Go the following website "FIVE HABITS OF A CRITICAL THINKER" (click on the link). Read the article. Identify the skill you think is the most important. Then reflect on the list of five in regards to your own thinking. Do you practice critical thinking? Do you think that there should be other habits on this list of 5? Which trait do you think is the hardest to do? Which trait do you think is the easiest to do? Why? Give some real thought and reflection.
Then read other students reflections and respond to one that you agree with and one you disagree with and explain why you agree/disagree with them.
Johnathan D.
10/15/2014 04:57:21 am
Tabitha
10/15/2014 07:49:52 am
John I disagree with you on number 2 being the easiest. I think it is one of the hardest. People don’t usually know their hot buttons, and just because someone is lazy or takes the short way out doesn’t mean their how buttons are easy to find or know about. I also disagree with you on number 5 being the hardest. Yes there are a lot of steps and categories, but if you know the main ones then you should be fine. We learned how to do number 5 when we where little by our parents making use think over how to tie our shoes or spell our names, so number 5 should be like second nature to us.
Devon Caruso
10/15/2014 12:50:40 pm
John, I agree with your statement that critical thinking is hard to master but I don’t think it is the hardest of these traits. In my opinion I think admitting when you are wrong is hardest. This can be because when you get in an argument you don’t want to admit when you are wrong because you think you will look like a fool.
Spencer
10/16/2014 12:52:16 pm
John, I agree with what you said about the 1st habit in the list being the hardest where you said “you hate being wrong let alone admitting you are wrong”. I also hate to admit when I am wrong about something especially when it is a really stupid mistake that I should have known better.
John. D
10/17/2014 05:16:19 am
That is exactly how I think, and thanks for a positive comment.
Ryan
10/17/2014 08:23:51 am
John, I disagree with your statement that number 2 is the easiest. A lot of people are not very good at articulating their ideas. Some people also just don’t like to talk in front of a crowd of people and so it is not easy for them to make their ideas known.
Tabitha
10/15/2014 07:38:46 am
I think skill number 3 is the most important. I think that these are good traits. I practice critical thinking most of the time. When I don’t it’s because I can’t think right at that moment or I’m just having fun with friends and don’t have to think critically. I think that there should be organization on the list as well. If you are organized then you don’t have to spend all your time looking for something and waist your brainpower and you can find facts that support what you are thinking and saying. Organization helps with critical thinking in my opinion. I think the hardest trait to do would be to admit you don’t know something. If you say you don’t know something and other people do then those other people will ask you how you don’t know that and make you feel dumb or like you don’t belong there. I think the easiest trait to do would be number 5. All it says to do is to think over everything and spend more time thinking over everything. If you just spend 10 extra minutes on your home work to check it over and think about how you got that answer, then you might catch some of the mistakes and you can rectify them and get a better grade.
Devon Caruso
10/15/2014 12:46:34 pm
Tabitha I agree with you that organization should be in the list. Being organized is a great trait to have and when you are organized it is ten easier to find stuff. I also agree with you saying that admitting your wrong is the hardest. In my opinion I think this is most important and I think I need to get better at it myself.
Spencer
10/16/2014 12:27:14 pm
Tabitha, I disagree with what you said in your post about how organization should be on the list. Yes I do think that it’s a good trait to have and many critical thinkers are very organized people but that does not necessarily mean that all organized people are critical thinkers. Please respond back.
Tabitha
10/17/2014 12:37:57 am
Spencer, I think that organization is very important in critical thinking. If you are organized chances are your thoughts are organized as well, and an organized brain helps with critical thinking. You can answer questions faster and more accurately with and organized brain that you can with a disorganized brain. Organization is very much involved with critical thinking.
Ashton
10/16/2014 02:30:07 pm
Tabitha I disagree on you when you say that number 3 is the most important. Granted that it is a very important trait people should make a habit of but in my opinion I think it is able to admit something if you don’t know it. Cause in those situations you can get clarified on things a bit better than just being organized.
Brandon Bartels
10/17/2014 11:16:12 am
I think adding organization to the list is a great idea. Something definitely had to be added, but I wasn’t sure what that was. Organization is very important to me and it helps people think clearly. If you are thinking clearly, then it is much easier to be a critical thinker than if you are disorganized.
