Difference Between Critical Thinking And Thinking

Submitted By laschmittel
Words: 370
Pages: 2

Essay Paper Explaining the Difference between Thinking and Critical Thinking (APA) Style

What is thinking? Thinking refers to any mental activity, it can be “mindless,” in fact we think constantly and sometimes we don’t even realize that we are thinking, for example when we are eating or drinking our mind is thinking about what it needs to do, then we automatically do it. We do not need to learn how to think, we are born with it.

What is critical thinking? Paul and Elder (2001) describe critical thinking as “the art of thinking about thinking.” Critical thinking is a controlled, purposeful, and strategic type of thinking. Critical thinking requires you to personalize information so you can analyze It instead of simply memorizing the information. Critical thinking is a very deep and complex way of thinking, and a lot of it is learned by experience. Critical thinking is “the process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment … the cognitive engine that drives problem solving and decision making.” Critical thinking is “knowing how to focus your thinking to get the results you need ( includes intuitive, logical and creative thinking.)

What critical thinking means to me is that you have to pick your thoughts and situations apart piece by piece; like an ice pick, picking ice apart; and analyze every part of it until you come up with the