Critical Thinking: arguing its importance in education In todays ever changing and globalised word, the way for

societies to move forward is by aspiring and educating its members to think critically. It is now more obvious than ever before that the ability to think critically plays a vital role in many areas such as business, government and education.

Although, the origins of critical thinking can be traced thousands of years ago in the teachings of Socrates, who was the first to teach using this approach to learning, the academic term critical thinking evolved rapidly in the second half of the twentieth century. But what is critical thinking? Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused in on deciding what to believe or do, (Ennis & Norris, 1989, cited Fisher, 2001). Paul et al. (1993) defined critical thinking on a different basis. According to them critical thinking is that mode of thinking about any subject, content or problem in which the thinker improves the quality of his/her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.

In recent years, educational institutions especially on the tertiary level have realized the importance of teaching skills such as critical thinking to their students, as it is now widely accepted that if they learn to think critically will have the opportunity to develop their intellectual, social and professional skills. In order to succeed this, universities are now incorporating critical thinking into their curriculum either as a single subject or by using an interdisciplinary approach. The academic world though, has mixed views whether or not the skill of critical thinking can be taught as part of a curriculum or students can develop the skill through their own explorations and experiences. Sternberg and Williams (2002) suggest that critical thinking is thinking and therefore a natural process that is carried out by everyone and develops as we grow through our knowledge and experiences. On the other hand, although excellence in thinking is a natural process it can be argued that it has to be cultivated because if left to itself, it is often biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, and potentially prejudiced (Duron et. al, 2006). Therefore, students should be formally taught how to think critically. In this way they will develop skills which will help them during their studies as they will be able critically evaluate information provided, perform high-quality research and conduct stimulating debates. Most importantly, though, an educational system that teaches its

students to think critically provides them with the unique life opportunity to turn into responsible adults and active members of their society. In todays global economic recession more than ever the need for people, who are equally well-educated and have acquired high levels of critical and analytical thinking skills, could help our society move forward and help find a way out of the economic crisis. References
Duron, R., Limbach, B., & Waugh, W., (2006) Critical thinking framework for any

discipline. International Journal of Teaching and Learning Higher Education, V.17 ed. 2, p.p 160-166. Fischer, A. (2001) Critical Thinking: A an introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press Sternberg, R. J., & Williams W. M. (2002) Educational psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.