A500.5.3.RB_DellElceCamila

A500.5.3.RB – Critical Thinking about Critical Thinking

            It is said that everything in life is a learning process and I feel this course has giving me the most challenging journey of my life. I mean to say that in the most positive and well receiving way, as I love what I am learning from “Leadership Foundations in Research.” I like to live life to the standards of Mahatma Gandhi where he expresses, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Education in such a gift and learning from it is the best legacy you can leave behind to generations to come.

            When I first started the course, I know I wanted to become an educated leader but I was not aware of many techniques and concepts. Leadership as a whole means a lot more than been in charge or demanding. This course is teaching me about critical thinking, which is fundamental to achieve leadership skills. Beyond definitions of concepts, I am able to obtain real life examples to rationalize and infer to my day-to-day life. As the course progresses, I have noticed my thinking process changing, from talking to thinking or to informing myself, everything is changing. I do not feel like it is a drastic change. In the contrary, I feel as if I am changing at the pace my mind asks for it. And this time around, I feel change is good!

            Between the changes I am making, I can point out that when it comes to sending a massage; I try to follow the author, Gerald M. Nosich’s suggestions about been clear. And how do I achieve that? By asking myself, “Is the thinking clear? Is this clear in my mind? Am I saying this clearly?” (2012). It is not easy to follow a structure when you are in a fast pace environment and you are trying to explain something or just communicate with your team at work. In reality, it takes a lot of practice before it becomes a natural habit to your brain. With that been said, I have been practicing by asking myself those questions, and if I feel I do not even understand myself, which happens very often, then I need more delegation time with my thoughts. But it truly is a one step at a time process!

            Furthermore, been able to internalize the techniques and concepts I have learned so far from this course has given me opportunities to grow as a person. Without going too far, the SEE-I concept provides an incredible organizational tool to “begin any critical-thinking process by clarifying” (Nosich, 2012). This acronym stands for: Statement, Elaboration, Exemplification, and Illustration. I make use of this concept for most of my assignments and daily tasks. In addition, I was able to learn about the context of essential eight elements that accompany critical thinking. Those elements consist of the following alternatives: Purpose, Question at Issue, Assumptions, Implications and Consequences, Information, Concepts, Conclusions and Interpretations, and Point of view. The textbook differentiates them as, “Context is the background to the reasoning rather than being literally an element in it, and Alternatives encompass the different choices that could be made in the reasoning” (Nosich, 2012).

            Moreover, the Leadership Foundations in Research course provides essential knowledge on how to deal with challenging subjects that sometimes we seem to be get lost with. The concept of the logic of a field has help me to be open-minded and more curious to learn not only what I am responsible to finish at work, but also to know what the other half does. In other words, if I can understand that my job consists of a unit or a team, I can make better reference that each one of us at work is a team player. The reality is we need each other for everything to work and it is not sufficient to just do one part. We all “fit together,” and therefore, I challenged myself to acknowledge everyone’s portion and that way make a better “whole” of my persona.

            The question at issue is, what will it take to make lasting, positive changes in the way I think? The answer is very simple, the changes are already long lasting positive changes. The way I think now is not reversible, as I like the new critical thinking I find in myself. Albert Einstein once said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” And that is at the stage I am at right now. I am too involved with what I care for to forget. 

Figure 1.1

Albert Einstein