NUR 3010 Introduction to Professional Nursing
Writing Assignment 1: Self-Assessment Evaluation
Defining Critical Thinking According to the book, “Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument”, by Stella Cottrell, critical thinking can be defined as a “cognitive activity where the use of your mind is inevitable” (Cottrell, 2011, pg 18). Critical thinking is being able to analyze and evaluate issues and/or situations to form an intelligent judgement -or in other words: to find the best solution to a problem. Mental processes such as attention, categorization, selection, and judgement are all used when learning to “think critically”. Nearly anyone can enhance their critical thinking skills, however, several reasons can cause barriers such as: beliefs taught to us by our families at a young age, emotions, personal opinions, closed mindedness, prejudice, etc. Three barriers that have stopped me from becoming the best critical thinker I can be so far are: 1.) At a young age, I was taught what is right and what is wrong, not to mention that my family shared their political views openly at home –which is not a bad thing, however: being exposed to their views automatically made me think for the longest time that those were my views as well because in all honesty it’s easier to agree with your parents than to disagree, just as it is easier to go along with the status quo than against it. With that being said, I grew up and developed my own way of thinking -which in some cases did actually differ from my parent
NUR 3010 Introduction to Professional Nursing
NUR 3010 Introduction to Professional Nursing
Writing Assignment 1: Self-Assessment Evaluation
Defining Critical Thinking According to the book, “Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument”, by Stella Cottrell, critical thinking can be defined as a “cognitive activity where the use of your mind is inevitable” (Cottrell, 2011, pg 18). Critical thinking is being able to analyze and evaluate issues and/or situations to form an intelligent judgement -or in other words: to find the best solution to a problem. Mental processes such as attention, categorization, selection, and judgement are all used when learning to “think critically”. Nearly anyone can enhance their critical thinking skills, however, several reasons can cause barriers such as: beliefs taught to us by our families at a young age, emotions, personal opinions, closed mindedness, prejudice, etc. Three barriers that have stopped me from becoming the best critical thinker I can be so far are: 1.) At a young age, I was taught what is right and what is wrong, not to mention that my family shared their political views openly at home –which is not a bad thing, however: being exposed to their views automatically made me think for the longest time that those were my views as well because in all honesty it’s easier to agree with your parents than to disagree, just as it is easier to go along with the status quo than against it. With that being said, I grew up and developed my own way of thinking -which in some cases did actually differ from my parent
NUR 3010 Introduction to Professional Nursing
. NUR 3010 Introduction to Professional Nursing
NUR 3010 Introduction to Professional Nursing
Writing Assignment 1: Self-Assessment Evaluation
Defining Critical Thinking According to the book, “Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument”, by Stella Cottrell, critical thinking can be defined as a “cognitive activity where the use of your mind is inevitable” (Cottrell, 2011, pg 18). Critical thinking is being able to analyze and evaluate issues and/or situations to form an intelligent judgement -or in other words: to find the best solution to a problem. Mental processes such as attention, categorization, selection, and judgement are all used when learning to “think critically”. Nearly anyone can enhance their critical thinking skills, however, several reasons can cause barriers such as: beliefs taught to us by our families at a young age, emotions, personal opinions, closed mindedness, prejudice, etc. Three barriers that have stopped me from becoming the best critical thinker I can be so far are: 1.) At a young age, I was taught what is right and what is wrong, not to mention that my family shared their political views openly at home –which is not a bad thing, however: being exposed to their views automatically made me think for the longest time that those were my views as well because in all honesty it’s easier to agree with your parents than to disagree, just as it is easier to go along with the status quo than against it. With that being said, I grew up and developed my own way of thinking -which in some cases did actually differ from my parent