David
10/17/2014 12:32:08 pm
Tabitha, i strongly agree that number three is the most important of skills. For if we were never to see the others point of view, the world would not be able to discover the truth, they would all just argue over who was right or who was wrong, and perhaps we would not be as advanced as a civilization.
Devon Caruso
10/15/2014 01:17:47 pm
The skill I think is most important out of these five is if you don't know something, admit it. In my opinion my thinking is like this because I think you should admit when you are wrong and I also think it is important to acknowledge your hot buttons because if you don’t then you could blow your lid and attack somebody, where as when you acknowledge your hot buttons this won’t happen. I also think it is seek to understand other peoples' points of view because they could give you info that could help you elaborate off of others ideas. It is also important to trust and verify because you don’t want to just blindly accept something without doing research to make sure that it is true. Finally I don’t agree with the last of the list, always remember the importance of critical thinking as it relates to your education, although it is an important thing to practice I believe that organization should be on it instead. I think this because in my opinion it is ten times easier to find something if you are organized and know where your stuff is. Next I myself do not practice critical thinking although I think it is important like I said I think organization should fill its place. Like I have said many times before I think organization should be on the list. The trait that I think is hardest to do is admitting when you are wrong. I myself can’t even do this at times. In my opinion I think it’s because when I’m in an argument I later realize I’m wrong and I don’t want to admit it because I’ll look like a fool. Now all of these traits are hard to do, but the easiest to me is to trust and verify. I truly think this is the easiest because it isn’t that hard to do research to make sure they are right. You can even ask several others to make sure or verify that they are correct
John D.
10/16/2014 05:27:17 am
I agree it sucks admitting that your wrong and it is a very important skill, but.... I still think that the most important skill is being able to see and here things from multiple sources and not take sides. That being said I think they are all pretty equal in importance.
Chance Robison
10/16/2014 11:38:43 am
Devon, I agree with what you chose as the most important skill. This skill is the easiest and most helpful, mainly because it will help you understand what you didn’t know. All in all I agree with your DQ response, you made very good points and supported what you said. Even though it sucks to have to admit your wrong, it can be very beneficial for you.
Tabitha
10/17/2014 12:46:45 am
Devon, I agree with you on the fact that organization should be on the list. I also agree with you that if you don’t find your how buttons that you could hurt yourself or someone around you. I also agree that admitting when your wrong is very important. It is a trait that will become very useful in later life. I myself do not like to admit it when I’m wrong but when I do I feel better knowing I did the right thing and I make the other person feel better because I admitted I was wrong.
Oscar M
10/17/2014 08:12:01 am
Devon, I disagree with the skill you think is most important. You posted that you thought admitting your wrong was the most valuable skill, but I think it’s not. I think the most important skill is trusting and verifying. I think that because knowing your wrong will eventually come to you because you’re going to be wrong plenty of times in life. You will start to acknowledge it.
Ryan
10/17/2014 08:29:29 am
Devon, I agree with your statement saying, “The skill I think is most important out of these five is if you don’t know something, admit it.” I agree with you because admitting you are wrong is hard. When you get in an argument and you know you are wrong you don’t want to admit it because you think people will make fun of you for being wrong.
Tristen Mullins
10/16/2014 10:47:19 am
I believe that “Acknowledge your “hot buttons”” is the most important skill because say you’re in a meeting with your boss and he calls you lazy or something and you get mad, if you know your hot buttons then you would know how to control your anger.
Chance Robison
10/16/2014 11:41:38 am
Tristen, I disagree with what you believe to be the most important skill. You do make good points to stand up for it, but I feel that if you find the admitting skill easier, the rest of the skills are. The admitting your wrong skill can also help you because then people will help you with the issue at hand. This is my opinion, and again you did make good points, but if you can admit that you don’t know, then all the other skills just kind of come in hand in hand which is helpful.
John D.
10/17/2014 05:19:07 am
I disagree with your statement that the hot buttons are the most important, as hotkeys are not always the fastest or easiest way to do something. More often than not hotkeys are set to a default so your documents are not as personalized and are more uniform.
