What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?

People often use critical thinking skills without even realizing it. When you decide, for example, which cereal to eat for breakfast, you're using critical thinking to determine the best option for that day.

Critical thinking is like a muscle that can be exercised and built over time. It is a skill that can help propel your career to new heights. You'll be able to solve workplace issues, use trial and error to troubleshoot ideas, and more.

Discover what critical thinking is and some examples of how to use it so you can begin your journey to improving this skill.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is the ability to interpret, evaluate, and analyze facts and information available to form a judgment or decide if something is right or wrong.

More than just being curious about the world around you, critical thinkers make connections between logical ideas to see the bigger picture. Building your critical thinking skills means advocating your ideas and opinions, logically presenting them, and making decisions for improvement.

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Why is critical thinking important?

Critical thinking is useful in many areas of life, including your career. It helps make you a well-rounded individual who has considered all of your options and possible solutions before making a choice.

Critical thinking skills are important because they are:

• Universal

• Crucial for the economy

• Essential for improving language and presentation skills

• Very helpful in promoting creativity

• Important for self-reflection

• The basis of science and democracy 

Critical thinking skills are used daily in myriad ways and can be applied to situations such as a CEO approaching a group project or a nurse deciding in which order to treat their patients.

Examples of common critical thinking skills

Critical thinking skills differ from individual to individual and are utilized in various ways. Examples of common critical thinking skills include:

• Identification of biases: Identifying biases means knowing that certain people or things may have an unfair prejudice or influence on the situation at hand. Pointing out these biases helps to remove them from contention when solving the problem and allows you to see things from a different perspective.

• Research: Researching details and facts allows you to be prepared when presenting your information to people. You’ll know exactly what you’re talking about due to the time you’ve spent with the subject material, and you’ll be well-spoken and know what questions to ask to gain more knowledge. When researching, always use credible sources and factual information.

• Open-mindedness: Being open-minded when conversing or participating in a group activity is crucial to success. Dismissing someone else’s ideas before you’ve heard them will inhibit you from progressing to a solution and often create animosity. If you truly want to solve a problem, you need to be willing to hear everyone’s opinions and ideas if you want them to hear yours.

• Analysis: Analyzing your research will give you a better understanding of what you’ve heard and read. As a true critical thinker, you’ll want to seek out the truth and get to the source of issues. It’s important to avoid taking things at face value and always dig deeper.

• Problem-solving: Problem-solving is perhaps the most important skill that critical thinkers can possess. The ability to solve issues and bounce back from conflict helps you succeed, be a leader, and effect change. One way to properly solve problems is first to recognize a problem that needs solving. By determining the issue at hand, you can then analyze it and develop several potential solutions.

How to develop critical thinking skills

You can develop critical thinking skills every day if you logically approach problems. A few ways you can start your path to improvement include:

1. Ask questions.

Be inquisitive about everything. Maintain a neutral perspective and develop a natural curiosity to ask questions that develop your understanding of the situation or task at hand. The more details, facts, and information you have, the better informed you will be when making decisions.

2. Practice active listening.

Utilize active listening techniques, which are founded in empathy, to really listen to what the other person is saying. Critical thinking, in part, is the cognitive process of reading the situation: the words coming out of their mouth, their body language, and their reactions to their own words. Then, you might paraphrase to clarify what they're saying so both of you agree you're on the same page.

3. Develop your logic and reasoning.

This is perhaps a more abstract task that requires practice and long-term development. However, think of a schoolteacher assessing the classroom to determine how to energize the lesson. Options include playing a game, watching a video, or challenging the students with a reward system. Using logic, you might decide that the reward system will take up too much time and is not an immediate fix. A video is not exactly relevant at this time, so the teacher decides to play a simple word association game.

Scenarios like this happen daily, so next time, you can be more aware of what will work and what won't. Over time, developing your logic and reasoning will strengthen your critical thinking skills.

Develop your critical thinking skills with Coursera.

Critical thinking can help you look at the world and the possibilities around you in new ways. Explore tips and tricks on becoming a better critical thinker and problem solver through online courses from notable educational institutions on Coursera. Start with Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking from Duke University or Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age from the University of Michigan.