Critical Thinking: The Six Levels Of Thinking

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Human beings are amazing creatures. We all think—from the time we wake up to our dreams, our thinking processes is a constant machine. Yet, we are all different. Our thoughts makes us unique from each other and at most times it is what separates the successful and the average person. Every decision we make affects us. It is what makes us who we are and the quality of our thoughts reflects the quality of our lives. It is almost as if they are a mere reflection of each other. As we improve our thoughts, we become skillful in critical thinking, which is defined as “disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence ("Critical Thinking," 2003-2014).” This way of thinking is involves higher level of questions—questions…show more content…
According to Ellis and Toft, Chapter 1, Discovering Yourself, the first level of thinking is remembering. This level does not require creative thinking, just merely ask the question, “Can I recall the key terms, facts or events?” The next level is to show understanding by providing an example and summarizing information. Level three is to apply what we learn. It poses the question, “Can I use this idea to produce a desired result?” For example, we use what we recall and understand from our reading materials to produce this critical thinking paper. The next three levels involves more creativity with the information, leading us to our fourth level, analyzing. At this point, we adjust our thoughts and classify information to determine facts versus fiction. Then, as we move to the next level of evaluation, we question, “Can I rate the truth, usefulness, or quality of this idea—and give reasons for my rating?” This is where we are able to evaluate information to help us determine our ethical values, where each value fall into importance. The next level, creating, is where we ask ourselves, “Can I invent something new based on this idea?” (Ellis & Toft, 2015, "Chapter 1, Discovering Yourself"). As we improve our critical thinking ability, so thus our level of success. It becomes evident…show more content…
Our desires to implement and practice such ethical standards can influence our thinking and may hinder our better judgment preventing us from making reasonable decision. Therefore, we need to be objective. We live around people—in a community. Each of us have our set of expectations. As we come into groups, community standard which becomes the norm is set. This is where effective critical thinking becomes necessary when determining an acceptable behavior to serve the community as a whole. The ethical lens inventory assignment, thus serves its purpose to show us our preference in our decision making. According to University of Phoenix Ethical Lens Inventory (2014), I prefer the reputation lens where I use my “intuition (sensibility) to determine what character traits and virtues will best serve the community (equality).” This basically states that my choices are defined by the role I exemplify through key virtues that affects the well-being of the group, thus assures fair treatment. My virtues choices “tends to assume that everyone lives out the positive character traits required by their role (University of Phoenix, 2014).” This creates my blind spot of unrealistic role expectations. These thoughts creates the idea that we can solve all problems, not realizing that we are human beings who makes mistakes.

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