Chance Robison
10/16/2014 11:32:31 am
I think the most important skill on the list is the ability to be able to admit it if you don’t know something. I personally think that this list is very fitting to my thinking. This is basically how I think, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone is the same way. I practice critical thinking. I seek help when I don’t know something in a class. I ask students and the teacher for help. I don’t personally believe that there is much else to practicing critical thinking. It really is something that will come to anyone and at any given point in their life. I believe that acknowledging your own hot buttons can be the hardest for me some times. There are subjects where I can immediately tell if I am affected by them, but there are others that I have an issue with identifying. The easiest for me is being able to admit that I don’t know something. This is just natural to me because I strive to learn what really lies behind what I don’t know. The more I know the more educated I feel. This is always a good feeling because it means I can teach others.
Jacob
10/17/2014 08:28:17 am
Chance I strongly agree with what skill you think is the most important. I also said in my post that the ability to be able to admit it if you don’t know something is the most important skill. I think this because if you can’t admit if you are wrong when you are in an argument when you know you are wrong it really makes you look dumb. You would then be arguing only to start an argument that would not solve anything or that would not teach you anything. Another kind of way to admit something when you don’t know the answer, is when we are in a class room and someone doesn’t know something but instead of asking a question about it to find out what the answer is they just ignore it. They might not answer the question, especially in our class, because people might make fun of you if you don’t know what it is.
Brandon Bartels
10/17/2014 11:24:36 am
I disagree with your statement that the most important ability on the list is to admit if you don’t know something. It is still an important skill, but there are worse things than not knowing something. I feel it is more important to respect other peoples’ opinions, so I think the skill “seek to understand other peoples’ point of view” is more important. I know that I don’t always admit that I don’t know something, but I don’t see that as a big problem, because it only affects me and doesn’t harm anyone.
Spencer
10/16/2014 12:10:31 pm
The definition of critical thinking is “the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment”. I think that the most important habit in the list is to always remember the importance of critical thinking as it relates to your education. I think this is the most important because if don’t educate yourself, then how do you expect to have a valid judgment of different issues. In regards to my own life I think I am a critical thinker. For the most part, I do practice critical thinking except for the first one. I tend to have a hard time admitting when I do not know something or get stuff wrong. This list of 5 habits is a part of what it means to be a critical thinker, but I think there is a lot more habits then just the ones listed in the article like they tend to go beyond what is obvious and always remember to ask why (including when to STOP asking). The easiest trait to do is probably acknowledging your”hot buttons” because it is your own thoughts and points of view on different issues you just have to find out what they are.
Tabitha
10/17/2014 01:01:47 am
Spencer, I disagree with you on critical thinking as it relates to your education as being the most important. Yes, critical thing as it relates to your education is important but I don’t think it is the most important. I think that understanding other peoples points of views is the most important because then you know how to talk to them in a way that won’t ignite their how buttons. I do agree with you that the easiest trait to do is acknowledging your hot buttons. If you don’t then something bad could happen to you or someone around you.
Stacy
10/17/2014 07:16:44 am
I disagree with you spencer because I think that critical thinking isn't the most important. I agree that its important to always remember critical thinking but I believe that its also not as important as understanding something and being able to apply it to real life.
Ashton
10/16/2014 02:52:42 pm
The most important to me is if you don’t know something admit it. It’s important to understand things when you’re wrong so you learn from and get better at it. I also think it’s important to acknowledge your hot buttons because it is easy to get angry at someone and want to tear their head off but that would not be a safe term, on the other hand if you know the hot buttons it could help you manage the anger when it builds up. To understand other peoples’ points of view because people could give you great ideas that could help you in the future. Also I think it is important to trust and verify because you need to know what is going on instead of just agreeing to something and not realizing it until later. I do not agree with the last list; always remember the importance of critical thinking to practice because you always need to remember organization instead of critical thinking. Organization is important because when you’re in school or meetings you have papers handed out things to remember etc. You need to maintain those in your possession so you remember things better and learn how to become a better organized person, which is a habit people need to get in to. The one thing I think is the hardest is admitting that you are wrong because when you’re in a place that you are defending something and later you realize that you were wrong all along, you don’t want to admit that in front of people then you look like you don’t even know what you’re talking about. In my opinion the easiest to me is to trust and verify because you have the power of research and others have that as well, so that they can verify that you are right or wrong.
