Assignment 1

1. Why is the understanding of critical thinking necessary for a researcher?
Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to
form a judgement.
Critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned
judgment. It involves the evaluation of sources, such as data, facts, observable phenomena,
and research findings.
Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information, and
discriminate between useful and less useful details to solve problems or make decisions.
Critical thinking is the mode of thinking about any subject, problem, or content. It skilfully
thinks. Later, it implements and inherent those intellectual thoughts upon them. The best part
of critical thinking is, it improves the quality of thinking.
It has intellectual values like clarity, sound evidence, precision, good reasons, relevance,
consistency, depth, breadth, and fairness.
Critical thinking requires a proper process, it involves skilfully conceptualizing, analyzing
different aspects, synthesizing, most importantly evaluating whatever information is gathered,
keenly observing all factors, and experiencing the overall view.
Now let us understand the benefits of critical thinking:
1] It helps to improve decision making
Critical thinking will let you make decisions by yourself. It will help you improve decision-
making. For students, while making career decisions or making a new career move, it is
crucial to make quick decisions, and hence critical thinking plays a vital role here.
2] Enhances problem-solving ability

Problem-Solving is the key skill required for adapting to changes and facing challenges. This
skill of critical thinking should be developed by students to avoid making any situation
complex and help find a solution to it.
For instance, for two people, the same situation has been given and asked to find a solution
for it. One person might take 5 minutes yet can’t give a relevant solution whereas another
person with problem-solving ability will dedicate enough time to research and will provide a
relevant solution.
3] Refine your researching skills
Critical Thinking will refine your researching skills, moreover will help you research
accurately by observing, analyzing, synthesizing, experimenting with every aspect in detail
for a better result.
4] Polishes your creativity
It will help you polish your creative side. Creativity has unquestionably defined itself as a
requisite skill for having in the collaborative modern workforce. As critical thinking will
surely polish your creativity.
5] Stimulates Curiosity
It stimulates curiosity in you to find the right solution for the problem or the subject you
working on. Curiosity will let you dig and delve deeper for getting a better result. This factor
will let you stay a lifelong learner.
Link: https://tscfm.org/blogs/the-benefits-of-critical-thinking-for-students/
What Critical thinking skills are required to understand the background to the study, produce
statements of the problem, define the aims, and devise the research questions for your
research?
Critical thinking teaches students how to define and analyze problems, while avoiding
fallacies and cognitive biases. They develop the ability to make very strong and persuasive
arguments based on logic and evidence. They are also good at finding holes and gaps and
unwarranted assumptions in others arguments.
Academic research focuses on the creation of new ideas, perspectives, and arguments. The
researcher seeks relevant information in articles, books, and other sources, then develops an
informed point of view within this ongoing "conversation" among researchers.
How to Write a Problem Statement | Guide & Examples
Put the problem in context (what do we already know?)
Describe the precise issue that the research will address (what do we need to know?)
Show the relevance of the problem (why do we need to know it?)
Set the objectives of the research (what will you do to find out?)
6 Crucial critical thinking skills (and how you can improve them)
While there’s no universal standard for what skills are included in the critical thinking
process, we’ve boiled it down to the following six. Focusing on these can put you on the path
to becoming an exceptional critical thinker.
1. Identification
The first step in the critical thinking process is to identify the situation or problem as well as
the factors that may influence it. Once you have a clear picture of the situation and the
people, groups or factors that may be influenced, you can then begin to dive deeper into an
issue and its potential solutions.
How to improve: When facing any new situation, question or scenario, stop to take a mental
inventory of the state of affairs and ask the following questions:
Who is doing what?

