[MUSIC] Two things that are really important in critical thinking are mindset and attitude. Mindset is important because you want to have a mindset of curiosity. The way you ask questions and inquire can have two approaches. One is the curious approach, which is, why does this happen, why are things the way they are? And there's a negative or criticizing approach, which is, why is this the way it is? This shouldn't be the way it is. The second approach, really, holds you in the problem. In fact, you become the prisoner of the problem, and become closed to finding creative ways to solve these problems. Whereas the curious approach actually opens you to possibilities to problem solving and creativity. So it's really important that attitude and mindset are established before you even approach a problem, in order to effectively solve the problem. >> There is definitely a strong component of mental cognition, especially in acquiring self-awareness of critical thinking. Like I said, we are all applying critical thinking at one level or another. But becoming self-aware of how you are doing it, becoming also self-aware of more effective methods of achieving critical thinking. That's fundamental, then, to embrace a much more formal approach and become much more skillful. And I think at the end of the day, with the students, is to make themselves comfortable in that space, thinking about problems and establishing these connections, and being systematic about it. What I mean by being systematic when you approach critical thinking is try to identify in advance the elements that are taking place in a critical thinking. Techniques, preparations, and by elements what I mean could be data sources, it could be reasoning techniques. It could even go all the way down to a specific requirement or a specific suggestions, like concept maps. Establishing written relationships between concepts, summarizing some texts. So, acquiring this type of catalog or portfolio of techniques, that you can relate to them very quickly. Rather than learning the techniques when we need to do critical thinking, ti's more like getting used to them. And then, as a new scenario arises, the students are much more comfortable saying, yes, I think I need to sketch some ideas first. I need to go and identify these elements in a bit deeper. I need to draw some connection between these concepts. And they have these techniques at a much more surface-level type of reachable. They are reachable at the surface-level, rather than learning about it on the spot. >> For me, being critically minded has always meant being quite humble. Recognizing that you're one person with one set of ideas at one point in history, and to be mindful that you can be wrong. You can be biased, and that is okay, but you can learn a lot from that. I think one value that's really important is curiosity. Having that desire to continually find out more about the world you live in, different perspective, different attitudes, different data. So that we're not just reliant on what we grew up with, or what we just learned. I think another value that's really important is recognizing that we are fallible, that our ideas, our assumptions and knowledge we've grown up with may not always be right. Another value that's important to being a critical thinker is creativity. It's not just about knowing things or challenging things but connecting the dots. And sometimes in connecting the dots, we have to make a creative leap in logic, in thought, in ideas. And I think that's really exciting. >> And my interpretation is the ability to switch on certain types of thinking. And to consciously control the way you're using information, the way you're responding to ideas of other people. And the way you consciously control your own communication on a topic. So, one example of this is a student who might receive feedback on an essay saying, what's the point of this comment, or a question mark next to a quote that you've used. And the student might be thinking, well, the quotes make sense to me. I know why I'm using it, but it wasn't communicated effectively within that particular paragraph. So, a habit of mine could kick in where the student interprets that feedback as the need to express more clearly the reason that point was introduced. Or the reason that quote was used in the paragraph. And with critical thinking, that habit might even then be refined to the level of asking questions such as, do I need to explain? Do I need to describe? Do I need to interpret, evaluate? How do I use the information more effectively for what my reader clearly expected but didn't get? Or what my argument needs and I didn't deliver at that point? [MUSIC]