Hogan
10/17/2014 05:22:27 am
I agree with your statement that the most important thing is to admit something if you don’t know it. I feel very strongly about this because if you act like you know something and you don’t then when someone asked you about it and you gave them a false answer then they would not think very highly of you.
Oscar M
10/17/2014 01:15:17 am
I think the skill that is most important in my opinion is trust and verify. I think that skill is most important because knowing what your partner knows is always easier and can help much more to solving the problem that has arose. I do practice critical thinking all the time. Some times you may not even know it but your practicing it. I always practice on letting other people show me their point of view without interrupting them and then showing them my way of doing things. Then we can decide who is correct. I do that because you cant be correct 100 percent of the time. I think that the list covers all habits of a critical thinker. I cant think of any knew ones to add that haven’t been put up all ready. I think that the hardest trait to do for me, that’s on the list, is admitting your wrong. I hate being wrong in mostly everything because there’s always a kid that will rub it in. I think that the easiest trait to do is trust and verify. That one is easy because you and your partners can share ideas and decided which ones correct.
Hogan
10/17/2014 05:26:56 am
I disagree with your statement that the most important thing is to trust and verify. I think that being skeptical is not as important as admitting that you don’t know something because if you tell someone something that you don’t know is right then that could cause a trust issue and they might be skeptical. So admitting that you don’t know something is more important.
Hogan
10/17/2014 05:15:11 am
I think that the skill that is the most important is to admit that you don’t know something. Although, the other four are important as well. Acknowledging your “hot buttons” can help you if you really feel strongly on a subject or need to tell someone how you feel about a subject. Seeking to understand another person’s point of view is important because it will give you another look on the topic and if you don’t agree with the other person it won’t make you sound like what you think is the only answer. It is important to value critical thinking because if you do then you have more of a chance to use it and using it will make you a better thinker, person, or even make you smarter. I do practice critical thinking sometimes like if we are talking about something happening in the world or in our life. I don’t think that anything needs to be added to the list. I think that admitting that you don’t know something is very hard to do for me because I am very competitive and always like to be better or smarter than the person I am competing against. I think the easiest thing to do is “trust and verify” because I am always skeptical.
Oscar M
10/17/2014 05:52:27 am
Hogan, I agree with your statement “seeking to understand another person’s point of view is important”. I think it’s important because it will give you another look on the topic. That can help you either change your mind or help make your response/answer better. It also helps you understand more clearly the topic your doing.
Stacy
10/17/2014 07:15:02 am
I agree that the most important thing is being able to admit to something because you need to be able to speak up and learn from mistakes. Even though sometimes it can be embarrassing.
Oscar M
10/17/2014 08:10:58 am
Hogan, I agree with your statement “seeking to understand another person’s point of view is important”. I think that’s important because it will give you another look on the topic you are currently doing. Understanding another person’s point of view can help you either change your mind or help make your response/answer better. It also helps you understand more clearly the topic you’re doing.
Jacob
10/17/2014 06:12:43 am
The skill I think is most important is “if you don’t know something, admit it”.
kris
10/17/2014 07:27:00 am
I agree with what you said about if you don't know something admit it because a lot of people don't know some stuff if they are asked a question.
Stacy
10/17/2014 07:13:29 am
The skill I think is most important is to admit when you don’t know something, so that you can learn it and know it. My reflect on the list of five in regards to my own thinking is,
Mahala
10/17/2014 01:51:19 pm
Stacy, I disagree with you about the easiest trait being able to understand other people's point of view. I think that it is one of the hardest things, because people are stubborn and don't want to admit that someone else could be right. I think that it is hard for people to listen to what other people have to say, and to really think about there opinions. So in conclusion, I think that understanding other people's point of view is one of the hardest instead of one of the easiest.
kris
10/17/2014 07:23:48 am
I think the most important one is “Always remember the importance of critical thinking as it relates to your education because you need to critically think to have an education in school because if you didn’t think critically you would be dumb as a doorknob so that’s why I think that is important. I think these are good traits. Yes I do practice critical thinking because I have to think really hard in school so yes I do practice critical thinking. When I don’t is when I know the answer to a problem or I know something at the time. There should be one where you have to be organized because if you’re not organized you have to spend all your time looking for your notes or anything else you are missing and it will take up class time and organization helps in critical thinking in my opinion but might not in others opinions
Dakota
10/17/2014 01:54:06 pm
Kris I have to dis agree with you when you say that the most important one out of the five is to remember the importance of critical thinking. I say this because even though people think about a lot of things I don’t feel that it used in everyday live as much as some of the other ones listed on the web site that Mrs. Miller provided us. But other than this I think you did well on this week’s DQ good man.
