Critical thinking is one of the most important pillars of education. Want to know why?
Critical thinking can’t be mastered by itself
The skill is defined as the ability to analyze facts to come up with a decision. Decisions can be rational, unbiased, skeptical, evaluative, or factual based on the understanding of the thinker. It is a skill that requires deep thinking to come up with the right decision.
Some of today’s big issues demand critical thinking to be done with – issues like political corruption, economic injustice, climate change, and corporate malignancies are badly in need of critical thinkers who can work their way through complex situations.
There is a misconception though regarding how people can master the art of thinking critically. The skill can be harnessed by training oneself on solving complex problems like puzzles, chess games, video games, and scenario-based problems. It is true, it is a skill honed through sharpening the mind with technical cleverness, rationality, and objective-based thinking.
So, if critical thinking can be learned on our own just by mere practicing and concentration, why do we have to learn it in universities?
Is it just a trick to increase student loads?
Thinking critically needs concentration. Anyone can learn by himself on how to concentrate and meditate his thoughts, but it doesn’t mean that problems can be solved through plain concentration. Knowledge accompanied by concentration is what makes up a good critical thinker, and knowledge can only be achieved by going into a university and choosing a field of expertise.
The reason for the courses being offered in universities is for students to orient that concentration with the knowledge they will be acquiring to come up with expertise.
Subject knowledge
This is how concentration and subject knowledge works.
When students take the path of political science, we expect fighters of democracy, lawmakers, and legislators. To preserve our literacy and social ethics, once must choose the path of philosophy.
For those who want to be in the medical field, taking up medicine is the right course to follow. Innovators and tech-based specialties can choose either computer science or any IT related courses.
Every field of expertise came from subject knowledge, you cannot interchange them just as you please. We cannot expect doctors to play the role of computer technicians or vice-versa.
Our universities play a vital role in honing critical minds into a specific subject knowledge to produce quality contributors to society. Critical thinking can be held useless if there is no path for it to follow, this is the role universities play in coming up with productive citizens.
Featured image by EurekaOnline
