How to become a better critical thinker

[Donzi]

Hi guys,

I hope everyone is focusing on their TC/VS apps and stocked up on Ben & Jerry's ice cream during Lockdown 2.0!

As it's an important part of a lawyer's job to be able to look at a situation and clearly understand it from multiple perspectives, whilst separating facts from assumptions, I have been trying to get better at critical thinking.

However, I am struggling at the moment and some guidance from TCLA's community as to the type of resources I could use would be much appreciated.

Donzi

 

[RubySmithers]

Also interested in this - I hope someone can offer some help!

 

[DeltaGamma64]

Hi guys,

I hope everyone is focusing on their TC/VS apps and stocked up on Ben & Jerry's ice cream during Lockdown 2.0!

As it's an important part of a lawyer's job to be able to look at a situation and clearly understand it from multiple perspectives, whilst separating facts from assumptions, I have been trying to get better at critical thinking.

However, I am struggling at the moment and some guidance from TCLA's community as to the type of resources I could use would be much appreciated.

Donzi

Hi there,

I think the key to improving your critical thinking is to treat it more like a mind-set as opposed to something you can just learn over night.

What has helped me to develop my critical thinking is to spend a few minutes reading through various news articles (which also brushes up on your commercial awareness) and then for you to form a view on what has been discussed. What was useful for me was that I developed the habit of thinking about each story from the perspective of three sides, namely, law firms, the respective industry the story relates to and the client/company the story concerns.

That way, you will develop the habit of questioning the wider impact of each story, critically analyse the information provided to you and to challenge or realise any assumptions made within that piece of text. It may seem daunting at first so focus on industries and sectors which interest you personally because this helps a lot. This also works well with podcasts (FT News Briefing, BBC Wake up to Money, The Economist etc.)

The key is to constantly work on this skill and to understand that it improves with time (even during and after your TC!)

 

[Donzi]

Thank you so much, DeltaGamma64!

I will definitely take your advice on board.

 

[Alice G]

Hi @Donzi - great thread and I think you are right to question this. Critical thinking, to me, is a buzzword much like 'commercial awareness' and the meaning of it can get lost in the noise. I don't have a very well articulated definition of the term but for me it means engaging with materials in an analytical way. It means to me, when reading an article, not merely reading it passively but really engaging with what the writer is saying and trying to make links and connections to other aspects of your knowledge the article could relate to.

 

[Jaysen]

Hi @Donzi - great thread and I think you are right to question this. Critical thinking, to me, is a buzzword much like 'commercial awareness' and the meaning of it can get lost in the noise. I don't have a very well articulated definition of the term but for me it means engaging with materials in an analytical way. It means to me, when reading an article, not merely reading it passively but really engaging with what the writer is saying and trying to make links and connections to other aspects of your knowledge the article could relate to.

If I remember correctly, I think you previously bought a book on critical thinking when going through the process? Do you remember what that was called?

 

[Alice G]

If I remember correctly, I think you previously bought a book on critical thinking when going through the process? Do you remember what that was called?

Hi! So I had a book by How2Become which focuses on critical thinking available on Amazon which basically is a guide to the Watson Glaser which can help you to train your brain to think more critically

 

[Alison C]

I used a Stella Cottrell book which has some helpful examples; she has some online resources which some of the universities buy into covering that ground too. There are also some free courses on FutureLearn at certain times of the year. But I agree, it's far from easy to gain these skills quickly. Bizarrely, I found a book of logic puzzles (the kind they sell in airports, hospitals etc) knocking around on a shelf at home and I feel they've helped - not with the online assessments, but with my ability to sort the wood from the trees. (And in any case, they were fun to do!)