Ryan
10/17/2014 08:18:42 am
I think the most important skill on that list is admitting when you are wrong or don’t know something and then going and learning about it.
Mahala
10/17/2014 01:45:11 pm
Ryan, I agree with you about how you said that Hot buttons were an important part of life. your perspective was interesting, and made me think about this topic even more. I also agree with you about the hardest part being admitting that you are wrong, and I had the same reasoning for this.
Mahala
10/17/2014 08:32:35 am
The skill that is most important to me would have to be “Acknowledge your ‘hot buttons’” because that I believe that your opinions and feelings about certain topics are important and it broadens your mental composite to understand things and be able to state your opinions. I feel that I practice critical thinking in certain topics, but not all, it really depends on if the topic is worth actually thinking about. For example, what to have for lunch is something I wouldn’t think about, but something to do with politics is important to critically think about. I believe that there can be many things added to the list but one would have to be having organization, because being organized is very critical to how someone thinks and critical thinkers are usually more organized. In my opinion, I think that the hardest trait to do would have to be Seek to understand other peoples’ point of view because that you don’t want to admit if you are wrong and a lot of times, you don’t want to hear the other person out because you think that you are right. I think that the easiest trait would have to be ‘trust and verify’ because it comes naturally to most people and I think that it is easy, most of the time, to trust people, but not completely believe what they say.
Brandon Bartels
10/17/2014 11:07:11 am
I think the skill “seek to understand other peoples’ points of view” is the most important because it is important to listen to other people and respect their opinions. The hardest trait to do is “If you don’t know something, admit it” because a lot of people seem to expect me to know everything and make a big deal about things I don’t know. The easiest trait for me is “trust and verify” because I can usually recognize when something is fake when it is written down and there is nobody to argue that it is true. If someone is defending the statement, then I am more likely to believe it, but I can sometimes still see when something is false. I think there should be more habits for critical thinkers, but I can’t think of any to add to the list. I think I practice critical thinking because I like to see what kind of ridiculous stories I can find and decide if they are true or not. I do this by seeing what kind of similar things have happened if anything like the story has happened. Then I compare that to the story and see if the story seems reasonable or not.
David Livingston
10/17/2014 12:24:51 pm
Brandon, i think you are mistaken with which of the five is the easiest. i believe that identifying the truth hidden among deceit is the most difficult, for there are many more possible lies than there are possible truths. One other reason i think this is because of possible tainting of information, unless you do the calculation yourself, the information you find could just as likely be a lie, or contain misguided information. It is my theory that unless you do the research yourself, you could have tainted information, and even then your calculation might contain an error that could taint the information you find as well.
Nolan
10/17/2014 01:59:26 pm
Brandon, I strongly agree with your opinion on what the hardest trait of critical thinking is. I think it is hard to admit when I don't know something as well. Who actually likes to admit when they don't know something, right? All in all I agree with your opinion on the hardest trait of admitting when you don't know something.
David Livingston
10/17/2014 12:18:29 pm
I think that the most important skill is to be able to see other peoples point of view. I think this because when you are able to see other peoples way of thinking, you can either better your own thinking, or find holes in others train of thought. i think that i usually follow all of the first four, but when it comes to the fifth one, i really dont place very much value into thinking critically. this could be because i do it so often that i don't even think of it as anything special. I think something that definitely was missed when this list was made is that critical thinking requires thought before action, and requires thought before speech. for very few critical thinkers blurt out all they think of, and choose their words carefully. I think one of the hardest things to do is not to trust everything you hear, for lies have a way of making themselves believed, and can be extremely difficult to filter without the proper information, for governments can feed us as many lies as anyone, and those who know the truth could be silenced. I believe that the easiest of the five to do is understanding peoples points of view, and while this is just my opinion speaking, it is very easy to see them. All you need to do is put a little bit of thought into how many ways this person could see your idea as false. once you have found the most likely of solutions (that one being the most likely to that specific person) you can find new ways to either correct yourself, or simply prove them further wrong
Dakota
10/17/2014 01:49:12 pm
David I agree with your thoughts. I do also think that seeking others point of views is important. Even though it was not on the top of my list it is really important. I think that you did really well on this week’s Discussion Question. Good Job David.
