REFLECTION S

CRITICAL THINKING

In my opinion critical thinking as a subject has many new aspects that makes me interested to know
how to gain this skill and apply it in my practical life. During this course we learned the meaning of
critical thinking and our teacher explained the importance of using such skill. We learned that critical
thinking helps communication, helps us build a logical sense and reactions for whatever happens
around us and it also a good tool for decision making.
Critical thinking can be used in any situation and it should be used almost all the time. Im already an
employee and I believe that Im using it on my daily life without noticing and I didnt know that what I
used to do is considered a critical thinking until this course but now I have more knowledge and my
skill has be improved.
Finally, critical thinking is a highly significant and an important raising topic in the recent educational
methods. It means that we need to use accurate thinking to reach appropriate and dependable
knowledge about different issues. Another way to describe the importance of critical thinking is a
responsible and skilful thinking that leads to decide what to believe or not to believe in.

VALUABLE INTELLECTUAL TRAITS

If a group of fishes lives together and one fish
try to jump out of the pool, we can learn that
this fish is thinking differently than the other
fishes. The one fish was thinking
independently. This example can show us
how to evaluate the independent thinking.
It is important to think with a fair mind but
unfortunately its not an easy task to
accomplish especially when we discuss
something related to us.
While trying to see how things will go if a
group of us decide to split in to 2 different
groups and argue about a topic. Some of us
are with it and the other group against. We
came to know that is easy to stand for our
point of view but on the other hand it is
difficult to accept the other groups point of
view.
When we talk about Intellectual Humility we
should realize the limitation of our knowledge.
In Intellectual humility, we should depend on
recognising what actually knows and not
claim more than what we know.

BELIEF VS. KNOWLEDGE

Everybody has knowledge and beliefs, the knowledge is a process of investigation and gathering
information to make sure that we are certain about the present subject. The belief is about having a
strong feeling that something is true and the feeling leads to accepting this thing.
During this course I have learned that there are a big different between what we believe and what we
know, in my opinion belief is what our emotions tells us, what we imagine is right and our ideals. On the
other side, knowledge is the facts detected from a solid source.

FACT, OPINION AND BIAS

The above words are very common and we use
them and read them everywhere. We learned
what each of them means. These three words
are important because it is needed for
evaluating different information, especially while
reading.
We can conclude that facts are definite
and true information that are based on
proved evidence. Opinions are our beliefs
which are based on our personal judgments.
Biases includes all the opinions or beliefs that
affect our ability to make fair judgments or
decisions.

SOCIO-CENTRICITY
It is about preferring our own group to be better than all the other groups. This type of critical thinking
can create conflicts between individuals and communities. For example if we say people from England
speak better English than Americans this can lead to problems between these two groups. In the class
we had the opportunity to use our critical thinking skills to identify socio-centricity and how we can avoid
it or at least be fair when choosing one side..

STEREOTYPES

Stereotyping is what the public belief or what the others think about certain group of people with similar
features. An example of stereotyping was what published in an article about young Emirati men and
how lazy they are at work. It is not only accusing all of them with something wrong, it in fact can hurt the
feelings of all the young Emirati hard working men. Even if the stereotype can be true sometimes but
its not the right way to correct things and we definitely cant generalize things only because one person
form that group did something wrong.

PERSUASIVE LANGUAGE

It is using a language in order to convince someone to agree on a particular issue or to do something

for you. Persuasive language is widely common in advertising. It helps marketing salesmen to convince
there customers to buy something. Persuasive language can also be used in different situations as well.
The learned many types of persuasive language like: punctuation, use of adjectives, Appeal to emotion,
language of inclusion of division, language of science and technology. Language of number and
statistics, homer, appeal to benefits. The activity was to make a presentation about a famous product
and what type of persuasive language I will use to convince the young Emirati to buy this product.

SCIENTIFIC
METHOD
Scientific method is a method of research in which a
recognised health or scientific problem is identified, related data are collected, a hypothesis is
formulated, and then the hypothesis is tested to get results. Certain steps should be followed to solve a
problem in a proper way.

The steps are as the following:

The purpose: where you can write the problem in hand.
Research: find out about the topic.
Hypothesis: predict the outcome for the problem
Experiment: create a way to test the hypothesis.
Analysis: analyse the result of the experiment and use a software if available.
Conclusion: compare between the hypothesis and the experiment
From I learned, most of the scientist follow similar steps to proof their theory with a valid evidence.
There are two well-known scientific arguing used by the scientist. The first one is Deductive which is an
argument that is intended by the arguer to be valid, that is, to provide a guarantee of the truth of the
conclusion provided that the argument's premises are true. The second one is Inductive which is an
argument that is intended by the arguer merely to establish or increase the probability of its conclusion.
In an inductive argument, the premises are intended only to be so strong that, if they were true, then it
would be unlikely that the conclusion is false. (taken from the lecture slides).

ARGUMENT AND
PREMISES
A premise is to state that an argument claims will induce or justify a conclusion. An argument is an
attempt to persuade someone of something. We can persuade them by giving strong reasons to accept
a specific conclusion. To ensure that our argument has an evident Validity, we should first imagine that
the premises are true. Keeping in mind that validity does not have to do with the actual truth or falsity of
the premises. It only has to do with what would follow from the argument if they were true. A valid
argument can have false premises. A sound argument is an argument that is both valid and factually
correct. Knowing the definition and the difference will help us understand what the hidden ideas inside
any article are and what the writer really wants to tell us .

CONFORMITY

When someone changes his attitude or behaviour intentionally to be more like

others, this is called conformity. Conformity have a positive and a negative
effects on individuals. Being a member of a society means we have to confirm to
the rules of the society, to follow social norms and change our behaviour to fit
the place we are in and people around us. In my opinion creating a balance
between when to conform and when not to confirm is a huge challenge because
after all we dont want to lose our identity and what we really wants.

FALLACIES

Throughout our lives we come across different fallacies. We create them or

simply we believe in someone else's fallacy. Although I used to know deep in
myself that a fallacy is wrong and recognize that it doesn't have sold basic, I
never had the courage to stand up against it and say loud that this is a wrong
misconception especially if a fallacy is coming from my parents or someone
important in my family.
It is important to give fallacies attention because we need to start to understand
that fallacy is wrong and we have to avoid it. Fallacy can sometimes make people
live in fear and prevent them from living in peace. It can lead to conflicts and we
might be behind others. Fallacy can also interfere with our daily life activities. As
Muslims we believe in destiny and we should believe that whatever happens to
us is written and its Allah's welling. We shouldnt connect a natural act that
happens for natural reasons with bad things. Finally, as humans we all have to
use the critical thinking skill to find a logical explanation for what happens
around us.