Critical Thinking

1) "Critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is used to describe thinking that is purposeful, reasoned and goal directed - the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions when the thinker is using skills that are thoughtful and effective for the particular context and type of thinking task. Critical thinking also involves evaluating the thinking process - the reasoning that went into the conclusion we've arrived at the kinds of factors considered in making a decision. Critical thinking is sometimes called directed thinking because it focuses on a desired outcome."
Halpern, Diane F. Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. 1996.

2) Critical thinking is "the examination and testing of suggested solutions to see whether they will work."
Lindzey, Hall, and Thompson, 1978.

3) Critical thinking is "the art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make your thinking better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible

I relate the most to the description of critical thinking that focuses on a favorable outcome. Most of what I do is in order to achieve a good outcome. The driving force behind my desire to right a good hypertext is so that I get a good grade in this class. I constantly look forward and do not learn things for the joy of learning them, but so that I can get a good grade and forget all of the information right after I take my final. Also what drives me is thinking about a nice, artistic, and polished final product. I start something so that I can be proud of the end product and I work hard to get there.

I also go through a great deal of testing while I am working on a project. I like to try out a lot of different thinks to see how they will fit with my final project. I am a huge believer in trial and error and I believe that in the end, all of the errors will improve the final result. The solutions that I try usually don’t work and I can get frustrated, but in the end all of the work was worth it when it all comes together. I went through a lot of trial and error on my second hypertext as far as the design of the web page and the different topics of the links. This helped me to see what would work the best and create a more effective hypertext.

The third description of the concept of critical thinking greatly describes my personal thinking methods. It is all about making yourself better so that you can better the product. I am constantly in my head thinking about improving myself and my work. In order to do this, I must improve the depth of my own critical thinking so that my writing will have greater analyses. It is important to have different approaches to thinking about a topic so that you can tackle it from many different angles and represent many possibilities.