Critical Thinking: Analysis of Beliefs and Biases Essay

This essay delves into the concept of critical thinking, emphasizing its importance as a crucial method of learning and self-analytical power. The student explores personal experiences with biases in research and classroom settings, highlighting the need for evidence-based opinions. The essay discusses the benefits of critical thinking, such as improved communication, decision-making, and leadership skills, while acknowledging opposing views. It examines the impact of critical thinking in the workplace, particularly for managers. The student reflects on personal beliefs regarding the value of college degrees and their impact on career prospects, concluding that degrees are important for job opportunities and income. The essay references several academic sources and provides a comprehensive analysis of the topic.

Running head: CRITICAL THINKING
Critical Thinking
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Introduction
The topic was critical thinking because of the fact that the main aim of the paper was to
deal with topics that are believed by some and doubted by others. There are many topics of
discussions often taught in classrooms that have so many different viewpoints because of the fact
that, they have varying standpoints behind it (Sciacca, 2016). Hence, the topic chosen was
critical thinking.
Critical thinking is thought to be one of the most important methods of learning. This is
because of the fact that people tend to learn more through the method of critical learning. It is a
way by which the learners can develop self analytical power. I have mainly chosen this topic of
critical thinking because of the fact that there are often instances when I come across many
prejudices or biases while selecting and researching over any particular topic. It is perhaps
because of this reason that I felt the importance and the need to deal with this particular topic.
Moreover, while attending any specific lessons in any classroom sessions, I always find the
teachers asking us to critically analyze the texts.
I feel that is also very much important because of the fact that it is not very easy to
blindly trust whatever is stated by others. In order to believe something and follow it in life there
must be proper evidence to it. It is from these evidences that one must know how to form own
personal opinion (Dolan, 2014). I feel that critical thinking is of utmost importance because it
will enable me to enrich mu knowledge and stay fully engaged with a particular question. If I go
by critical approach and critical thinking method, then it will also enable me to see both the sides
of the topic. In other words, I will be able to see both the aspects of every argument or every
topic.

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Discussion
However, this must be noted that critical thinking is something which is not really
appreciated by all. There are however many oppositions against critical thinking as well. It is
believed that critical thinkers are out of way. In other words, critical thinkers are not really
appreciated in all aspects of the society (Baleni, 2015). They are often considered to be too much
confusing and are tough to interact with. So, they are often avoided or are alienated by those with
whom they are interacting. Apart from this, another opposing view against critical thinking is
that critical thinking never solves anything. The benefits of critical thinking are only
concentrated to the thinker himself and the benefits are not shared with anybody else. However I
would like to defend the last view that critical thinking is only concentrated with the thinker and
the benefits cannot be shared with others. This is because of the fact that I believe critical
thinking is also very much effective in each and every kind of workplace. Developing proper
decision making is one of the major advantages that one gains due to critical thinking. This is
because of the fact that critical thinking is largely based on one’s self analytic power. Apart from
this, critical thinking also makes a person a very good communicator. It is because critical
thinking opposes the idea of trusting or believing anything blindly. One has to develop one’s
view points and decisions and then communicate it freely. Both these two qualities, that of
communication and decision making skills are very much useful in case of leadership. Critical
thinking enables to develop a sound leadership skill that is very much needed in one’s workplace
(Hill, 2014). Particularly, this is important in case of the managers because it enables them to
perceive all the situations much more effectively and take balanced and justified business
decisions. This is because of the fact that the decisions taken by any mangers or leaders will
influence all the other employees working within the company. They look upon their leaders for
any and every kind of decisions. Hence, if the managers can think critically on all business

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decisions then this will surely benefit all the other employees and will increase the overall
development of the organization as well.
Going back to the believing game
Going back to the believing game I realize that the findings were really true because I
have really examined and then reached to these ideas (Ricci, 2014). I would like to state that
these results were not merely the expectations but were really examined. I believed in that way
because, I have really seen such things happening around me. College education has now
become a kind of business and people who have money can afford to get admitted there and
study, to earn a degree. There is a rat race taking place all around in order to get degrees. This is
because of the fact that without proper degrees there is no scope for good job. People might be
good at their respective skills but in order to get placed in a well established company one needs
to get proper degrees from well known colleges. However the bias or the opinion that I faced
during this examination was that in order to get properly established in life, each and every
individual must have proper college degrees. The present day job market scenario is designed in
such a way that degrees and the educational certificates of each and every individual really count
a lot (Sciacca, 2016).

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Conclusion
Critically thinking, in order to live a comfortable life and earn a good amount of income,
students consider delaying matters like marriage, financial Independence, staying with parents
etc so that they can later pay the loan debts, get good degrees and education and get a good job
eventually. However this bias or opinion has supported me in reaching to the conclusion, that
college degrees and certifications are really very much important for gaining good jobs and in
turn a good salary as well. Moreover student loans may seem as a burden but in order to comply
with the present day scenario, each and every student must be able to earn good degrees to get
good jobs. It is for this reason that the individuals having greater degrees are able to earn more
than the ones having who are less degrees than them.

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Referencing
Baleni, Z. G. (2015). Online Formative Assessment in Higher Education: Its Pros and
Cons. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 13(4), 228-236.
Dolan, V. L. (2014). Massive online obsessive compulsion: What are they saying out there about
the latest phenomenon in higher education?. The International Review of Research in
Open and Distributed Learning, 15(2).
Hew, K. F., & Cheung, W. S. (2014). Improving Social Studies Students’ Critical Thinking.
In Using Blended Learning (pp. 59-78). Springer Singapore.
Hill, K. (2014). Special educational needs and disability pathfinder programme evaluation:
thematic report: key working and workforce development (pt 1). Research report, January
2014.
Ricci, F. A. (2014). Cultivating critical thinking within organizations. In Proceedings of
SOCIOINT14–International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (pp. 67-74).
Sciacca, R. (2016). Fostering critical thinking through a critical inquiry approach in Home
Economics. Journal of the Home Economics Institute of Australia, 23(2), 2.
Tosun, B. C. (2016). FROM STUDENTS’PERSPECTIVE: TEACHING CRITICAL
THINKING IN AN ELT STUDIES COURSE. Current Research in Education, 2(2), 84-
98.