A500.5.1.RB_Andrzejewski

Take some time to reflect on the current state of your critical thinking competencies. Consider your thinking processes when you started the course. Have they changed at all? Have you been able to internalize any of the techniques and concepts you have learned? What will it take to make lasting, positive changes in the way you think?
     Going through school and life we naturally develop our critical thinking skills to a degree.  Different courses and projects may challenge our critical thinking more than others and aid in our critical thinking skills development.  I have found that being able to take a step back and look at a situation with an open mind and taking the time to see it from different perspectives has helped me in my own development.  If I try to rush or am too tired when thinking something through then I will just end up frustrated and unproductive.  
     Accident investigations are one area in my life where I have found time to be one of the most critical elements in my critical thinking process.  Whether the accident is in skydiving, BASE jumping or aviation, I have unfortunately had the chance to think through many accidents where the person involved was no longer around to help us to learn what happened.  Initially my own opinion bias always kicks in and I will have an immediate opinion of what may have happened to lead up to the accident.  Over time, through video and photo review, interviews, and conversations with other friends and professionals I am able to shape that opinion into a well thought out theory and analysis of information.  At night time I think about all of the factors and while I sleep I believe that my mind has the chance to continue analyzing and organizing my thoughts and all of the ideas that are coming to mind.  It is critical for me to be able to step back and look from different perspectives and to forget about my own reactive opinion and my own bias in order to truly think critically about the accident.  
     After taking this course, I can take the processes that I have worked to develop in my own critical thinking skills and that have formed over the years and break them down into traits and elements.  The course has helped me to better understand what it means to be a critical thinker.  It has always been my understanding that we are naturally critical thinkers and while I did see it as a skill, I did not think of it as being a skill that needed to be specifically focused on and practiced in order to develop.  I can see now that there are ways to build and develop those skills including recognizing both positive and negative traits within myself.  

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