Bree Hohnbaum 10/4/2012 UF 300 Critical Thinking Being a critical thinker, to me, is all about using metacognition.

Metacognition means, in a basic sense, thinking about your thinking. When one is actively engaged in their reading and actually thinking about what they are reading, while they are reading it, will help them further understand the items being read. Pausing every once in a while, especially when the text is very dense, to think and ask yourself questions can deeper your knowledge on the topic and make the reader more active instead of passive. I like the idea that the article labeled Asking the Right Questions (2012) said about the sponge and the panning for gold. I think that in this day, many people do believe everything they read and see, especially on the internet. People need to pick and choose information that is credible and relevant. Many cites on the internet claim to be true and valid, but if you use the correct critical thinking skills, you can avoid getting a bunch of useful information so that you can focus on what is important and have valid, good information. Some people like to call this the meat of the information. The last point I would like to make is to stress the importance of asking yourself, and sometimes others, many questions. Such questions of who, what, where, when, why, how and other questions relating to this are super important when talking about critical thinking. Both articles stressed this as well. Asking yourself questions like why am I doing this? or who cares? are good when critical thinking because it helps you synthesize information and pick out what is needed and what can be discarded.