steelcitypysc said...
I am very pleased to be part of the 2010 Spring cohort at Fielding. I decided over 15 years ago that I would pursue a terminal degree once I retired from my corporate career. Although, I have been blessed to also have a parallel career as an entrepreneur, there remains in me a desire to keep learning and discovering. When I finally did retire in 2007, I began my Ph.D journey at George Washington University in a program focused on Organizational Development and Leadership. I soon discovered that not only was the program structure and course content not as interesting as I thought, but I knew that a traditional brick and mortar institution was probably not for me at this stage of my life. Although consulting, teaching and writing, remain goals for me once I complete the program, It is the opportunity to learn and explore new ways of thinking from my colleagues in our cohort and across the University that I most look forward to. I believe that the convergence taking place across all mediums of communication will impact our lives in the future even more than do now both here and around the world. I believe that expertise in this area of psychology will be coveted across many disciplines including but not limited to politics, entertainment, jurisprudence, and of course academics.
February 25, 2010 7:39 AM
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could not have chosen a better week to discuss critical thinking in terms of its definition, characteristics and application. Parker and Moore's definition resonated with me most, http://wikipedia.org/wiki/critical_ thinking,in that they described it as "the careful deliberate determination of whether one should accept, reject or suspend judgement about a claim and the confidence with which one accepts or rejects it. It goes on to say that "critical thinking employs not just logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility,accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, fairness and significance"
ReplyDeleteIn my view most of the information in this weeks' materials suggest that daily application of critical thinking is a 'lifestyle change not a diet" meaning that the through process of thinking something through guided by a set of organized internal controls provide the opportunity to see and judge situations and circumstances more clearly.
I began my remarks by saying this was a good week to discuss this topic because I sit on the boards of several organizations and companies, including one whose Board of Directors is contemplating the early termination of one its senior executives. The final decision hinges on the determination of whether the executive is incapable of leading in areas that the board now considers extremely important to its future success, or whether recent lapses in judgement were just bad mistakes. This question is posed against a backdrop of success in years past. The "executive committee" a subset of the board has concluded it cannot engage in "group think" and cannot allow the emotions of several members to rule the day, since they would like him "gone now". Rather,it has been decided that exercising restraint, suspending judgement until we complete the analysis of all the variables before deciding the executives fate represents the most prudent course. there is no doubt that bias and pre-conceived ideas about what has happened could lead to a rush to judgement! Critical thinking in this instant as in many others "critical
As a media psychologist, my goal would be to try adopt the practice of critical thinking as a "lifestyle" rather than a "diet" or said another way, "I would rather make critical thinking the way that I live out my choices than leave them to chance without thinking.