Critical thinking is often touted as a superior way to confront the issues one faces. But what is critical thinking, really? How is it done? Can anyone do it, or are Spock-like mental abilities required? Critical thinking is sometimes talked about as a near-mystical skill that exercises ...
Thinking and Deciding
Our world is increasingly complex and demanding. It’s not enough to rely on simple rules-of-thumb to navigate life, as they leave you vulnerable to undue influence and cognitive bias.
By building your skills for thinking and deciding, you can adopt more effective ways to reason through critical situations. In this category, we write about creative and critical thinking, as well as ways you can make better decisions.
You can read all about thinking and deciding under this topic. Here are 3 essential articles to get started:
How to Develop Your Intuitive Decision Making
Critical Thinking in Decision Making
Critical Thinking Skills: What are They and How Do I Get Them?
3 Ways Concept Maps Help You Learn
Concept maps are pictures that that show how ideas relate to each other. In a concept map, ideas are represented as nodes, and the relationships between them as links with descriptive labels. Concept maps can be very large and complex—and they can be very small and simple. You can use concept ...
Keep Impulsivity in Check by Thinking about the Future
Ahh, the beginning of a new year. Time to start thinking about making up for recent overindulgences. Holiday festivities, treats, and good cheer stretching back to November have been chipping away at our rational minds bit by bit. Offering decisive indulgence and immediate gratification in ...
Building Spatial Thinking Improves STEM success
You fall off of a ledge, dropping through a hole in the floor, only to find yourself hurtling out the side of a wall like a cannon ball. If you can imagine that easily, you have great spatial thinking skills. Or you’ve been playing Portal 2. Perhaps your spatial reasoning got a boost from ...
Five Metacognitive Strategies to Change Your Mind
Everyday learning often starts with a surprise. Something unexpected happens and you use that to change your understanding. You learn the most when you use metacognitive strategies to adapt your mindset. Metacognition is what you know about how you think and learn. It includes knowing what you ...