Is Critical Thinking Important?
There was a time when educators believed that content knowledge was enough for students to succeed. For the most part the information that students learned in school was the same information that their parents learned. Today, however, all of that is changing. The increasing power of technology has created a world where information changes quickly, and new ideas can be distributed and adapted almost instantaneously.
Today it is important that students learn critical thinking skills, so they can be both the inventors and the critics of the new information. Edward de Bono in de Bono's Thinking Course writes, "Knowledge is not enough. The creative, constructive, design and operating aspects of thinking are just as important as knowledge".
Critical Thinkers . . .
Can view something new in a logical manner. Can approach a problem from multiple angles. Use creative and diverse ways to generate a hypothesis, approach a problem or answer a question. Can take their critical thinking skills and apply them to everyday life.