I was inspired to write this blog post by my cousin who posted a great quote on Twitter about Critical Thinking. Well, it got me thinking haha. I just want to use this post to spew some random thoughts and philosophy of thinking in general.
As a teacher, whether I wanted to or not, I have become very familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy and other systems or models that try to differentiate the different levels of thinking. The fist stages usually involve Analyzing information in a basic way, who, what, when, where, and why etc. Then they work their way up through constructing one's own ideas etc., until they reach the highest level which usually involves one's ability to critically evaluate information and so on. These models are interesting, but what if we took it a step further?
This is where I want to discuss merging self reflection with high level critical thinking. I do not have a fancy name for this so I will just call it, The Self Realization Model. In this model self reflection (constantly looking at one's own actions) and critically thinking about the various information, situations, and one's overall state of being merge together so that a person can be consistently conscious of their positive or negative impact on the world around them.
You may say to yourself, this is all just common sense, but is it? Imagine being so aware and conscious of your own state of being that you can predict and evaluate situations mentally, then make rational, reasonable decisions all before an event happens. Thus leading to less negative impact on the world around you. Ask yourselves how many times you subjectively and quickly reacted to a situation only to wish you could take back what you said or what you did? To be consciously aware of your own state of being at all times could lead to some pretty smooth sailing.
There is no way in the world I can dive into this as deeply as I would like to in a blog post, but the merging of self reflection and critical thinking could raise overall consciousness of one's self and propel the world around them forward in a very positive way. This higher state of consciousness would lead to better educational instruction, one's health/diet, better relationships with people and most of all the world around them. All of this is made possible only if a person makes the choice to engage themselves critically as well, instead of projecting negative self image and feelings. Always looking at yourself first and asking, "what can I do to make this situation better?" It is like the old saying, "if you encounter 20 jerks in 1 day, you will see the biggest jerk in the mirror."
Sorry this may not make much sense in a short blog post, but I just felt like getting some ideas written down. This is all still a work in progress and I will continue to try to elevate my own conscious by merging self reflection and critical thinking hopefully one day reaching my own Self Realization. Will I like who I meet? Have a great day!!!!!
