Critical Thinking
Many of your courses have included assignments that assess your ability to think critically. These assignments, also known as "analysis papers," "book reviews," "literature reviews," etc., have required you to analyze and evaluate a topic. Now that you have written at least one analysis paper, reflect on the process you took to analyze a topic in order to reach meaningful conclusions and recommendations. Answering the guiding questions below will help you formulate a meaningful response, but not every question applies to every assignment. However, particularly important to your reflection is not only what you did and how you did it, but why you did it and why you did it the way you did it (i.e., your design or decision-making rationale). Keep in mind that the career you are pursuing post-graduation will likely require you to demonstrate strong analytical and critical thinking skills. For example, a writing prompt given to applicants for a management fellowship program includes the following: "Describe the most complex analysis that you have completed either in a past internship, job or school assignment. Please specify where you completed the analysis, why it was done, what the outcome of the analysis was and any analytical tools used to complete the project."
Guiding Questions
What does Critical Thinking mean?
Define what you mean by critical thinking. What steps are involved? Why are these important? For example, does thinking critically require defining the problem to be solved and gathering all relevant information in order to fully understand the important issues? Does it require evaluating your sources of information? Evaluating positions or perspectives regarding issues? How do you do this?
How, when, and where have you applied critical thinking skills?
Answering these questions below will help you explain the context in which you have systematically applied critical thinking skills.
What did you do? Identify & Analyze
What was the issue addressed or problem to be solved? What were the complexities of the issue?
What was the purpose or end goal of your analysis?
Who were the stakeholders? What were their positions or their frame(s) of reference?
What assumptions did you make regarding this issue? In other words, what had to be "true" in order for you to advance your argument?
What inferences did you make? For example, if you assumed A, then would B likely follow? Were these inferences reasonable?
What risks did you take to in your approach? What were the consequences of taking these risks?
What viewpoints (including expert, contradictory or divergent perspectives) did you consider?
What biases do these viewpoints represent?
What does it mean? Evaluate & Synthesize
How did you validate or test the accuracy of the assumptions?
What were the implications of your analysis, conclusions, and recommendations? How did you reach them?
How did you evaluate your findings? Did you apply criteria? See problem-solving guiding questions.
Why did you experiment with untested approaches or solutions? How did this creative/risky direction contribute to the solution?
How did the expert, contradictory, or divergent perspectives contribute to your approach or solution? How did you evaluate and prioritize the information to reflect the most informed, logical position on the issue?
Who benefits and how? Transfer (Bottom-Line)
How do you expect to apply analytical/critical thinking skills on the job?
What do you anticipate will be the issues/problems you will expected to solve?
How do you see yourself applying the skills you learned through your course assignments to the new problems you will encounter or issues your will be expected to resolve, such as evaluating programs and policies? Provide examples that explain your strategy, i.e., compelling and personal evidence that you have critical thinking skills.
Courses, assignments, and high-impact experiences that address this outcome
PSAA 611: Policy Formation, Deborah Kerr, "Briefing Papers on a Policy Issue"