Performance Management: Critical Thinking (Definitions)

"Critical thinking is a type of thinking pattern that requires people to be reflective, and pay attention to decision-making which guides their beliefs and actions. Critical thinking allows people to deduct with more logic, to process sophisticated information and look at various sides of an issue so they can produce more solid conclusions." (Joan Baron & Robert Sternberg, "Book Reviews and Notes : Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice", 1987)

"The evaluation of ideas, sources, or solutions that are proposed as potential resources or solutions to unusual problems or to product design." (Ruth C Clark, "Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement", 2008)

"Critical thinking is essentially a questioning, challenging approach to knowledge and perceived wisdom. It involves ideas and information from an objective position and then questioning this information in the light of our own values, attitudes and personal philosophy." Brenda Judge et al, "Critical Thinking Skills for Education Students", 2009)

"In academic contexts, this phrase usually refers to complex intellectual reasoning that questions assumptions and seeks to assess evidence and examine claims made by others. More simply, it can also refer to logical thinking based on facts and evidence." (Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, "Group Leadership in Online Collaborative Learning", 2009)

"Evaluation of products and ideas, such as critiquing an e-learning course or preparing an argument for a position." (Ruth C Clark & Richard E Mayer, "e-Learning and the Science of Instruction", 2011)

"Purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based" (Peter A Facione, "Critical Thinking: What It is and Why It Counts", 2011)

"A process in which one applies observation, analysis, inference, context, reflective thinking, and the like, in order to reach judgments. Such judgments should be open to alternative perspectives that may not normally be otherwise considered." (Project Management Institute, "Navigating Complexity: A Practice Guide", 2014)

"The ability to use your personal experience, logical thought processes, and creativity to analyze and evaluate situations. Further, critical thinking allows you to use the information gathered to reach a conclusion or answer." (Darril Gibson, "Effective Help Desk Specialist Skills", 2014)

"Thinking that is characterized by careful evaluation and judgment; this involves thinking about one’s thinking (metacognition). Critical thinking may involve examining contradictory lines of reasoning and/or using different lines of reasoning to cross-examine alternatives." (Ken Sylvester, "Negotiating in the Leadership Zone", 2015)

"Evaluation of products and ideas such as critiquing an e-learning course or preparing an argument for a position." (Ruth C Clark & Richard E Mayer, "e-Learning and the Science of Instruction", 2016)

"The capacity of an individual to effectively engage in a process of making decisions or solving problems by analyzing and evaluating evidence, arguments, claims, beliefs, and alternative points of view; synthesizing and making connections between information and arguments; interpreting information; and making inferences using reasoning appropriate to the situation." (Yigal Rosen & Maryam Mosharraf, "Evidence-Centered Concept Map in Computer-Based Assessment of Critical Thinking", 2016) 

"A set of skills that allows individuals to discriminate between essential and non-essential information and establish relationships between seemingly unconnected phenomena or ideas in the process of knowledge construction, all of which leads to deep understanding and learning." (Leonor M Martínez-Serrano, "The Pedagogical Potential of Design Thinking for CLIL Teaching: Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Deep Learning", 2020)