About Critical Thinking and Learning

About Critical Thinking and Learning

            What do you think Critical Thinking and Learning is ?  Well, to the best of my knowledge, it is the thinking process when we ask questions like --- what, where, when, who, whose, whom, which , why and how ----- in order to get the answer that can convince us.  Thus, analysing and assessing the information is a must to obtain the desired result.

            You definitely agree with “the concept of critical thinking expressed by Dr Linda Elder, the president of the Foundation for Critical Thinking and Dr Richard Paul, director of the Research Centre for Critical Thinking as:  The process of analysing and assessing thinking with a view to improve it.”   “As a result of analysing and assessing thinking”, you are enlightened or inspired to the new level of understanding and adjustment of your thinking for being more objective or universal in nature.  In other words, the process of analysing and evaluation of your thinking results in some changes or adjustment or “restructuring thinking”. 

            As an independent individual, you want to be in control of your life.  It is important to take charge of you thinking before you are in control of your life.  As “Thinking leads man to knowledge.  You may see, read and learn whatever you please but you will never know anything until that you have thought over that, which by thinking you have made the property of your own mind. ” (J. Pestalozzi, a Swiss humanitarian and educationalist)

            I can stress again one main fact that everything needs your careful thought.  That’s why it is emphasised again and again in your course-book, the importance of planning which definitely involves a lot of thinking, analysing, assessing and sorting work. 

            To let you have a clearer picture of what critical thinking is, here, I would like to elaborate with some examples.  Look, we are now living in an age of knowledge explosion and moral confusion.  How can you still stand firm with all the bombardment of different kinds of information and values?  It indeed needs your critical thinking to evaluate the information in order to ‘wield off’ undesirable elements. 

You know obesity/overweight has become a disease plaguing human being in the age of technology.  It was reported that 60% of Americans were obese.  Malaysians are not spared of this “pandemic” of being obese.  The number of people becoming obese seems to be increasing.  Hence “slimming” centres are booming everywhere.  There are lots of articles discussing this issue, too.   Some scientists attributed “genes” to be the culprit to the disease whereas some scientists asserted that lifestyles and diet were the influencing factors.

Well,  because of critical thinking, I, of course, did not take their words for granted.  I started looking around for evidence and proofs to test the claims of the scientists.  How much do genes play in a person’s weight gain.?  It, no doubt, is genes that makes a mouse different from an elephant; a cow different from a pig; a duck different from a chicken; a goat different from a giraffe ………………………..

I really think a pig grunts; a pig oints.  A pig is identified because of a thick layer of fat.  Of course, the lifestyle of a pig also contributes to the cause.  However, when I found that a wild boar which moves a lot also has a thick layer of fat though not as thick as a domesticated pig.  This is my observation and understanding that genes indeed plays a part.  If you see “fatless pork” or “pork too lean to be true ” in market, you should know what I mean.  Similarly, a cow “moos”.  A cow is supposed to eat grass.  If a cow eats processed food, you, indeed, need to lend your imagination beyond.  People say, “You are what you eat.”  Be aware !

 Other than that, I would say diet and lifestyle are the main contributing factors for the problem. Nowadays, many people face the common problem:  eating too much but not exercise as much.  No doubt, obesity has become an issue in the age of technology.  Due to critical thinking and analysing, I, have become more alert than ever before as far as food is concerned. 

I also face the weight problem.  I have to be very careful with the diet.  If I am indulgent in food, I gain weight steadily.  I know “slimming” centres won’t help me much if I don’t practise some discipline on food intake.  I make sure that I must have a balanced diet and enough exercise to maintain weight, if possible to reduce some weight.  In my case, I am certain that it is not gene.  It is food and lifestyle. 

Another interesting example I would to share with you is about frequent floods in Sibu.  Since 2001,  I started to look at the flood conditions critically and I realised two important facts that the poor drainage in Sibu and the siltation of the river have been the main causes of  floods.  Solving the problem of flooding in Sibu is to improve the drainage system and regular dredging of the river is required.  Besides, a long-term policy to reduce soil erosion and top-soil running off needed to be implemented.  Nothing much has been done to remedy the situation since the independent day.

Did you know that Malaysia has such a high rate of fatal road accidents?  It was reported that 50% of the road users were motorcyclists.  Do you think the road system is  motorcyclist-friendly?  Do you think there are enough safety measures to protect these “vulnerable” lots of road users?  Did you know motorcyclists have always ranked No. 1 in fatal road accidents?  Critical thinking, no doubt, foster you to gather information in order  to analyse and evaluate the situation before you make the judgement.  It helps you identify the cause, the truth and facts of the problems and thus solutions.

Thanks to the critical thinking skills that I ruled out landslide, broken bridge, building collapsing, ……………. to be God’s will.  I see the conditions to be the greed, indulgence and lust of the ministers and other heads in amassing wealth at the expense of product quality to be provided.  Critical thinking prevents you form being “led by the nose“ or follow blindly what people say.

Critical thinking and learning helps you in your studies, too.   Due to critical thinking and learning, I learn to group words into 8 categories and use them according to the function of each word form.  Hence, I know the difference between “complaint and complain; everyday and every day, practice and practise; advice and advise; ……….” and so on and so forth.  I have discovered many intriguing and interesting facts of the language. 

Due to critical thinking and learning, many great inventions happened.  In other words, no invention is possible without the critical thinking and learning process.  It is indeed true that you need to have “thought over” what “you may see, read and learn” to make the information a part of you or to get new ideas with the information that you have been exposed to.

            There are endless examples of the practicability and usefulness of applying critical thinking and learning in our personal and professional lives.