Critical thinking - Jennifer Moon

Jed Salmon
Nov 10, 2016
3 min read

Patchwork Essay Brief:

Critical thinking is the ability to consider a range of information derived from many different sources, to process this information in a creative and logical manner, challenging it, analysing it and arriving at considered conclusion which can be defended and justified. Its opposites are prejudice and the risk to judgement. Knowledge has to be constructed - and its meaning change with the context.
Critical thinking is the analysis of a situation based on facts – evidence – to be able to make a judgement or come to a conclusion, taking into account empathy culture and history
It is thinking about an issue or problem without allowing conventional limits, boundaries and conventions to restrict the generation of your analysis or solution.
It is the analysis of material, identifying weaknesses and strengths.
It is useful to think about what is not critical thinking. Most deﬁnitions of it are not coherent – they are bits and pieces that are not joined up. In an essay, students would be expected to join up the thinking. There are lots of ‘good’ words in the process.
Critical thinking is the questioning and assertion backed up with evidence. It involves not accepting everything as read but it is a process of asking why something is the way it is, working one’s way through a problem.
On both undergrad and postgraduate programmes the ability to think critically shows itself through a deep thought process. Instead of description, we pro- mote analysis. Instead of personal subjective views, we promote evaluation. Critical thinking is an argument which runs like a river through a piece of work and the tributaries join it as elements of evidence. We identify some of the differences, just pulling out some samples of each.

Design Work for Studio:

Critical thinking is to challenge a theory or an idea.
It’s a 3D thinking process – depth, breadth and time; being objective and not subjective; not a personal but being flexible to apply to others’ thoughts and theories.
Critical thinking is looking at one’s work or situation with value judgement – What did I do right or wrong? It is like criticizing oneself. It can also be applied to other peoples work – thinking where they are coming from; weather they are biased and weather they have a vested interest
Critical thinking is the thoughtful or meaningful consideration with contrasts with common sense.
It is the understanding of a problem and how of how to evaluate the problem in various situations
Critical thinking is trying to understand a subject, thinking about it, appreciating it, understanding the strengths and limitations of it and then developing a point of view on the subject.
Critical thinking is a deep thinking process which helps us to understand what may be right or wrong. It is analysing our past experiences and it helps us to resolve situations.
It is the kind of thinking that shows you have engaged in analysis and questioning rather than gut reaction. It requires looking at things from a variety of perspectives – that of either the thinker or others. It should probably be structured.

Precedents Blog Brief:

It is to develop your own argument, deconstructing ideas or synthesising a range of ideas associated with complex ideas. There may be different routes to the same conclusion or different conclusion to the same issues.
Critical thinking is the thinking strategically about something very important like a subject in an exam. We have to critically analysis it and justify our view in order to understand it in detail
Critical thinking is an analysis of one’s understanding of the subject from the view which may or may not be positive to the person concerned
It is a way of looking at things from very objective, analytical and differing points of view
It is the examining of evidence which may support or contradict. It is the exploring of contradictions – an active search to ﬁnd contrary points of view. It is the evaluation of both these contradictions and sources of evidence for their reliability, their validity and their durability, and the making of justiﬁable conclusions.
It is the evaluating of the work of writers of articles, journals or books and the use of serial sources of written information; comparing of ideas from different writings; questioning practice through theory; embedding thinking in the practice.