Barriers to Critical Thinking

Brain Workout

Novice Thinker

Barriers to Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning

Critical thinking skills are not inherent. They often require time, experience, experimentation, and patience. Critical thinking has barriers:1

  • Beliefs: in a complex environment, an individual cannot process all relevant information in real-time. Thus, they rely on simplifications to make quick decisions. This requires relying heavily on unexamined beliefs they have accepted earlier in life.
  • Biases: a strong preference or aversion to something. Our mind develops the habit of seeking out certainty instead of truth. Clinging to biases can be reassuring, but it clouds our judgment.
  • Intuition: an attempt to gain knowledge without in-depth reasoning. This tends to be the default way our brain functions.
  • Emotions: critical thinking is a rational exercise that can either be hindered or helped by emotions. The effect of emotions on critical thinking is complex.

Time for Action1

Man talking

Think of important decisions you have made regarding your finances. Consider a personal, bigger-ticket item you purchased. Write down the answers to the following questions. Answer honestly.

Bias1. Did you examine all the options available, or did you dismiss options without further examination?
2. Did you dismiss viable options due to bias, or were they all dismissed for rational reasons?
3. If bias played a role, what was your bias?
4. Did your bias have negative or positive consequences?
5. How will you overcome this bias and similar biases in future decisions?
Intuition1. Was it primarily rational or intuitive when you made your decision?
2. What was your intuition telling you?
3. Has relying on your intuition had negative or positive consequences?
4. Was the decision too essential to be made based on intuition?
5. How will you determine in the future whether a decision is also crucial for an intuition-based approach?
Beliefs1. Make a list of beliefs you consider essential to your identity that everyone around you does not share.
2. Look at each belief; did they influence your decision?
3. Was the influence of your beliefs positive or negative?
4. Were you aware of the influence of your beliefs on your decision-making at the time?
5. How will you remain aware of your beliefs’ influence on your decisions in the future?
Emotions1. What emotions influenced your decision-making process?
2. Which would you qualify as applicable, and which do you believe served as a hindrance?
3. How did your emotions influence the outcome?
4. How did your positive emotions (such as empathy) influence the process?
5. What influence did your negative emotions (such as anger) have on your critical thinking?

Faculty Perceptions

Critical thinking is paramount in both academic and clinical environments. It must also be appreciated that the ‘buy-in’, integration, and reflection regarding critical thinking are not simply student concerns. Great mentors utilize it for themselves and to help their mentees. There are barriers on this side of the equation as well. Faculties’ perceptions of barriers to critical thinking in an academic environment typically include:2-4

  • Self-efficacy for both the student and teacher is often the primary factor. Either way, the teacher and student do not believe in their capacity to employ and perform critical thinking relative to real-world situations.
  • Lack of knowledge in evaluating students and how to promote critical thinking.
  • Student constraints: lacking practice in thinking skills, primarily due to an overloaded curriculum and their attitudes towards thinking. They relatively preferred activities and assignments with straightforward answers and were not tolerant of the difficulty of thinking.
  • Faculty resistance: unwillingness to implement new strategies and difficulty changing their teaching strategies to implement unique, innovative teaching.
  • Content covered: Some faculty felt the content could have been more conducive to including critical thinking.
  • Importance and relevance: Some teachers need to be aware of the importance of thinking skills.
  • Institutional barriers: critical thinking was not established as an institutional priority, large student classes, and administrative support were unavailable (e.g., resources and faculty support).
  • Time constraints: A significant barrier was a lack of time for preparing and planning critical thinking activities.

Conclusion: Barriers to Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is difficult. It requires diligence, effort, introspection, and honesty. Even more obstacles exist to successfully implementing it than were previously mentioned.

Individually and clinically, the various mental models have multiple applications. When making daily decisions, one should consider first- and second-order thinking and the resulting consequences. As stated, it is time-consuming, difficult, and requires considerable mental effort. A suggestion could be, to begin with, a few less complicated clients and a few less difficult life tasks to ‘test out’ and learn the fundamentals. This skill set can be gradually applied to situations with greater complexity.

References

1. Thinknetic. Critical thinking & logic mastery: How to make smarter decisions, conquer logical fallacies and sharpen your thinking. 2021.

2. Lam WW, Fielding R, Johnston JM, Tin KY, Leung GM. Identifying barriers to the adoption of evidence-based medicine practice in clinical clerks: a longitudinal focus group study. Med Educ. Sep 2004;38(9):987-97. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2929.2004.01909.x

3. Henderson KJ, Coppens ER, Burns S, Persky AM, Medina MS, Castleberry AN. Addressing Barriers to Implementing Problem-Based Learning

Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Pharmacy Students. AANA J. Apr

Mar 2021;89(2):117-124.

4. Shell R. Perceived barriers to teaching for critical thinking by BSN nursing faculty. Nurs Health Care Perspect. Nov-Dec 2001;22(6):286-91. doi:10.5688/ajpe7033