Improving Critical Thinking Skills PDF

How to Improve the Critical Thinking Skills? Lecture (8) LS120 — Fall 2023 Dr. Halima Daw Buni Assistance Professor in Community Medicine By the end of this lecture, students will be able to: 1. Define critical thinking and why its needed in medical education 2. Recognise how critical thinking can h...

How to Improve the Critical Thinking Skills? Lecture (8) LS120 — Fall 2023 Dr. Halima Daw Buni Assistance Professor in Community Medicine By the end of this lecture, students will be able to: 1. Define critical thinking and why its needed in medical education 2. Recognise how critical thinking can help medical students 3. Describe the most important critical thinking skills 4. Understand the steps to improve the critical thinking How did we define Critical Thinking in the last lecture? Critical thinking is defined as “the ability to identify and analyze problems as well as seek and evaluate relevant information to reach an appropriate conclusion”. In a medical college, medical students need to identify their own learning needs and take control of them as self-directed learners. This approach enhance their problem-solving ability and critical thinking skills, which is considered to be the strong determinant for any good medical practitioner. Critical thinking helps medical students and healthcare professionals in the following ways:  Get higher grades  Brings in innovation through creativity  Develops confidence  Understand the subjects better  Succeed in one’s career  Avoid medical/clinical errors  Identify better alternate options for diagnosis and treatment  Increases productivity  Better clinical decision making  Work in resource limited settings  Quality thinking and quality work output  Learn throughout the life What are the main critical thinking skills we have discussed in the last lecture? Critical thinking isn’t something you can take a class to learn. Rather, this skill consists of a variety of interpersonal and analytical skills. The eight most important critical thinking skills are: 1. Analytical thinking: Part of critical thinking is evaluating data from multiple sources in order to come to the best conclusions. 2. Open-mindedness: This critical thinking skill helps you analyze and process information to come to an unbiased conclusion based on all of the information. 3. Problem-solving: When used correctly, critical thinking helps you solve any problem—from study challenges to difficulties in workplaces. The most important critical thinking skills: cont’d… 4. Self-regulation: Self-regulation refers to the ability to regulate your thoughts and set aside any personal biases to come to the best evidence-based conclusion. 5. Observation: Observation skills help critical thinkers to look for things from multiple points of view, and use observation skills to identify potential problems. 6. Interpretation: Not all data is made equal—and critical thinkers know this. In addition to gathering information, it’s important to evaluate which information is important and relevant to your situation. The most important critical thinking skills: cont’d… 7. Evaluation: When you attempt to answer a hard question, there is rarely an obvious answer. Even though critical thinking emphasizes putting your biases aside, you need to be able to confidently make a decision based on the available data. 8. Communication: Once a decision has been made, you also need to share this decision with other students and/0r teacher. Health professionals use critical thinking skills when they reflect on knowledge derived from other interdisciplinary subject areas in order to provide a holistic health care to their patients: 1. Always assess new information with a cautious eye. Good questions to ask here include, "Is this information complete and up to date?” “What evidence is being presented to support the argument?” and “Whose voice is missing here?” 2. Look at where the information has come from. Is the source trustworthy? What is their motivation for presenting this information? For example, are they trying to sell you something? 3. Consider more than one point of view. Everyone has their own opinions and motivations –So, when someone presents you with information, consider whether there are other sides to the story. 4. Practice active listening. Listen carefully to what others are telling you, and try to build a clear picture of their perspective. Try to listen without judgment – remember, critical thinking is about keeping an open mind. 5. Gather additional information where needed. Whenever you identify gaps in the information or data, do your own research to fill those gaps. The next few steps will help you do this objectively… 6. Ask lots of open-ended questions. Curiosity is a key of critical thinkers, so ask lots of "who," "what," and "why" questions. Steps to improve the critical thinking skills: cont’d… 7. Find your own reputable sources of evidence. Also, be sure to check when the information was published. An older source may be unintentionally offering up wrong information just because events have moved on since it was published; corroborate the info with a more recent source. 8. Try not to get your information from social media. And if you do see something on social media that grabs your interest, check its accuracy (via reputable sources of information, as above). 9. Learn to spot fake information. It's not always easy to spot false or misleading content, but a good rule of thumb is to, look at the sources of facts, figures, images, and quotes. Steps to improve the critical thinking skills: cont’d… 10. Learn to spot biased information. Like fake information, biased information may seek to present a limited view of the topic. So ask yourself, “Is there more to this topic than what’s being presented here?” Do your own reading around the topic to establish the full picture. 11. Question your own biases, too. Everyone has biases, and there’s no point pretending otherwise. The trick is to think objectively about your preferences, and beliefs, and consider how these might affect your thinking. 12. Form your own opinions. Remember, critical thinking is about thinking independently. So once you’ve assessed all the information, form your own logical evidence-based conclusions. 13. Continue to work on your critical thinking skills. Try looking at online learning platforms for courses on general critical thinking skills, and courses on specific subjects like cognitive biases. 1. Accelerated learning skills for students, Joe Mccullough 2. ABC of learning and teaching in medicine. Peter Cantillon, Linda Hutchinson, and Diana Wood. 2003, bmj publishing group 3. Problem based learning in medicine, Tim David, Leena Patel, Leith Burdett, Patangi Rangachari. 1st edition. 4. Make it stick, Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel. 5. How we learn, Benedict Carey. 6. ‫ سالم علي الغرابية‬,‫مهارات التفكير وأساليب التعلم‬ 7. ‫ هشام سعيد الحالق‬,‫ مهارات تستحق التعلم‬,‫التفكير اإلبداعي‬ 8. ‫ محمد أحمد غزالة‬,‫ أحمد حسن القواسمة‬,‫تنمية مهارات التعلم والتفكير والبحث العلمي‬ Dr. Halima Buni Q1: What is the definition of learning? (1 mark) Q2: Mention 2 learning strategies used by kinaesthetic learners? (1 mark)