Task 2: Reflective Tasks from the book by Stella Cottrell (2005), Critical Thinking Skills

Reflective Task 1: Emotional self-management.

For me, the emotions that more difficult to manage when others disagree with me are:

I think that the emotions most difficult to manage when some disagree with me are, frustration because I want to convinced that person that what I’m saying it is true, even when I give real facts. Another emotion it is kind of anger because people that do not believe me or in what I’m saying are annoyed, for me, and that becomes into a feeling of anger in me.

I deal with this by:

Trying to keep calm and controlling my thoughts because sometimes I tend to be a bit of aggressive in terms of vocabulary. So, what I try to do is to keep calm and look at the other person's perspectives or point of views and see if what they are saying is valid based on the reasons, they give me. As Cottrell, S. (2005) said, it is not necessary to be a good critical thinker to identify if the reasons provided by a person are valid or weak.

Reflective Task 2: Influences on my thinking.

For me, the influences on my own thinking that I need to be most aware of so they don’t prejudice my thinking are:

I would say that are my beliefs because maybe what I believe in, it is not something that the other person would believe in too. Thus, this probably will create discord among the participants during a debate, for instance. Also, these beliefs might affect the reasons I’m given during a class discussion or something else.

I deal with this by:

Not letting my beliefs get in the way. Thinking that the rest of the people have also their own beliefs and that they might be dealing with this similar situation as well.

Reflective Task 3: Challenging opinions.

For me, the thing I find most difficult about challenging the opinions of other people are:

Having a clear and understanding counter-argument or reason to challenge the validity of that opinion. Also, I get nervous because I don’t know if what I’m going to say it is relevant or if I’m not going to drift from the topic.

I deal with these by:

Trying to clear my mind and focus on what the person's opinion is about by analyzing it very carefully.

Reflective Task 4:

Do you recognize anything of yourself in Bodner’s description of students? What effect would the approach he suggests have on your learning and understanding?

Yes, sometimes I do not question why do I believe in what I believe, just because I read it in a book or article does not mean that it is valid and right. Furthermore, I usually do not reflect on the idea of how did I learn what I know nor what made believe that because it is something that, I consider, once you know that it is from a "truthful" site you do not care about if whether the information is true or not. 

The effects that this would have on my learning might be the insecurity at the moment of posing my reasons. 

Reflective Task 5:

Consider what you could to manage these barriers of critical thinking in the next few months:

During the next few months I will try to learn more methods and strategies to think critically and to learn how to give my reasons in a good way.

I'll try to practice more at home if possible, and practice during the classes.

Finally, I will be more careful when paying attention to the reasons and points of view of my classmates and even during my everyday life.