"EVOLUTION, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING " - A THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

This paper throws light on how a part of brain is involved in thinking and decision making followed by the earliest record of critical thinking in the ancient Greek by Socrates. Academically, John Dewey, who is considered to be the ‘Father’ of the modern Critical thinking is the forerunner of this tradition. His definition on ‘Reflective Thinking’ is later adopted by Edward Glaser who is the coauthor of Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. Robert Ennis joined this tradition of developing Critical thinking with his famous definition that gained a wide attention about ‘deciding what to do’. Another contribution in this row is Richard Paul with his different definition  ‘thinking about your thinking' which is also called as ‘metacognition’. Critical Thinking that was historically focusing on logical procedures went into a collection of sources from researches that surpassed the logical restriction by Kerry Walters in the year 1994. Critical Thinking today has become a part of all professional fields and academic disciplines. It is evident that through a process of reflective contextualization Critical thinking principles can be applied universally to different disciplines. Critical thinking is offered a subject in A-Level. Full advanced GCE is used in politics, philosophy, history or theology degree courses. Many examinations for university entrance set by the universities also include critical thinking component and the Thinking Skills Assessment.