The Six Types And Consequences Of Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the usage of knowledge and data to effectively solve problems and make decisions in life. Thinking critically allows us to distinguish nonsense information, promotes thorough thinking and communication skills, and the revelation of long-term consequences. There are six types of thinking as stated by psychologist Benjamin Bloom: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. These are ranked from the lower to higher levels of thinking. It’s said that all levels of thinking are important but the lower levels are constrained more (finding one “right” answer) whereas the higher levels you get the freedom to express your own solution/find several answers. To move from one type of thinking to the next,

Critical thinking skills that I currently demonstrate is remembering, understanding, applying, and analyzing.
Remembering is the cornerstone to thinking being that you must first know information before you can make a decision/ think critically. I use this skill by getting the information that is relevant and important. For example, in class I obtain the notes (facts, terms, charts, or etc.) in a variety of ways such as writing, illustrating, or demonstrating verbally. This is key in order to transition to the other levels because you need a foundation of knowledge before you can move into the higher levels. This critical thinking skill also helps when making decisions. An example would be in regard to deciding which college to attend. It’s key to have a background knowledge of the different college options. The information needed would

This skill offers you the ability to comprehend/interpret what the information means. I mainly use this skill in classes and when making a decision. An example is when I take notes in class. I first have to write down the information and then I can start rewriting it in my own words for better understanding. Taking notes doesn’t help you fully comprehend the information because it may be phrased with complex words or in a way that you don’t understand. So I usually search up terms that I’m unfamiliar with and rewrite the notes in a way that makes sense to me. This will improve my comprehension on the information and I can better explain it on a test because it’ll be based on my clarity/perspective of the topic. For example, if I were to take notes on hepatitis which is “a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver” as stated by WebMD, I can thus restate this to “hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver” to better fit my understanding. This makes the definition easier to remember and comprehend. Another example pertains to my Latin class. As said above, I took notes on the Golden rules, vocabulary terms, noun cases, and verb endings. I took those notes and put them into charts for easier readability. Since the notes were in my own words, I could understand the information better. A further strategy to improve comprehension on the notes/material is to practice with the information. I usually received