Critical thinking skills are paramount for your university studies. It is also a particular skill that students tend to struggle with, in terms of 'what it means' and 'how to employ' these skills to their studies and academic writing.
What is critical thinking?
Essentially, it is taking 'nothing for granted' - taking no ideas as 'universal truths'. As a university student you are expected to examine, question, investigate, find support, as well as uncover 'academic counter arguments' with ideas, concepts, questions and theories that you will encounter in your subjects, and not just accept them on 'face value' in a rather passive unenquiring manner.
It is essentially developing a 'detective like mind'.
Critical thinking involves a process of:
Engaging active thinking processes:
Be engaged with the material you're reading, ask questions about it as you read, don't accept it on face value, what else have you read that supports it / disagrees with it?
Asking questions about the material you are reading
Is this information current? Is there enough academic research backing up the evidence? Does the writer have a particular agenda that they are pushing? Is this peer reviewed data/information?
Evaluating the information you are exposed to
Ask yourself, is this information reliable? Is this information from a trustworthy source? Is there any bias evident here? Is it relevant to my context? Is it out of date? Is it connected to my discipline?
Discovering and finding relationships with the information/theories/concepts
How does this information fit in with the other information I know about this subject? Is it of the same opinion..or countering it? How does it fit in the big picture of what I'm learning? What else feeds into it?
Synthesising with other thinkers/concepts
What other thinkers agree on this topic? What are some of the counter arguments against it? Who has other ideas that feed in/support or negate these concepts?
Thinking of your own standpoint
How do I feel about this information? How do I know that this information is not being subjective? How do I know that this is reliable information? What does my own background experience lead me to believe on this subject?
By asking yourself these questions as you study, read and engage with academic texts you will begin to synthesise and draw together wider perspectives of thinking in your field. You will also begin to compare and contrast ideas, concepts and theories and bring these 'comparisons, contrasts and similarities' into your written work to help justify and clarify your own ideas/arguments. This will help to demonstrate your 'critical thinking' and 'critical analysis' skills as well as generally improve the standard of your written academic work.