Critical Thinking
Our world is filled with differing perspectives, opinions, beliefs and values, and having the ability think critically is essential in order to differentiate between opinion, hearsay and fact. One of the great privileges of obtaining higher education has been expanding my ability to articulate intellectual and critical thought, shaping and strengthening my personal identity. Through the human service major, I have learned how to ask questions that give me a deeper, more comprehensive understanding in order to lead me to a conclusion. Spending the last two years learning about various world, social and political issues has given me a new level of insight, encouraging my desire to be an advocate for social justice and how I can accomplish this through critical thought.
The human service field works on overcoming barriers and issues that are present in society in order to help others prosper. In order to understand these issues the program has a great emphasis on the complexity of matters; nothing is black and white and there is always more then meets the eye. In HSP 406 Global Systems, I gained knowledge on the interconnectedness of our world issues and began connecting the dots on how all of our world issues are linked to one another through my research paper on global capitalism. I learned about America’s history of capitalism and how the government played the role of a global power through their capitalist polices. Through this paper I was able to use my critical thinking skills to see the connections of everything from world poverty to unstable nations and how all of these issues are affected either indirectly or directly due to our capitalist polices. This has encouraged me to ask questions that address the complexities in order to gain depth of understanding in situations (depth).
Growing up, I was taught to be hesitant of what you hear, especially when something doesn’t sound quite right. This I consider both a quality and flaw of mine because it’s important to have the ability to question things, however it is critical to find a balance between extreme skepticism and being naïve. Applied Research class (HSP 385) gave me the tools to finding this balance by approaching information, assumptions and conclusions from a critical perspective using evaluation, accuracy, precision and relevance. For example, if an article discusses the urgency of high school dropout rates, saying there is a 14% increase, you must use precision in order to better grasp this information, we need more details (precision); is it a 14% increase from 7% or 60%? Also, how many people were in this sample? Was it based off of 100 students of 1000? As one can see, finding out these questions are necessary in order to understand the “urgency” of the situation (research article).
While reading any articles, whether it be research or news article, it has been essential for me to make sure the article makes sense and is consistent in writing, meaning the findings don’t have contradictions (logic). It would make authors creditability less valid if at first he/she said one thing and then later claimed another point that went against his/her initial thoughts. Through coursework I learned how to spot these gaps in writing, which also helped me become a better writer and more of an intellectual thinker because I was able to see these inconstancies in myself. Finding inconstancies in my view point encouraged me to analyze and evaluate my beliefs and search for truth and reasoning which has helped shape my ability to be clear, precise, and avoid contradictions in my thinking.
During the first quarter of Human Service major, I was taking a Fairhaven class about various world issues that introduced me to critical thinking concepts in application to media. Our weekly homework was to find four news articles reporting on the same topic, two from a corporate source and two from an independent source (meaning they didn’t get corporate funding). I soon realized the major difference between the corporate and independent world of journalism; corporate tended to have a different focus of issues, leaving out very important information that was found in alternative sources. This class complimented the human service curriculum by highlighting the importance of seeking out and evaluating information because you can’t always believe everything you read or hear, making it our duty to search for a more complete picture. I was given the opportunity to reaffirm these critical thinking skills in my news analysis assignment in HSP 406 (new analysis). In HSP 406, I evaluated a corporate and alternative source writing about the same topic and interpreted the similarities and differences in the articles. This was a significant assignment for me because I enjoy keeping myself up to date on world issues and find it very important to be able to analyze if the news source seeks truth, has a hidden agenda or takes different viewpoints into consideration (breadth).
The human service major has empowered me to utilize critical thinking in all aspect of my life. An example of this occurred during my senior year when the nonprofit called the Invisible Children Inc put out a video called Kony 2012. The film highlighted the travesties committed by Joseph Kony, a Ugandan indicated war criminal that forces children into war criminals, and young girl into sex trade. Although everyone on campus, in class and on Facebook were instantly in support of the film, I was hesitant to agree with all the information portrayed in the film. I was able to use my critical thinking skills to analyze the information given and found numerous gaps. I found that the statistics were skewed and much of the information lacked creditability. What I learned in the class Nonprofit Management (HSP 435) influenced me to look up the Invisible Children IRS 990 to interpret the nonprofits income and distribution of funding. I found that there was a large amount of money not claimed in the form, a large percentage of revenue going towards travel expenses, technical equipment, three paid staff member, creating a lack of funding to the programs direct service. In core class the following day, classmates were adamant about donating our class fund to the nonprofit which gave me the opportunity to spread light on my findings, encouraging others to look more in depth to the Kony video.
