Critical Thinking: Asking Critical Questions.

The acts of reading, thinking and listening critically whereby we can react with systematic evaluation to what we have heard, read or listened to impinges upon us to possess a skill set and collection of attitudes. In order to think critically, we need a set of critical questions. It is a matter of asking the right questions that can lead us on the path to answers, regardless of the concept that there is no right answer.

Critical questions are what give us the stimulus, drive and direction for critical thinking. Critical questions propel us in the right trajectory to explore better ideas, fuller opinions , make better judgments and quality decisions.

Hence critical thinking refers to the following dimensions of Critical Thinking:

1. Awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions;

2.Ability to ask and answer critical questions at appropriate times;

3.The desire to actively use the critical questions.       
  

   
These questions will enable us to have a deeper understanding of an issue. Questions have the function of requiring the person asked questions to respond to them. The respondent then must reply to the questioner.

These critical questions assists us when;

A.We react critically to an essay or to evidence presented in a textbook, journal, magazine, other periodical , or on a website;

B. Judge the quality of a speech or lecture;

C. Form an argument;

D. Write an essay or thesis or dissertation based on a reading assignment;

E. Participate in a class or tutorial.

In order to answer critical questions our thinking styles must be able to to answer them. There are two thinking styles that we can use. 

1. Sponge Approach;

2. Panning for Gold Approach.

1. The Sponge Approach takes it name from the similar manner in which a sponge absorbs water. This approach sees the absorption of information. This approach emphasizes knowledge acquisition . The approach is a productive start in becoming a thoughtful and knowledgeable person.

The first advantage of the sponge approach is that with more information about the world being absorbed, the more knowledgeable one becomes and is capable of understanding the complexities of the world. The knowledge acquired becomes a foundation for more complicated thinking later.

The second advantage of the approach is that it is relatively passive. It does not require much mental effort. It tends to be quick and easy, especially when the material is presented in a lucid and engaging style. The primary effort in using the approach are concentration and memory.

However, the approach has a serious disadvantage: it does not provide a method for deciding which information and opinion to believe and which to reject. A reader who relies on this approach all the time, he or she would believe whatever was read last by them. Decisions become accidents of association, instead of reflective judgments.

2. The Panning for Gold Approach gets the reader to decide for himself or herself what to absorb and what to reject. In order to do this, a special attitude is required- a questioning attitude. A questioning attitude is where everything that is read is questioned. This thinking style calls for an active participation in the thinking process. The writer is talking to the reader and in turn the reader is talking back to the writer. This approach is a model for active readers and active listeners. It is where the active readers and listeners are trying to determine the worth of what they read or hear. This can be a challenging and tedious task, but it comes with great rewards. In order to sift through the facts , the reader or listener must ask frequent questions and reflect on the answers and to reflect on the answers.

The difference between the sponge and panning for gold approaches lies in how knowledge is acquired. The sponge approach emphasizes knowledge acquisition without questioning the knowledge or facts. On the other hand, the panning for gold approach emphasizes active interaction with the knowledge as it is being acquired. The two approaches complement each other. This is because in order to pan for intellectual gold, so to speak, or in other words to obtain the pertinent facts, one must have something to look for. In order to evaluate arguments, there must be a body of knowledge to draw on in order to form dependable opinions. 

An examination of how the two approaches work will shine more light into how they lead to different behaviour. The reader using the sponge approach will read as much as he or she can carefully, and trying to remember as much as possible. The reader may underline or highlight sentences and keywords. The reader may take notes summarizing the main points and major topics. There will be checking of of the sentences or points that were underlined to ensure that nothing was left out. The reader's rationale is to find and understand what the author has to say. The reader memorizes the reasoning, but does not evaluate it.

On the other hand, the reader who is following the panning for gold will, like the reader who is following the sponge approach, approach his or her reading with the hope that he or she will acquire new knowledge. It is at that this junction that the similarity ends. The panning for gold reader will ask himself or herself a number of questions designed in order to reveal the best decision or beliefs. This reader will constantly or frequently question why the author makes various claims. The reader will ask what does the author mean by something written down?, what are the possible beliefs or evidence for something?, how adequate is the writers research?, how many of something was mentioned? why was someone or something involved in a matter?

The salient feature in panning for gold is interactive involvement- a dialogue between the reader and the author, or the speaker and the listener.

Panning for gold is an important critical thinking style. People's reasoning is never obvious. People leave out important elements. Often many elements when present are not clear and straight-forward. Hence, critical reading and listening skills are needed to determine what makes sense and distinguish clear thinking from irrational and incoherent thinking. We must be active readers and listeners. We can do this by constantly questioning the writer or speaker. The ideal strategy for this is the critical-questioning strategy. This powerful strategy affords the questioner or reader or listener to search for questions when he or she does not know the content being listened to or being read. For instance, one does not need to know about the advantages of wind power or the adequacy of pollution control measures to ask questions about those matters.

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