Critical Thinking Skills for College Students

The critical thinking process is one of the most important components you can have as you begin your college journey, as well as throughout your time in college. However, I have found that most of my students lack these simple skills and the ability to do research properly eludes them. The caveat with critical thinking is creative thinking. The main reason for this association is that in order to think critically, one needs to be able to think creatively. For the purposes of this article, we are going to talk about the areas of critical thinking; collect information, analyze and clarify information, and evaluate information.

Gather information

First we are going to talk about information gathering and how we can use this tactic within a university environment. Information comes to us in raw form and we are bombarded every day with tons and tons of information. How do we decide what is legitimate information and what is secondary information? Especially in college, when you will learn about models and theories, as well as concepts and processes. Here are three tips to help you analyze effectively to gather information for a job or task.

· Make sure you are reviewing the assignment and understand the logistics and goals. If the document is going to have 10 pages and the topic is best careers out of college, then it had better be on that topic and at the 10 page mark, no less, no more. There is a reason there are parameters on paper.

· When you use the library or online databases, you will find a lot of relevant information, make sure you focus on what you want to achieve.

The recommendations would be to make sure you select 5-6 different careers and evaluate them all so that you have a deep understanding of each one and based on that information we can start to analyze and clarify the information.

analyze and clarify

Second, we’re going to analyze and clarify the information you’ve encountered during the first step of the critical thinking stages. Within this stage we will:

Divide the information into parts

Examine whether the examples support the ideas

Distinguish fact from opinion

This is where many students get into trouble with their papers. Students tend to see homework as a big picture assignment and this can overwhelm anyone. The goal here is to divide the paper into parts. In the example presented, we will have at least 5 to 6 races that you are going to discuss. Be sure to separate those ideas, compare and contrast, examine cause and effect, and look for patterns and themes. By really digging into your research, you’ll gain a deeper understanding and see how topics are related. Do all careers require a bachelor’s degree or do they only need an associate’s degree? A great way to compare and contrast information is to develop a chart so you have a reference to this information when you write your paper.

Next, we’ll see whether or not the examples support your ideas. Do the majors you have selected meet the requirements of the assignment? Should these have empirical evidence to support their topic sentences and theses? If they don’t support your ideas, then it’s time to start drawing and go back to the information gathering stage. Please note don’t cut or trim your research to support your ideas, there is plenty of information out there for you to find that will fully support your ideas, just do the research.

What is fact and what is opinion? This is an important area of ​​debate in the academic world. My personal recommendation to avoid most reviews is to use resources that are peer-reviewed and academic in nature. This will keep you away from wiki sites or anything that is just someone’s perspective and hasn’t been empirically tested.

Evaluate

The last step is to evaluate the information. You have collected and analyzed the material and tested it with examples and validity. Now is the time to assess whether an idea or piece of information is relevant to your job or task. If you decide that it is not a valid representation of your task, put it aside and continue working on your task. It’s like working on a resume, you have all your experiences and jobs listed, but you only want to include the data that is relevant to the particular job you want to apply for.

By following these simple critical thinking steps, you will have the upper hand when it comes to college research. Just keep in mind that research at any level isn’t easy, but it can be fun if you do it right and follow a systemic approach.