Critical Thinking Skills. | genius home works

Introduction

Critical thinking has its roots in systems thinking. Systems thinking is a thought process in that a person can remove an item from its environment and analyze it separately (Meyer, 2014). In the Skills You Need Internet article written in 2016, the authors discuss five critical thinking skills as an improvement to systems thinking: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/critical-thinking.html.

Critical thinking is aimed at achieving the best possible outcomes in any situation. In order to achieve this, it must involve gathering and evaluating information from as many different sources and perspectives as possible.
Critical thinking requires a clear, often uncomfortable, assessment of your personal strengths, weaknesses and preferences and their possible impact on decisions you may make.
Critical thinking requires the development and use of foresight as far as this is possible. Foresight is defined as the ability to consider the impact on people and activities before finalizing a decision.
Implementing the decisions made arising from critical thinking must take into account an assessment of possible outcomes and ways of avoiding potentially negative outcomes, or at least lessening their impact.
Critical thinking involves reviewing the results of the application of decisions made and implementing change where possible (Skills You Need, 2016).

Consider the following real-life situation:

US Airways Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River, is an example of the importance of critical thinking in making a life or death decisions. Captain Sully Sullenberger was in command that fateful day – January 15, 2009. After leaving LaGuardia Airport and with only 100 seconds (and at an altitude of 2818 feet) into the flight, the plane encountered a flock of Canadian geese causing both engines to shut down. The Pilot saw the hazard and watched as the engine went from full throttle to zero revolutions. Passengers saw flames coming from the left engine and heard a colossal “bam.” The plane landed in the Hudson 108 seconds later. Captain Sully and his first officer (Jeff Skiles) used their thorough training, experience, and judgement to land the plane. The data that was provided to them (altitude, speed, direction) were critical (although without the engines had already failed). Without this information, the information from the flight controllers, the chances are that the plane would never have made a safe landing. In contrast to the actual landing, a number of simulations had indicated that there existed a possibility of making the airport, yet this information required the pilots to react immediately after the engines ceased operation, something almost humanly impossible.

It was a combination of experience, training, judgment and factual information that led Captain Sully into the decision he made. He chose that decision because it afforded him the best probability of success (landing the plane safely).

Describe which of the five Critical Thinking skills were employed by the crew during the flight of USAir 1549. Relate each decision, made in the cockpit (from takeoff to landing), to one or more of the 5 skills described in the Critical Thinking Introduction. Discuss the benefits.

Students are expected to carefully read the assignment directions, then thoroughly and explicitly address each component of the Unit Assignment. The responses should reflect higher level cognitive processing (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation), which is essential for someone being prepared to serve in an operational capacity within the healthcare or business-related industry.

Sample Solution