Critical Thinking Skills

I am doing some work on how to use visual thinking in the collaborative work environment and got into an interesting discussion with the client regarding critical thinking skills,  the subtle differences for application of these skills in the business place of drug and device development versus the academic place, and how well prepared people may be for the demands of problem-solving in the workplace.

As a result of the conversation, I got looking for some reference materials regarding critical thinking and methods to improve these skills.  I came across this blog by Tim van Gelder: "Bringing Visual Clarity to Complex Issues" and his post regarding how critical thinking skills are acquired. Check it out.........a very interesting read. I am quite interested in van Gelder's comments regarding "situated cognition" where he states:

CT [critical thinking] is deeply tied to particular domains and can only be acquired through properly “situated” activity in each domain.  Extreme versions deny outright that there are any generic CT skills (e.g. McPeck).  Moderate versions claim, more plausibly, that increasingly general skills are acquired through engaging in domain-specific CT activities.

Originally published on our Knowledge Management blog