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What Is Critical Thinking

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Reading 1.3-1: What is critical thinking? 1
Reading 1.3-1: What is critical thinking?
The world of accounting has changed dramatically over the past 50 years. In 1965, the key skills expected of a new CGA could best be described as ―technical‖ — the application of accounting, auditing, and other related skills to the recording of transactions and the generation of financial statements.
However, by the mid-1990s, the notion of competency-based assessment had replaced this older model of skills assessment. The development of a competency map identifying key skills required for the accounting profession indicated that a key skill is the ability to think critically.
Simply put, critical thinking is a type of thinking that questions assumptions. The Critical Thinking
Community at http://www.criticalthinking.org/ provides the following definition:
Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way.
Critical thinking can be applied to any course in the CGA Program of Professional Studies. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning, which consists of
 Purpose, problem, or question at issue
 Assumptions
 Concepts
 Empirical grounding
 Reasoning leading to conclusions
 Implications and consequences
 Objections from alternative viewpoints
 Frame of reference
―Critical,‖ as used in the term ―critical thinking,‖ relates to the importance or centrality of thinking to the issue, question, or problem of concern. ―Critical‖ in this context does not mean criticism. For example, consider the following table:
2 + 3 = 5
4 x 2 = 7
8 – 5 = 3
3 + 6 = 9
8 ÷ 4 = 2
Quickly, what was your initial reaction? Was it that one of those is wrong? That’s correct, but did you go further — or have the initial thought — that

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