9.4 Course Reflection

When I signed up for this course, Leadership Foundations in Research, I was intimidated from the very beginning. I was almost 9 months pregnant and I knew I would be challenged with more obstacles than normal since I was due to have her in the middle of the course. However, I continued to push myself through so that I would not allow myself to give up. I was too afraid I would continue to find more excuses down the road as to why I did not “need” my Masters degree; this was going to be only my second class.

On the first day of the class I was reading over the syllabus and I about had a nervous breakdown. I was not only going to be challenged with having a baby during class, but I was also going to be required to perform tasks that required me to do extensive research as well as learn the technology required to submit the assignments.  I am not “tech savvy” so everything required me to ask for help from someone. Once I got the hang of it I was able to continue as I normally would in any other class.

Now that we are in the final days of this class I have to say I have become an all around better student as well as critical thinker. In the beginning we were asked to define critical thinking and I was not able to grasp the meaning and truly understand what it is to think critically, however after many long nights of researching and studying I have improved my overall understanding. To think critically you are digging deeper than you would to just think about something. I have learned to process information as a system of thinking rather than just approaching it as a body of information. I have also learned a wonderful technique of using the SEE-I approach. I use this technique in everything I do!
To think critically you must think about the question from all aspects, not jumping to conclusions and pay close attention to all the details in order to formulate a well-rounded thought. To start the thinking process you should reflect on the thought from your own point of view and try to figure out why you think the way you do. Reflection to me is the key to thinking critically. It challenges the mind to ask yourself questions that you would have never thought of if you just thought regularly.

As you reflect you should apply your thought through the elements of reasoning, which are: point of view, purpose, question at issue, assumptions, implications or consequences, information, concepts and conclusions or interpretations. These elements can be applied in no particular order however you should “go around in a circle” when reasoning through your thought.

Next I learned to take my thought and apply it to the seven standards of thinking, these act as a filter to help you reason through your thought a little more in-depth. The seven standards are as follows: clearness, accuracy, importance or relevance, sufficiency, depth, breadth and precision. These were harder for me to understand, however, once we were required to apply each one in a task I was able to grasp what each meant a little better.

After applying your thought through the elements of reasoning and the seven different standards you can then put all of your thoughts together in a process called QEDS which is an acronym that explains how to apply each as a process through the discipline to answer the question. After breaking these processes down we were then able to put them together to write critically.

Now that I am reflecting I feel like everything makes sense. I am not going to pretend I knew what I was doing because I was actually very confused and irritated throughout the assignments. I was frustrated because I did not understand why we were doing them and also because I was challenging myself and this required me to think in ways I had never thought before. This was my ultimate challenge and obstacle, which is why I decided to write my research paper on the obstacles of critical thinking, but ended up approaching this matter from a preventative point of view. I wanted to find out if critical thinking could be easier if it were taught throughout an individual’s life. I do believe in my conclusion of the paper it could be.

As I complete this course I have definitely taken away more positive than negative. My Professor and University has provided me with a tremendous amount of knowledge and support and I have no recommendations to suggest.The topics of this course were very relevant going forward and I will be able to apply these skills throughout my life. I would have maybe planned out this class at a less challenging part of my life. The sleepless nights (homework and baby) have made this more challenging than I have ever imagined, but in challenging myself I have become a better person. I have improved my overall quality of life in every aspect. I am now a mind mapper, blogger and a better critical thinker!