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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