Critical Thinking Application Paper

Critical thinking refers to good thinking and is connected with rationality and the appeal to reason ((1996). Critical thinking. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/routpe/critical_thinking) Critical thinking can also can be defined as ""Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them" (Paul & Elder, 2001, p. xx). Critical thinking in itself is a hard process that requires some plateaus of learning and is just hard work to do. To become a critical thinking it does involve a long thought process and something that cannot be developed over night. "Critical thinkers learn how to strip off surface language and consider alternative ways to talk and think about things" (Paul & Elder, 2001). Also, as a critical thinker they learn how to recognize certain ideas who are controlled by social rituals, social expectations and taboos. To be a critical thinker one also needs to be able to evaluate their own reasoning. We also need to take apart our own thinking and look at the parts in regard to the respect to the standards of quality.

There are certain stages that one must go through to become a critical thinker. Stage one would be that of an unreflective thinker who are basically unaware of any major problems in their thinking. Stage two is that of the challenged thinker who becomes aware of the problems in their thinking. Stage three is that of the beginning thinker who tries to find ways to improve but doesn't have much practice. Stage four is that of the practicing thinker who recognizes that practice is needed. Stage five is that of the advanced thinker who advances in accordance to the amount of practice performed. The last and final stage is stage six, which is that of a master thinker who is skilled and insightful and in which thinking becomes second nature to them. Working as a critical thinker is especially important in an organization. In my current organization being a critical thinker is needed daily. I work in the oil and gas industry and we have to make sure that all of our numbers for our acreages are accurate so that we know exactly how much land that we would like to lease. We also have to make sure that when we are studying some of our wells that we are accurate regarding how many barrels of oil we are dealing with because there is not a margin for error. People seem to work well within our organization because when there is a problem we do tend to ask questions. There have been several occasions when we have been assigned a certain project with a given timeline, which requires some critical thinking and some researching to come up with the correct answer for the problem.

In conclusion critical thinking is a very important part of your everyday life when dealing