Blog 3: Critical Thinking Skills

I find that Critical thinking as a use of skill sets can be valuable but also problematic. It is valuable to use these sets of skills in keeping biases out and also with giving valid evidence based research reasons/to back up a position. It is problematic in the sense that we can never truly keep our biases out, even the research that we do can be biased, based on the individual's position. It was very hard to use these skills effectively when dealing with the research topic. The research topic for discussion was the cost of higher education and should college be free. While in class, where everyone was freely discussing the topic and just sharing opinions it was easily flowing. Upon the next meeting where the facts had to be presented based on the research done on the topic it was harder to back up the position that was stated in the previous class. My weaknesses are that I did not find sufficient amount of research to back up my position and also I did not keep my biases out. I will work on my weaknesses by finding more research through evaluating and analyzing all sources to clarify my position.In order to keep biases I will have to self- regulate. According to critical thinking expert Facione; self- regulation is an important skill in critical thinking. It is to be consciously aware of your own cognitive activities. Therefore a good critical thinker can be successful if they are able to effectively apply all the necessary skills.