BSNF51 Critical Thinking and Academic Development

Introduction

Critical thinking expounded as a core academic skill that enables student to analyse information, solves problems and undertakes informed decision (Bellaera et al, 2021). This plays foremost role in improving academic development of learner specifically while conducting research and completing assignment. The current literature review will be based on analysing the ways in which critical thinking fosters personal academic development of students.

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Literature Review

Summary

In the article of Rarita (2022) it has been evident that critical thinking supports learners in attaining academic success. In higher education students gets varied assignments that needs to be done by them while integrating independent research. Critical thinking enables students to approach quality sources after assessing positive and negative aspects. Subsequently, scholar becomes able to approach quality academic articles and completes assignment. Critical thinking provides a balanced perspective through which scholar can analyse varied dimensions comprehends with a concept and accordingly, findings are developed. This skill boosts motivation in learners and enables them to take appropriate decision regarding their researching abilities. Critical thinking further improves problem solving abilities in scholars and reduces hurdles within their learning process. It is the basis for forming reasonable judgment and enables scholars to ask question while recognising biasness. Critical thinking is merely not limited to ensuring academic success; this also prepares scholars for future by enhancing their problem solving and decision making capabilities. Therefore, it is highly important for scholars to improve their critical thinking so they can become able to take appropriate decision that aligns with enhancing their knowledge. Without critical thinking skill students would not be able to access information and their concepts will remain unclear and this drastically impacts their knowledge and learning.

Pagán Castaño et al, (2023) focused on highlighting the key elements of critical thinking and its role in academic development; the major components of critical thinking are- analysing, evaluation, inference, explanation, self-regulation, reasoning and open-mindedness. “Analysing” element enables scholars to break down large complex information into smaller parts. In this manner, scholar becomes able to make different themes from wider information afterwards, learners evaluates the gathered information while checking it’s relevant and creditability. This is an important aspect in academic context and thereby, significant focus is implied on checking relevance and credibility. With the help of accessible evidence student draws conclusive statement and elucidated reason behind each concept, conclusion and opinions. Learners undertake self-regulation by making necessary adjustment in the content; they use existing knowledge for forming conclusion. The decisions and information is further justified through references. This whole process enable scholar to develop wider understanding regarding a topic and contributes in expanding the knowledge of students. However, author stated that student might face issue in enhancing critical thinking and thereby, they should focus on undertaking research practice as this enables them to select sources after assessing positive and negative domains. In this manner, student becomes able to select appropriate sources while enhancing own critical thinking.

Raj et al, (2022) elucidated that critical thinking plays essential role in improving academic performance; this contributes in developing cognitive abilities that is further essential for navigating complexities. Scholars become able to undertake independent decisions which improve their capabilities related to decision-making. Furthermore, critical thinking supports in undertaking thoughtful analysis and provides opportunity to scholar for solving real-world problems through case study analysis. This leads to enhance understanding of students and prepares them for future so they can solve real-life business problems. Moreover, author stated that this skill aligns with two contextual domains and those are- innovation and creativity; critical thinking motivates student to analyse and explore varied perceptions and opinions by incorporating their creativity and innovations. All of these aspects significantly contributes in independent learning and makes student able to undertake their learning procedure in significant manner.

Critique

Rarita (2022) study focused on highlighting the crucial factors associated with critical thinking skills and its impact on academic development. There was an in-depth analysis undertaken by author however, the weakness comprised with lack of justification behind selected methodology. Whereas, Pagán Castaño et al, (2023) article presented appropriate information and justification behind selecting methods while; the study was lacking in comparing and contrasting findings. The study could have been more effective if author have emphasised on comparing and contrasting findings. Raj et al, (2022) highlighted about the contribution of critical thinking in academic development by highlighting different context such as- decision making, problem solving and researching skill. In this manner, author presented detailed information regarding research context.

Rarita (2022) elucidated that critical thinking is essential for enhancing students academic development as it empowers them to take significant decisions related to choosing sources for completing assignment. This fosters thinking of scholar and supports them in understanding important concepts related to their learning. Critical thinking is directly correlated with academic development of students; it guides regarding the ways in which students can analyse, evaluate and interpret information related to a topic. On the other hand, Pagán Castaño et al, (2023) emphasised on different components of critical thinking and specified about analysing, inference, evaluation, explanation, self-regulation, reasoning and open-mindedness. All of these domains contributes in improving researching capabilities of learners and enables them to identify appropriate articles comprehends with study context. Raj et al, (2022) specified that critical thinking and academic development are interlinked with each other; through critical analysis scholar can foster creativity and innovation in their decisions that directly impacts their learning procedure. Further, student becomes able to understand the importance of maintaining academic integrity and subsequently, they select articles on the basis of their reliability and creditability.

Conclusion

Conclusively; this can be said that critical thinking enhances ability to take decisions and contributes in effectively understanding varied concepts. This is significantly linked with academic development of learners and fosters their understanding so they can collect, analyse and interpret information.

References

Books and Journals

Bellaera, L., Weinstein-Jones, Y., Ilie, S. and Baker, S.T., 2021. Critical thinking in practice: The priorities and practices of instructors teaching in higher education. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 41, p.100856.

Pagán Castaño, J., Arnal-Pastor, M., Pagán-Castaño, E. and Guijarro-García, M., 2023. Bibliometric analysis of the literature on critical thinking: an increasingly important competence for higher education students. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 36(2).

Raj, T., Chauhan, P., Mehrotra, R. and Sharma, M., 2022. Importance of critical thinking in the education. World Journal of English Language, 12(3), pp.126-133.

Rarita, M., 2022. The relevance of critical thinking from the perspective of professional training. Postmodern Openings, 13(2), pp.499-513.