This reflection blog is to reflect on my current critical thinking competencies, and how they different from the beginning of the course. Provide insight to determine if I have changed in my ability internalize any of the concepts or techniques I have learned so far? Lastly, what am I doing to ensure these concepts last in my approach to critical thinking? The following information is in reference to the question in comparison to my research proposal relating to Culture of Accountability.

In the Beginning

In the beginning of this course, I was pretty confident that I interrelated data well.  I knew from the start I am very strong in my opinions and biased at times. Having strong opinions is something I grew up in order to get my opinion across. I do feel this is a derivative of growing up with a dad, three brothers, including 20 years in the military. I feel, as a girl you have to be strong in your opinions or people will view you as weak.This is just my personal assumption about my strong opinions. I do understand opinions need to be supported with facts, and you can look like an illiterate fool if you don’t have that supporting data.

I have completed many collegiate level courses and a capstone research, and this is the first course I have taken that has taken an approach to understand the key elements of thought. As student in elementary or secondary school, writing included the parts of speech and the core bodies of information of a paper, but not a lot of emphasis on thinking. I write this knowing teachers introduce brainstorming, but not critical thinking.

Question at Issue

The main element of thought that I feel I have gained the most understanding in this course is the “Question at Issue.” I have learned I have an attention span that is very small and I often find myself drifting off to think about other things, while I am reading. When reading a book I can usually get to the point by reading the review at the beginning, or the chapter titles to allow my thoughts to become centered on the topic from the beginning. I think it is value added when the author is able to get to the issue right at the beginning prior to inserting their assumptions, however that is not always the case. I do find it is easier to read book material then other scholarly written material such as research projects, or short articles, as I find at time the material is short on points and takes a long time to validate their question or issue. This is not always the case, but I struggle with this type of material.

Assumptions Elements 

Another elements of thought I struggle with are assumption. An assumption in research is a challenge, due to there be the author’s assumption and the researcher’s assumption that can collide. This is hard for me for the only reason I have an assumption based on culture differences for my research based solely on accountability. I don’t know how to write my assumptions for my research for this topic, but I do know that is the area I want to do research. In the books I am reading about the Culture of Accountability, they author’s are pretty strong in their opinions on this topic, and I don’t necessarily agree with. I know as I go down this research path I will have many assumptions that will be validated with test and analysis.

Data and Facts

The other area that I am improving on is data and facts. There is a lot of data about culture of accountability, and strong research about the topic. I think the hard part will be deriving questions for the research. For example, my research is focused around culture difference or barriers, primarily on accountability and its effect on leaders and completed staff work.  There are three main focus points: accountability, leaders, and staff work. Assumptions on any of the three topics can provide a lot of research. The goal would be to tie them together with an assumption to find out their cause and effect on leadership, and is there a true return on investment when it is forced on a group of employees. The return of investment will be quantities focused on the labor hours; cost of those labor hours, and time spent incorporating this concept. The return on investment has qualitative research capabilities based on interviews of those employees who are being forced to except this concept. The qualitative part of this research is opinion based with its own section of assumptions. The elements of data, is to ask myself as the researcher, what experience convinced me of this topic or idea? I am one of those employees who has had forced to ensure culture of accountability. Critical thinking has taught me to step back and actively listen, and I will have to excuse my opinions on the topic for it to be a research project of quality.

Current Usage

Lastly, what am I doing to ensure these concepts last in my approach to critical thinking? At work, I find myself asking people if their point is an opinion based on an assumption or fact. Just last week in a meeting, I asked another person what the point of their comment was, as it was not clearly stated. So I do feel I am incorporating the element of critical thinking in my daily use by focusing on the key elements of thought. I basically find myself just thinking while listening to people or reading something, focusing hard on not drifting.  For example the two Ted Videos we reviewed the ballet slippers verses adorable, was easy to focus due to the presenter using key words and humor. The second was a bit more challenging to stay focused and I had to watch it a couple of times to figure out key elements of the discussion. Key point of using these two as a reference using the elements of thought while listening is challenging depending on how the material is presented, and this would be the same for written material.