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Monash University is Australia’s largest institute of learning.
Below is the response that I received from the Monash University’s site after putting “critical thinking” in my search engine.
“Critical thinking is a kind of thinking in which you question, analyze, interpret, evaluate and make a judgement about what you read, hear, say, or write. The term critical comes from the Greek word “kritikos” meaning “able to judge or discern.”
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The processes Critical Thinking offered by Monash University's site provides the above words in blue Let's examine them.
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Question - (obviously a process of questioning and it produces an answer)
Analyze – (analyzing is a process of questioning and an analysis is an answer)
Interpret – (interpreting is a process of questioning and an interpretation is an answer)
Evaluate – (evaluating is a process of questioning and an evaluation is an answer)
Judgement – (judging is a process of questioning and a judgement is an answer)
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First Conclusion:
It is apparent from Monash University's choice of words in their response that Critical Thinking is a process of asking Critical Questions.
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Then there is:
“kritikos” meaning is “able to judge or discern.” Judging and discerning are processes of questioning
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Second Conclusion:
The adjective "Critical" "kritikos" in Critical Thinking is also a questioning process. Critical Questioning then becomes Questioning Questioning. This says that we should question the effectiveness of the questions we use to insure to acquire critical answers or outcomes.
Getting deeper into the weeds . . .
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Additionally, we have researched the word cognition and found that it is a word for thinking. There is another word which is metacognition. The definition of metacognition is Thinking about Thinking.
We have established in this and previous explorations, that thinking is questioning. With this in mind, Thinking about Thinking becomes Questioning about Questioning. This falls in line with what we have found up to this point. The better we question the quality of our questions, the better life decisions, choices and our ability to solve problems.
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For individuals that are academics:
Look up Meta-interrogation as Meta-cognition. Here is what I found.
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"When you question your own questioning (e.g., "Is this the right question?" "Why am I asking this?" "How am I approaching this inquiry?"), you are engaging in meta-cognitive monitoring and control; core aspects of metacognition."
"Interrogation" is obviously asking questions. So, asking questions is a core aspect of metacognition; thinking about thinking. (questioning about questioning) A coincidence?
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Please continue to do your own research on all and everything in this INTRODUCTION page.