What Are The Three Steps Of Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking refers to the detailed analysis of a thought process whenever an individual comes across a new piece of information. It involves an objective and dispassionate bent of mind that attempts to eliminate all kinds of bias in order to arrive at a decision.

Tools used to critically think are observation, interaction, experience and reasoning. The objective is to arrive at a conclusion through a process that is clear, fair, thorough and precise. All inferences have to be arrived at on the basis of evidence and not on the basis of opinion. If an opinion is sought then the opinion giver must be a bona fide expert in the subject in which he is giving his opinion. Benjamin Bloom refers to the cognitive domain as a layer of intellectual behavior. This cognitive domain facilitates critical thinking in a human being. Critical thinking should be developed during childhood itself. A skeptical mind is better than the one which has all the answers.

Critical thinking is a big topic and there can be a lot of stages involved. However, one  popular three step formula goes like this: Size up the situation, consider the alternatives and then think about the process. You can see more details here.