Colleen's Critical Thinking Exercise

Academic:
It would be easy and logical to state that I have employed critical thinking in all my of academic experiences, however, one stands out in particular due to how I believe it has improved my researching techniques. NCLC 202 Public Speaking and Critical Thinking required more than the deliberation of speeches as it focused on the importance of extensive research. One of the assigned speeches involved taking a topic of importance and devising a persuasive speech around the student's stance on the issue; I chose non-smoking laws in Virginia. I realized that in order to deliver an educated and influential speech, I would have to use critical thinking skills so that I could responsibly evaluate my sources, decipher between fact and assumptions, and decide whether my argument was accurate with the truth. I learned this process can be challenging, for example, it is easy to look only at the arguments which I typically agreed with, yet I learned that evaluating the opposition's arguments, enabled me to create a thorough and accurate speech that reflected my personal opinions. By the time of the presentations, I felt much more confident in my ability to deliver my persuasive speech knowing that my arguments were well-grounded in knowledge and truth.

Written:
A particular text that,I believe, epitomizes the concept of critical thinking, and has influenced my views of the competency is an article titled, "Critical Thinking: What it is and Why it Counts," by Peter A. Facione. In summary, Facione details six core skills that make up critical thinking: analysis, interpretation, self-regulation, inference, explanation, and evaluation. Each skill is vital to the process of critical thinking, as it forces people to go beyond the surface. I have been able to use these skills in my approach to critical thinking and I have found them useful in a variety of situations such as how I approach work, relationships and my academics. I have noticed that some of the skills such as analysis, inference and evaluation come naturally to me, whereas I struggle to improve my self-regulation skill, which deals with distinguishing between personal experiences versus collective facts. Overall, this particular article has assisted me through some of the challenges critical thinking can present.

Non-Written:
Although I can think of a variety of events, movies, etc. in which I saw an impeccable display of critical thinking, there's a particular exhibit that I will always remember due to its ability to force its visitors to use critical thinking. It has been some time since my last visit, but, the Holocaust Museum's shoe exhibit resonates the most with me. I choose this particular exhibit because of how it allows visitors to see so many connections between the victims who used to own those shoes, to people everywhere. Using shoes, a common possession forces visitors to place themselves into the position of the Holocaust victims. It also gave me an opportunity to think about how the Holocaust victims relate to many other people who lost and/or continue to lose their identities due to oppressive forces. I saw connections between Holocaust victims and millions across the continent of Africa, as well as, people who lived under Josef Stalin, and so forth. I will always remember how this exhibit allowed me to critically think about how so many people are connected in a variety of ways.

Works Cited:

Facione, Peter A. “Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts.” California Academic Press: Insight Assessment (2004): 1-17.