The human service major has enhanced my ability to critically think through the use of different skills and tools. I have been given opportunities to exercise these skills in my education, professional and personal life and will continue to do so for the rest of my days. I highly believe in the power of the mind and critical thinking gives us the opportunity to promote and sustain change that is necessary to the progression of social justice.
Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2007). The elements of thinking and intellectual standards. Available at: http://www.criticalthinking.org/CTmodel/CTModel1.cfm
The human service field works on overcoming barriers and issues that are present in society in order to help others prosper. In order to understand these issues the program has a great emphasis on the complexity of matters; nothing is black and white and there is always more then meets the eye. In HSP 406 Global Systems, I gained knowledge on the interconnectedness of our world issues and began connecting the dots on how all of our world issues are linked to one another through my research paper on global capitalism. I learned about America’s history of capitalism and how the government played the role of a global power through their capitalist polices. Through this paper I was able to use my critical thinking skills to see the connections of everything from world poverty to unstable nations and how all of these issues are affected either indirectly or directly due to our capitalist polices. This has encouraged me to ask questions that address the complexities in order to gain depth of understanding in situations (depth).
Growing up, I was taught to be hesitant of what you hear, especially when something doesn’t sound quite right. This I consider both a quality and flaw of mine because it’s important to have the ability to question things, however it is critical to find a balance between extreme skepticism and being naïve. Applied Research class (HSP 385) gave me the tools to finding this balance by approaching information, assumptions and conclusions from a critical perspective using evaluation, accuracy, precision and relevance. For example, if an article discusses the urgency of high school dropout rates, saying there is a 14% increase, you must use precision in order to better grasp this information, we need more details (precision); is it a 14% increase from 7% or 60%? Also, how many people were in this sample? Was it based off of 100 students of 1000? As one can see, finding out these questions are necessary in order to understand the “urgency” of the situation (research article).
While reading any articles, whether it be research or news article, it has been essential for me to make sure the article makes sense and is consistent in writing, meaning the findings don’t have contradictions (logic). It would make authors creditability less valid if at first he/she said one thing and then later claimed another point that went against his/her initial thoughts. Through coursework I learned how to spot these gaps in writing, which also helped me become a better writer and more of an intellectual thinker because I was able to see these inconstancies in myself. Finding inconstancies in my view point encouraged me to analyze and evaluate my beliefs and search for truth and reasoning which has helped shape my ability to be clear, precise, and avoid contradictions in my thinking.
During the first quarter of Human Service major, I was taking a Fairhaven class about various world issues that introduced me to critical thinking concepts in application to media. Our weekly homework was to find four news articles reporting on the same topic, two from a corporate source and two from an independent source (meaning they didn’t get corporate funding). I soon realized the major difference between the corporate and independent world of journalism; corporate tended to have a different focus of issues, leaving out very important information that was found in alternative sources. This class complimented the human service curriculum by highlighting the importance of seeking out and evaluating information because you can’t always believe everything you read or hear, making it our duty to search for a more complete picture. I was given the opportunity to reaffirm these critical thinking skills in my news analysis assignment in HSP 406 (new analysis). In HSP 406, I evaluated a corporate and alternative source writing about the same topic and interpreted the similarities and differences in the articles. This was a significant assignment for me because I enjoy keeping myself up to date on world issues and find it very important to be able to analyze if the news source seeks truth, has a hidden agenda or takes different viewpoints into consideration (breadth).
The human service major has empowered me to utilize critical thinking in all aspect of my life. An example of this occurred during my senior year when the nonprofit called the Invisible Children Inc put out a video called Kony 2012. The film highlighted the travesties committed by Joseph Kony, a Ugandan indicated war criminal that forces children into war criminals, and young girl into sex trade. Although everyone on campus, in class and on Facebook were instantly in support of the film, I was hesitant to agree with all the information portrayed in the film. I was able to use my critical thinking skills to analyze the information given and found numerous gaps. I found that the statistics were skewed and much of the information lacked creditability. What I learned in the class Nonprofit Management (HSP 435) influenced me to look up the Invisible Children IRS 990 to interpret the nonprofits income and distribution of funding. I found that there was a large amount of money not claimed in the form, a large percentage of revenue going towards travel expenses, technical equipment, three paid staff member, creating a lack of funding to the programs direct service. In core class the following day, classmates were adamant about donating our class fund to the nonprofit which gave me the opportunity to spread light on my findings, encouraging others to look more in depth to the Kony video.
The human service major has enhanced my ability to critically think through the use of different skills and tools. I have been given opportunities to exercise these skills in my education, professional and personal life and will continue to do so for the rest of my days. I highly believe in the power of the mind and critical thinking gives us the opportunity to promote and sustain change that is necessary to the progression of social justice.
Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2007). The elements of thinking and intellectual standards. Available at: http://www.criticalthinking.org/CTmodel/CTModel1.cfm