RITx: LEAD103 Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

Abstract Thinking: Divergent Thinking. (Unit 1)

Analytical Ability: This means the know how to visualize, gather information, articulate, analyze, solve complex problems and make decisions. For example, analytical skills are essential in the workplace to ensure necessary problem solving occurs to the business functioning smoothly. (Unit 3)

Assumptions: These are our beliefs that we hold to be true without sufficient evidence or justification for holding these ideas. (Unit 3)

Aware Use: This is when we are aware that we are thinking about something in a particular way as we are doing that thinking. (Unit 2)

Concrete Thinking See Convergent Thinking. (Unit 1)

Confirmation Bias: This is when we are not inclined to accept a new idea or truth because it doesn't conform to our own thinking. (Unit 2)

Convergent Thinking: It's about making judgments, evaluating (sometimes even testing), and making decisions. It's about rating, making sense of the various ideas and ultimately clarifying the thinking. (Unit 1)

Creativity: The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules and patterns, and to create meaningful new ideas. (Unit 1)

Critical Thinking: Self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. (Unit 2)

Divergent Thinking: It's things such as imagination, creativity and coming up with the new and the possible. It's about expanding the possible number of solutions, not rejecting any idea out of hand. It's about being open and forcing the brain to be open to all possibilities. (Unit 1)

Ego: This is self-centered thinking and includes self-interested thinking and self-serving bias. (Unit 2)

Group Think: This is group-centered thinking and is when we tend to want to conform to what others think and as a result we suffer from group bias. (Unit 2)

IDEAL: Identifying, Defining, Exploring, Acting, Look back and learn. (Unit 3)

Initiative: This is seizing upon opportunities and taking the lead to solve problems, rather than to pass them on to other people. It can also involve anticipating potential problems and taking pre-emptive steps to resolve them. (Unit 3)

Lateral Thinking: This is our old friend creativity by another name. It involves discarding the obvious, leaving behind the usual modes of thought and throwing away preconceptions your inspiration and imagination to solve problems by looking at them from unexpected perspectives. (Unit 3)

Logical Reasoning: This is our major aspect of our other friend Critical Thinking. It is asking the important questions, gathering and assessing relevant information, arriving at well-reasoned conclusions while staying open-minded and then communicating effectively with others to arrive at solutions. (Unit 3)

Metacognition: Knowing "what we know" and "what we don't know." (Unit 2)

Persistence: This is the "stick to it" factor. Perseverance and persistence are highly related to the ability to not only solve the problem, but to also enact a solution. It's all very well to finally come up with a solution, but it only matters to you or your organization if it is carried out despite any obstacles. (Unit 3)

Poor Communication: This is when you either are incapable or choose not to communicate with all key stakeholders who will be affected by a decision. This likely means you don't have all the information you could have to critically think ahead of making a good decisions. (Unit 2)

Reflective Use: This is the highest level of metacognition and is where we reflect on our thinking before or after we have done that thinking as a way to consider both how to proceed and how to improve the thinking. (Unit 2)

Relativism: The way we can dismiss an idea because the truth "is just a matter of opinion."(Unit 2)

Stakeholder: Can be defined as anyone who is a part of, effected by, or a recipient of, a product, a process or service. (Unit 3)

Strategic Use: This is when we consciously plan to think about a problem or situation in a specific or several specific ways. (Unit 2)

Tacit Use: This is where we do some every-day thinking without really thinking about that process. (Unit 2)

Thick Thinking: Encourages more thoughtful questions – and therefore more diverse thinking -. Questions such as What if? What would happen if? (Unit 1)

Thin Thinking: Asking the most basic questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? And how? (Unit 1)

Wishful Thinking: Believing that something is true simply because deep down we wish it were true. (Unit 2)