CPD tips - How to develop critical thinking skills

Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate information or opinions thoroughly in order to reach accurate and insightful conclusions. This soft skill helps one to develop a deeper understanding of a subject or topic based on rational thought and seeks to overcome biases, avoid assumptions and identify misinformation.

Why is critical thinking such an important skill?

The benefits of honing your critical thinking skills are incredibly useful in people’s personal and professional life. In every workplace, you will face problems to solve and decisions to make in which you’re presented with a source of information to inform the necessary action. Developing critical thinking skills is a surefire way to improve your ability to navigate these scenarios.

Equally, considering the overwhelming amount of information that we are all subject to on a daily basis and the prevalence of misinformation at present, critical thinking is, in many ways, an essential soft skill within modern society.

What are the key principles of critical thinking?

1. Collect information from various sources

Everyone has an angle or an agenda, no matter how impartial they attempt to be. This is a universal truth that is essential to remember when trying to uncover an accurate understanding of a topic. The best and only course of action to tackle this is to keep a broad and varied pool of resources. You’ll quickly find that where one source framed a piece of information as a fact, another source questions its validity. By cross-referencing multiple sources, you can evaluate the credibility of key points or pieces of evidence from every angle and build up a stronger understanding of what is fact and what is flimsy.

This applies to working practices as much as it does to research tasks. Looking to improve an internal process? Ask everyone in the team for input, not just your manager. Working on a pitch deck? Send it to heads of different departments and collate the feedback - if a common theme comes up, you know that that’s definitely a priority to change.

2. Interrogate information

Starting with the author’s position, agenda and credibility, dive into the information they’re presenting and do your best to unpick it. Does the author have any inherent biases that haven’t been accounted for? How have they come to a certain conclusion? Were any assumptions made? Does the logic track? Is the evidence credible? Is it up to date? Answering these questions is vital to uncovering whether the information is not just credible but useful to your understanding and making well-informed decisions.

3. Form an opinion

Do you agree with the conclusions? Why? Why not? Outline your position based on your evaluation of different sources and examine that. Again look for any assumptions or logical flaws in reaching your conclusion. Is there a chance that an emotional response has clouded your understanding/analysis?

You’ll see at this point that you’re already building up a much more well-rounded and considered opinion after following steps one and two. Self-reflecting and being critical of your own opinion at this stage is a further step in reaching the most rational conclusion.

4. Address your biases

Most commonly, when looking to think critically we are trying to identify cognitive biases in order to limit their effect on our judgement. Cognitive biases warp or distort our perception of information, hampering our ability to form subjective judgements of opinions or information.

For the most part, cognitive biases occur as shortcuts of thinking, ways that the brain tries to act more efficiently but, in doing so, circumvents balanced thought. As such, it’s important to actively look for signs of bias in your thought processes and address how it may have affected your judgement. Some of the most common and pervasive examples of cognitive bias include:

Confirmation bias

Arguably, the most important to understand and be aware of is confirmation bias. This is the act of only seeking out or considering information that supports your viewpoint. In its simplest form, it is subtly elevating the importance of something that backs you up whilst subconsciously ignoring a point of view that challenges it. In its most aggressive form, it is to willfully overlook information that contradicts your beliefs. 

In-group bias

This is when a person tends to trust the information of someone within the same social or cultural group. It can lead to a lack of diversity in thinking as well as negatively affect working practices, like discrimination when hiring, for example.

Dunning-Kruger effect

This is when someone perceives a subject as overly simple due to their own limited understanding of it. It can prevent people from motivating themselves to understand a topic in more detail as they already think they know enough when in reality, they have an overly simplified understanding.

Availability bias

This describes when a person understands a topic or idea just by the information that is easily remembered, not the information that best represents the idea. In these cases, we assign validity to information that is easier to remember rather than the accuracy of the information itself.

How can I improve my critical thinking skills?

Read with purpose

Before diving straight into your research, think specifically about what you want to get out of it. Is it a general overview of a subject? Is it specific facts or the author’s viewpoint? What is the most valuable to you, and what you’re trying to achieve? It’s impossible to read every text, blog or article on a subject. Using these guiding questions will help to identify the most useful sources.

Question everything

This is the fundamental practice of thinking critically. Asking questions that help evaluate and interrogate what information is, why it’s useful, who has presented it and why are all key to reaching a balanced and clear picture. As with any skill, practice makes perfect. Practice questioning information within articles or shared internally. Try to answer key questions about the validity of evidence, the credibility of the source and the logic that drives the conclusion. Practice questioning your own bias too - did you overlook any key points when drawing your conclusions? Why might that be?

Practice analysing

In order to hone your analytical skills, try applying an analytical mindset to different situations. Aside from working through research tasks and analysing which sources are the best, try taking a moment from your work day and breaking it down analytically. Note down exactly what events occurred and your reaction to them. Try to make clear distinctions between what actually happened (the facts) and your emotional responses. Separating the two is a foundational skill in critical thinking.

Take a critical thinking CPD course

With critical thinking such a useful skill in personal and professional development, it is well worth undertaking a dedicated course to you further develop this skill. 

Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service has over 27 years’ experience providing CPD accreditation. With members in over 100 countries, our CPD providers benefit from the ability to promote themselves as part of an international community where quality is both recognised and assured. Within the CPD Courses Catalogue, there are thousands of training courses, conferences and events, workshops and eLearning available from our members that will help you to develop the critical thinking skills mentioned in this article and more.

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