Student's Question of the Week
Q: How can you apply critical thinking in daily life?
A: Consider doing familiar activities from a critical and an uncritical point of view. How would you shop, vote, engage in parties, drive, or study?
Studying from an uncritical point of view might involve diving in without any thought just to get it done, having no interest in analyzing the logic of the material, lack of effort in identifying concepts, and a neglect of applying what is learned to one's own experience.
In contrast, then, studying while thinking about what one is doing might involve searching for the logic of what one is studying, pulling out essential concepts and analyzing in light of the purpose of the assignment or question at hand, organizing details around those central concepts, translating what is learned into one's own experience, and integrating lessons from different classes into a synthesized understanding or whole picture. Doing this when studying sets one up for writing a well-structured, substantial essay.
Can you think of other activities done critically vs uncritically? Send in your comparison of how you'd do them both ways, and label with the question above in your email.