Can Critical Thinking be taught?

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Critical thinking, and how to achieve it, can be taught. However, this process takes some time and patience. By developing a cooperative work environment, employees are freed from the idea that they must come up with every idea and product on their own. This team strategy leads coworkers to view themselves as part of the team, working cooperatively with the rest of the team toward a common goal. Competition from one team with the next may still exist, but team members are not asked to compete against each other. When competition within the team is eliminated, they are comfortable asking each other for input and also for help. Coworkers are called coworkers for a reason and when a group of people work cooperatively, they co-labor to achieve common goals.

The process of teaching critical thinking will take an investment of time and energy, but will deliver an increasingly significant, and consistent, work product. The time investment will pay off in dividends such as increased productivity, fewer relationship problems, a better quality work product, and higher morale among those on the team.

In order to incorporate critical thinking into a business plan, it is important to start from the top and work all the way through the ranks to those who are implementing the plans. Keep in mind that working cooperatively, while incorporating, and thus teaching, the use of critical thinking, yields an ongoing implementation and process. This is not something that, once taught at a corporate retreat, is then placed on the shelf with teaching packets from years past, never to be thought of again. Critical thinking is a way of looking at every aspect of the day, from checking the calendar and task list for the day, to problem solving and implementation of new and better ideas along the way.



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