Critical Thinking And Analysis Skills Will Open Doors

By Taj Martin-Simpson

Hello to all the beautiful brains of ACE!

Make yourself a cup of tea and have a good, long, hard think about the following classic critical thinking problem.

Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like, but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How do they know they’ve got their man?

Close your eyes and picture the scene. How could they have possibly known?

If you already have the answer, it sounds as if you would find this course very interesting! If not, maybe it wouldn’t hurt you to try it out!

What are critical thinking and analysis skills?

“I already think all of the time; I don’t need to take a course,” I can hear you saying.  And you are right, of course. Well, half right.  Everyone thinks, but what about the quality of your thinking? Have you ever spent time examining the reasons for what you believe? So much of what floats through our heads on a day-to-day basis is biased, unexamined, partial, misinformed, unquestioned or completely prejudiced. For example, sexist, racist or elitist concepts – there is a clue for your thinking puzzle by the way!

Examining the way we think is incredibly important since the quality of our thoughts affects the quality of how effectively we learn. This, in turn, affects everything we make and do, ultimately our entire lives.

So how can the course help?

The course is designed to empower you to develop yourself in these areas:

• Having and giving good, strong, valid and believable arguments
• Being better able to identify fallacy, or “bad” arguments (this is an important skill in debate and life!)
• Telling between “fact” and what everybody simply just believes (rightly or wrongly) apart
• Divergent thinking – or thinking “outside the box”. By the way, how is that thinking problem going?
• Identifying and examining preconceptions and bias
• Solving problems logically, systematically and effectively

Many people take this course to help them in their studies and workplace. These are perfectly good reasons to take a course, but the fact is that developing your critical thinking and analysis skills has the potential to change everything from buying a car, to deciding how many kids to have! It may even help you with your “who-dunnit” skills!

Remember the arrest of the fireman? What assumptions did you make? What preconceptions did you have? When you closed your eyes and pictured the card players, were they men or women? Have I given it away yet? You’re right! The police arrested the fireman because the carpenter, lorry driver, and mechanic playing cards were all women, so they knew to arrest the only man.

See you in class!