Give an example of how you used critical thinking to solve a problem?

[NYNurse]

Give an example of how you used critical thinking to solve a problem?

[PJ]

Lets start by taking a look at some academic sites that outline critical thinking/problem solving components...

1. Cuesta College http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/as/407.htm

2. Portland CC http://www.pcc.edu/edserv/core-outcomes/...lving.html

A few months back my computer crashed. As a librarian, I need to have a computer at home because a portion of my work time is spent monitoring a 24/7 Academic Cooperative chat service, my shift is at night and I prefer to work at home during this shift.

I had a decision to make with a variety of factors to consider.

a. Do I want to continue using a desktop (advantage of a large screen) or would I prefer a laptop? (I could plug it into a large monitor at some point, or adapt to working with a smaller screen)

b. Are there times I would like to have the portability of a laptop? Yes. I also work at the Social Sciences Learning Center and could make use of my personal laptop while assisting students with their research and citation in this environment.

c. What kind of money should I spend? My income was reduced by almost $4,000 this past year - so I've been keeping a tight budget.

d. Once a decision was made to buy a laptop, which model/which features do I want?

If this were my assignment, I would then go to the lists (links above) and begin thinking about how to express this process of selecting a computer to replace my old PC using some of the critical thinking components described on those pages.

How did I analyze the situation?
Did I use my imagination to explore the possible uses of and advantages of a laptop over a desktop?
How did I weigh my alternatives?
Where did I go to gather information needed about different laptops? (Internet sites, stores I visited, friends I talked with, etc)
How much of the store and Website information was really relevant? How much of it was colored by marketing ploys? How did I go about sorting through that information?

We all make purchasing decisions and you could find something of your own to use as an example. You could also apply this to other consumer decisions such as the desire to be environmentally smart and use less plastic or consume less meat or buy less glass and aluminum drink containers.

Another way to go about this is to think back to the election in November. In California we had a proposition on the ballot which would have ended the use of the death penalty. (It didn't pass). A responsible voter would have spent some time exploring this issue, sorting through various media, organizational sites, news/magazine articles, etc to determine what would be best in terms of justice, the cost factor, effectiveness as a deterant, moral/spiritual values, etc. This or other issues before the electorate could easily be described as a critical thinking process.