14 November 2007

Critical Thinking of Travis Lee

All along our scholarly career, we are on the constant journey to find the “right answer”. In essays, we are looking for the right response and the right formula of sources and examples. Even though some teachers encourage students that there is no “right answer” answer in some cases, we still look. The engineering side of me agrees with Halpren when she says that critical thinking is ‘the use of those skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome.’ I am constantly acquiring new skills and problem solving abilities in my studies of math, physics, and other sciences. I use these skills to solve new, harder problems. In my hypertext, I am acquiring many new skills and I use them to try and solve things to a standard.

In research for the hypertext, you have to do a lot of “judgment” on the scholar or author’s writing. You can’t take every piece of evidence or opinion as the Word of God. Moore and Parker illustrate that in their definition of critical thinking as the “determination of whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgment.’

Putting both these definitions, Lindzey, Hall, and Thompson define critical thinking as the ‘examination and testifying of suggested solutions to see whether they will work.’ In the formulation of the hypertext, I have to go over pages time and time again to see whether the pictures/text are relevant or whether the format of the page works for future viewers. It’s a guess-and-check process that I use to find Halpren’s ‘probability of a desirable outcome.’

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