Арынгазиева Айнур Абдуалиевна

Казахстан Шымкент

Академический инновационный университет

Кафедра инностранных языков

IMPROVEMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking is a form of judgment, specifically purposeful and reflective judgment. Using critical thinking one makes a decision or solves the problem of judging what to believe or what to do, but does so in a reflective way. That is by giving due consideration to the evidence, the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making that judgment well, the applicable methods or techniques for forming that judgment, and the applicable theoretical and constructs for understanding the nature of the problem and the question at hand. These elements also happen to be the key defining characteristics of professional fields and academic disciplines. This is why critical thinking can occur within a given subject field and across subject fields in all those spaces where human beings need to interact and make decisions, solve problems, and figure out what to believe and what to do. A useful, brief, and highly readable explanation of the concept of critical thinking, its skills and dispositional dimensions, its relationship to cognitive science, and its practical value in life and learning can be found in the free on-line resource: “Critical Thinking: What It is and Why It Counts”. Critical thinking consists of mental processes of discernment, analysis and evaluation. It includes all possible processes of reflecting upon a tangible or intangible item in order to form a solid judgment that reconciles scientific evidence with common sense. Critical thinking is useful only in those situations where human beings need to solve problems, make decisions, or decide in a reasonable and reflective way what to believe or what to do. That is, just about everywhere and all the time. Critical thinking is important wherever the quality of human thinking significantly impacts the quality of life. For example, success in human life is tied to success in learning. At the same time, every phase in the learning process is tied to critical thinking.

Thus, reading, writing, speaking, and listening can all be done critically or uncritically. Critical thinking is crucial to becoming a close reader and a substantive writer. Expressed most generally, critical thinking is “a way of taking up the problems of life.”

Irrespective of the sphere of thought, “a well cultivated critical thinker”:

· raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;

· gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively

· comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;

· thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences;

· communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.

Critical thinkers may have both necessary affective dispositions, such as honesty, open-mindedness, and flexibility, and a set of cognitive skills, comprised of “interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation”. While a questionnaire project has the potential in increase all of these cognitive strength, in our case interpretation and self- regulation were the skills most utilized by the students, and so they are discussed in more detail below.

Interpretation skills defines interpretation as comprehending and expressing the meaning the meaning of a variety of input, such as experience, data, beliefs, and rules. Two sub-skills he proposes for successful interpretation are categorizing information, which is especially relevant in the context of survey interpretation, since grouping similar ideas together is essential for formatting a questionnaire that will generate useful data, and clarifying meaning, which also has a role to play in that it is vital for researchers to be able to analyze their questions for biased or leading language.

Self-regulation skill. Self-regulation takes on a more global significance in the critical thinking process. In our context, it is also an indispensable part of the learning process for students as they review and revise their questionnaires and results. Students need to be able to use critical thinking to solve problems. Managing projects based on real-world experience also requires teachers to guide students and act as recourse to help them consider innovative ways of thinking about problems and attempting to solve them. The aim is to first come up with many ideas about limitations, and then to look at the feasibility of the ideas. Encouragement and feedback from the teacher sends a positive message about freely contributing ideas during brainstorming, as initially there are no “correct” ideas. Especially in learning environments where Critical Learning Thinking is not the norm, this might require active facilitation by the teacher to get the process started. Another way the teacher can facilitate brainstorming is by collaborating with students as they decide the composition of their groups. Students who demonstrate as a “critical spirit” are likely to connect well with brainstorming; they are the ones who ask questions such as “Why?” and “How?” and “What happens if?” These types of natural critical thinkers should be distributed among the groups because they have the potential to promote creative thinking among their classmates in a way that the teachers cannot. Critical thinking is useful only in those situations where human beings need to solve problems, make decisions, or decide in a reasonable and reflective way what to believe or what to do. That is, just about everywhere and all the time. Critical thinking is important wherever the quality of human thinking significantly impacts the quality of life. Thus, reading, writing, speaking, and listening can all be done critically or uncritically. Critical thinking is crucial to becoming a close reader and a substantive writer. Expressed most generally, critical thinking is about being both willing and able to think. Ideally one develops critical thinking skills and at the time the disposition to use those skills to solve problems and form good judgments. Critical thinking may be distinguished, but not separated, from emotions, desires, and traits of mind. Failure to recognize the relationship between thinking, feeling, wanting, and traits of mind can easily lead to various forms of self-deception, both individually and collectively. When persons possess intellectual skills alone, without the intellectual traits of mind, weak sense critical thinking results. Fair-minded or strong sense critical thinking requires intellectual humility, empathy, integrity, perseverance, courage, autonomy, confidence in reason, and other intellectual traits.

The following are some attempts to define critical thinking:

· The ability to analyze facts, generate and organize ideas, defend opinions, make comparisons, draw inferences, evaluate arguments and solve problems

· a way of reasoning t

· hat demands adequate support for one’s beliefs and an unwillingness to be persuaded unless support is forthcoming

· involving analytical thinking for the purpose of evaluating what is read

· a conscious and deliberate process which is used to interpret or evaluate information and experiences with a set of reflective attitudes and abilities that guide thoughtful beliefs and actions.

· Active, systemic process of understanding and evaluating arguments. An argument provides an assertion about the properties of some object or the relationship between two or more objects and evidence to support or refute the assertion.

Bibliography

1. Kittle, Ray. CLEAR THINKING FOR COMPOSITION. 5th ed. New York: Random House, l986.

2.Laser, Donald. COMPOSITION FOR CRITICAL THINKING: A COURSE DESCRIPTION. Rohnert Park, CA: Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, Sonoma State University, l986.

3.Lunsford, Andrea. " The Content of Basic Writers' Essays." COLLEGE COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION 3l l980.