What seems to be the reason for this happening?
What are the end results, and how could they change?
2. Research
When comparing arguments about an issue, independent research ability is key. Arguments
are meant to be persuasive—that means the facts and figures presented in their favor might be
lacking in context or come from questionable sources. The best way to combat this is
independent verification; find the source of the information and evaluate.
How to improve: It can be helpful to develop an eye for unsourced claims. Does the person
posing the argument offer where they got this information from? If you ask or try to find it
yourself and there’s no clear answer, that should be considered a red flag. It’s also important
to know that not all sources are equally valid—take the time to learn the difference between
popular and scholarly articles.
3. Identifying biases
This skill can be exceedingly difficult, as even the smartest among us can fail to recognize
biases. Strong critical thinkers do their best to evaluate information objectively. Think of
yourself as a judge in that you want to evaluate the claims of both sides of an argument, but
you’ll also need to keep in mind the biases each side may possess.
It is equally important—and arguably more difficult—to learn how to set aside your own
personal biases that may cloud your judgement. “Have the courage to debate and argue with
your own thoughts and assumptions,” Potrafka encourages. “This is essential for learning to
see things from different viewpoints.”
How to improve: “Challenge yourself to identify the evidence that forms your beliefs, and
assess whether or not your sources are credible,” offers Ruth Wilson, director of development
at Brightmont Academy.
First and foremost, you must be aware that bias exists. When evaluating information or an
argument, ask yourself the following:
Who does this benefit?

Does the source of this information appear to have an agenda?
Is the source overlooking, ignoring or leaving out information that doesn’t support its beliefs
or claims?
Is this source using unnecessary language to sway an audience’s perception of a fact?
4. Inference
The ability to infer and draw conclusions based on the information presented to you is
another important skill for mastering critical thinking. Information doesn’t always come with
a summary that spells out what it means. You’ll often need to assess the information given
and draw conclusions based upon raw data.
The ability to infer allows you to extrapolate and discover potential outcomes when assessing
a scenario. It is also important to note that not all inferences will be correct. For example, if
you read that someone weighs 260 pounds, you might infer they are overweight or unhealthy.
Other data points like height and body composition, however, may alter that conclusion.
How to improve: An inference is an educated guess, and your ability to infer correctly can be
polished by making a conscious effort to gather as much information as possible before
jumping to conclusions. When faced with a new scenario or situation to evaluate, first try
skimming for clues—things like headlines, images and prominently featured statistics—and
then make a point to ask yourself what you think is going on.
5. Determining relevance
One of the most challenging parts of thinking critically during a challenging scenario is
figuring out what information is the most important for your consideration. In many
scenarios, you’ll be presented with information that may seem important, but it may pan out
to be only a minor data point to consider.
How to improve: The best way to get better at determining relevance is by establishing a
clear direction in what you’re trying to figure out. Are you tasked with finding a solution?
Should you be identifying a trend? If you figure out your end goal, you can use this to inform
your judgement of what is relevant.
Even with a clear objective, however, it can still be difficult to determine what information is
truly relevant. One strategy for combating this is to make a physical list of data points ranked
in order of relevance. When you parse it out this way, you’ll likely end up with a list that
includes a couple of obviously relevant pieces of information at the top of your list, in
addition to some points at the bottom that you can likely disregard. From there, you can
narrow your focus on the less clear-cut topics that reside in the middle of your list for further
evaluation.
6. Curiosity
It’s incredibly easy to sit back and take everything presented to you at face value, but that can
also be also a recipe for disaster when faced with a scenario that requires critical thinking. It’s
true that we’re all naturally curious—just ask any parent who has faced an onslaught of
“Why?” questions from their child. As we get older, it can be easier to get in the habit of
keeping that impulse to ask questions at bay. But that’s not a winning approach for critical
thinking.
How to improve: While it might seem like a curious mind is just something you’re born with,
you can still train yourself to foster that curiosity productively. All it takes is a conscious
effort to ask open-ended questions about the things you see in your everyday life, and you
can then invest the time to follow up on these questions.
“Being able to ask open-ended questions is an important skill to develop—and bonus points
for being able to probe,” Potrafka says.
Become a better critical thinker

Thinking critically is vital for anyone looking to have a successful college career and a
fruitful professional life upon graduation. Your ability to objectively analyze and evaluate
complex subjects and situations will always be useful. Unlock your potential by practicing
and refining the six critical thinking skills above.
critical thinking devise the research questions for your research
By practicing critical thinking, we are allowing ourselves not only to solve problems but
also to come up with new and creative ideas to do so. Critical thinking allows us to
analyze these ideas and adjust them accordingly.

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1. Why is the understanding of critical thinking necessary for a researcher?

2] Enhances problem-solving ability

Who is doing what?

Who does this benefit?

Become a better critical thinker

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