Critical Thinking Skills Needed for Doctoral Studies
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Who needs critical thinking? Every student that wants to be successful on the doctoral level must have critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills help students to think about problems or events beyond a superficial level. At this point in education, proposing simple solutions to problems will not yield an easy fix. Not to mention that preparing to work in the real world as a psychologist is a challenging endeavor in itself. Adding to that is the complexity of solving various issues set before the professional by clients, managed care, occupational settings (expectations and benchmarks), practice organizations, and so forth. Thus, a student would be wise to begin learning how to strengthen their critical thinking or reflective thinking skills.
So what is critical thinking? According to the University of Houston (2008), critical thinking is noted as "a mental process of analyzing or evaluating information. The information can be gathered from observation, experience, reasoning or communication," (para. 1). Another definition proposed by the University of Houston (2008) states that "[c]ritical thinking is based in intellectual values that go beyond subject matter divisions and include clarity, accuracy, precision, use of evidence, thoroughness, and fairness," (para. 1).
What does critical thinking entail? The University of Houston (2008) goes on to share the types of task that critical thinkers engage in entail "accurately interpreting evidence, statements and graphics; identifying salient arguments and counterarguments; analyzing and evaluating alternative points of view; drawing warranted, judicious, and non-fallacious conclusions; justifying key results and procedures; and fair-mindedly following where evidence and reason lead, (para 1.)"
Likewise, Lynch and Wolcott (2001) mention that most academic assignments (tests, papers, discussions) require that students recognize or repeat information from course notes, lectures, and textbooks. Instead of utilizing rote memory and other simplistic recall methods, Lynch and Wolcott (2001) suggest that effective thinking requires "dealing with open-ended problems that are fraught with significant and enduring uncertainties about such issues as the scope of the problem, interpretations of relevant information, range of solution options, and potential outcomes of various options," (p. 2).
Where do I find resources on critical thinking; how should I use these resources? With this in mind, the question becomes how do students looking to enter doctoral studies begin applying critical thinking standards? Well, a good step is to read journal articles and texts on critical thinking in a general sense and in context to psychology. There are many articles, power point presentations, and video discussions on the topic (some resources are provided at the end of the post). I would recommend that students utilize their university's library for resources on critical thinking. If a student decides to find resources online, then choose guides that are based in educational centers like universities or established organizations on the topic. Once a student has critical thinking resources, begin applying the skills to your research projects, study habits, and in your thought processes. Try to think about your work and research interests by challenging your assumptions, finding other methods to evaluate your evidenciary support, considering alternatives to your viewpoints, and so forth.
What does critical thinking have to do with applying for doctoral programs? The overall point to understand about critical thinking is that such skills are not only required to complete doctoral level academic and clinical work but also to work in the community as a licensed professional. Critical thinking will help students reflect on their hypotheses, produce a range of potential solutions, have the ability to critique methodologies that possess or lack efficacy, organize their work in ways that are conducive to the specific project, evaluate the use of specific materials or tools for various research and didactic tasks, etc. Besides, all professors, dissertation committees, practicum supervisors, pre-doctoral internship supervisors, post doctoral residency supervisors, licensing boards (written and oral exams), and clients expect a professional in psychology to have critical thinking skills to resolve complex issues with sensitivity and wisdom.
Direct Resource Links:
http://www.las.uh.edu/LSS/handouts/College%20Success/Critical%20Thinking.pdf
(University of Houston)
https://www.lavc.edu/stars/handouts/11292011/Critical%20Thinking%20Guide.pdf
(Los Angeles Valley College)
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/elements-and-standards-learning-tool/783
http://ideaedu.org/sites/default/files/IDEA_Paper_37.pdf
References
Lynch, C. L., & Wolcott, S. K. (2001). Helping your students develop critical thinking skills.
Retrieved from http://ideaedu.org/sites/default/files/IDEA_Paper_37.pdf
http://www.las.uh.edu/LSS/handouts/College%20Success/Critical%20Thinking.pdf