Connor
10/18/2014 08:37:56 am
David, I also agree with what you think. Seeing other people's point of views are a great way to learn how they think, and compare it to yourself. I think that it's a good skill to have because if you are in an argument with someone, or mad at them you have to see their point of view and their side of the story.
Dakota
10/17/2014 01:46:04 pm
The one that I thing is most important is to Trust and Verify, because if you blindly accept what you hear it could and very well might be wrong. But then again if you don’t know something than admit it is really important to me. I think that these are the most important because I can relate to them so much. To me the first one is really important to me because I have known some people and still know people that should just admit it when they have no idea what they are doing and it really drives me crazy when someone says they know what they’re doing but they really don’t and they screw everything up and then someone has to go behind them and fix their mistake. I have a few hot buttons, not many but I do have them. One of them is when someone talks bad about me behind my back. I mean if you can say it to other people why not just come talk to me about it. That is mainly my biggest “hot buttons.” For the most part I do try to understand other people’s point of view. I mean I’m human I’m not perfect so I do mess up sometimes and jump on people before I slow down and understand what they are trying to tell me. For trust and verify, I guess you can say that I don’t trust that many people and I don’t trust when people tell me thing. I kind of try to figure it out on my own. I guess I can say that I don’t critical think that often most of the time I just act instead of trying to think about it so that I can get it done right but most of the time I just want to get it done as fast as possible. Me personally I do not think that there should be more habits then what are on this web site. I think that the five that are on here this site pretty much sums everything up. For me the easiest trait to do would probably be if you don’t know something admit it. I am usually pretty good on accepting it when I don’t know things, but there are times that I say that I don’t know just so that I don’t have to do things because as we all know I can be lazy at times.
Connor
10/18/2014 08:35:21 am
Koty, I strongly agree with your statement. I think that if you put too much trust in someone, and believe everything that they say and promise, they might not ever fulfill their promises. Although it's easy to trust people, you have to be careful about who you trust and how much trust you put into them.
Nolan
10/17/2014 01:53:42 pm
I think that the most important skill is either acknowledge your hot buttons or seek and understand other people’s points of view. I think that because if you can’t understand other people’s points of view, then that may set off you hot button, which if you can know what those are, then you can better understand other’s points of view. I have not been very good at admitting when I don’t know something, which is apparently a big part of critical thinking. I never really do a lot of critical thinking, mostly because I am most of the time very lazy, but I think it will help me learn things with more of a chance of me remembering what I have learned. One aspect of critical thinking I do regularly is not always 100% believe what I hear, but then again I don’t maintain a skeptical attitude towards everything. In a class or a subject I enjoy, I participate a lot and try to figure out how I can apply it to me life, which is the last step of the list. One thing that was not on the list that I think should be specifically listed is you need to focus, that’s all I can think of in that aspect. Probably the hardest trait for me to do is realize when I am incorrect and then admit it. That is because I like to do things correctly and if I make a mistake, I hate to admit it. Who does right? I don’t know if I can answer the question asks which trait is the easiest to do. I feel that in my opinion that they all require effort that I cannot explain.
Connor
10/18/2014 08:31:42 am
I think that number one is the most important, because if you never admit when you are wrong, you will never learn anything. Once you admit you are wrong, you can then learn why you were wrong and what your mistake was. I use number one the most, because if I’m in an argument with someone I have no trouble admitting when I’m wrong. I try to use critical thinking as much as I can, but as you can tell by my grades I’m not that great at it. Organization should also be on this list as well. I think that the hardest trait for me to do is number four. I trust almost everything I read on the internet, and I think I put a little too much trust in people, too. I think that the easiest one to do is number three. I think this because It’s really easy for me to understand what other people think about something, and I can usually understand how people feel, and see their point of view. Comments are closed.
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