and Creative Thinking) are designed to help you become more a more conscious problem-solver and more informed decision-maker.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrected. In other words, it is a thought process that involves the evaluation, assessment, and reinterpretation of your own or others’ ideas and thought processes. Critical thinking requires effort and dedication, but pays dividends for the time invested.

Critical thinking comes into play in a wide variety of circumstances. As a citizen of a democracy, it is important to think critically and do background research each time an election is coming up or when there is a news story about which you want to be more informed. As a student, you want to think critically about near term options, such as what courses to take, and longer term decisions, such as how to plan your degree and whether the degree you’re planning should be directed toward current employment, future employment, or your own academic interest that may or may not be related to a current or potential career.

Critical thinking involves analysis, or breaking something (a concept, an argument, a piece of information) down into its parts in order to understand and evaluate it, as a prelude to accepting or rejecting it.  You’re expected to think critically when you’re asked to analyze an article for a college assignment, for example, and offer your own opinion on its validity.  You also think critically when you analyze real-life situations such as moving your residence, changing jobs, or buying a car.

View the following videos on critical thinking, which further define the concept and offer some steps to apply in order to think critically and solve problems.

What are the key concepts of this video?

What examples do you have of the following?

  • creating your own solution to an unexpected problem
  • using pros and cons to make a decision
  • making assumptions about a person
  • unthinkingly applying a bias

The first two concepts often have positive outcomes, while the last two concepts may result in negative outcomes. Most likely you will have done all four of these things subconsciously in the workplace or other situations.

This video offers one (of many) ways to consider something critically:

  • formulate your question
  • gather your information
  • apply the information (consider biases, assumptions)
  • consider the implications
  • explore other points of view

Both videos emphasize the need to consider a question, problem, action, or issue consciously and planfully, breaking it into its parts and considering the parts, before putting them back together with a reasoned solution or multiple potential, reasoned solutions.

Just for fun, here’s a short video on assumptions, a concept related to critical thinking.

initial learning activity

First, read and view information on the Lateral & Creative Thinking page of this text.

Then, write a brief essay (4-5 pages) applying critical, lateral, and creative thinking skills to the solution of a real problem. Use the following format:

  1. Identify a problem at work or with a community group, or any group or situation in which you are involved (family, friends, daily commuters on the same bus, etc.).  In a few paragraphs, explain the problem.
  2. In another few paragraphs, analyze the problem.  What are the component parts of the problem? Are there inherent assumptions and/or biases involved?
  3. In another few paragraphs, offer some possible solutions that you can identify immediately and logically.  Identify and discuss the pros and cons of each immediate and logical solution.
  4. Then, try to think differently about the problem by applying lateral and creative approaches. You may want to identify the positives, negatives, and interesting aspects of the problem.  You may want to consider solutions that could only happen “in your wildest dreams.”  Brainstorm, and/or create a persona and ask yourself “how would X approach this problem?” Apply these and techniques suggested by the article and videos to posit at least one or more different solutions to the problem. Explain these different solutions in another few paragraphs, and posit what would need to be in place in order to enact this more creative solution.
  5. Conclude by reflecting on this exercise in a final few paragraphs.  What did you learn about your own thought processes by completing this activity?  How might you apply what you learned to your academic studies?

Submit: essay applying thinking skills

 

in-depth learning activity

First, read and view information on the Lateral & Creative Thinking page of this text.

Then, read the publication, Robot-Ready: Human + Skills for the Future of Work. (You may have read excerpts from this in other sections of this text.)

The authors of Robot-Ready assert a number of things, including that:

  • Human skills will be more valued in the workplace of the future.
  • Human skills are often best taught through liberal arts courses in college.
  • Educators and employers do not yet have a common language for discussing the same skill sets.
  • Education needs to become more problem-based in order to help develop the “both/and” that will be required in the workplace of the future (both technical knowledge and human skills).

Consider these assertions critically.  Do you accept the evidence provided?  What assumptions, if any, are inherent in the information? What biases, if any, are inherent in the information?  Is there enough data to back up the assertion, and is that data valid?

Then choose one assertion that you feel is sound, based on your analysis.  Apply critical (and lateral and creative) thinking processes to problem-solve and project a way of enacting the concept asserted.  For example:

  • How might you propose teaching one of the human skills in the workplace?
  • How can a liberal arts college course be more obvious in its focus on human skills so that students get a sense of the real-world application of learning gained from that course?
  • How might you propose that employers and educators collaborate?
  • Consider a college course you already completed, one in which you learned what the authors of Robot-Ready would consider “technical knowledge.”  How might you revise a learning activity in the course to make it more problem-based?

Submit:

  • your analysis
  • your problem-solving proposal for enacting one of the concepts asserted

Related college Learning Goals

Active Learning: Assess and build upon previous learning and experiences to pursue new learning, independently and in collaboration with others.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Evaluate, analyze, synthesize and critique key concepts and experiences, and apply diverse perspectives to find creative solutions to problems concerning human behavior, society and the natural world.

 

For more information, see the College Learning Goals Policy.