Thinking Critically: Formulation of Actionable Goals Coursework

Have you ever written down specific goals? The answer is Yes.

I found writing down my goals very helpful. It is like writing an essay because work becomes much easier when the most important points and subjects are outlined. Having the main goals written down supports my motivation and maintains my focus, so I never get distracted by other things even if they are easier or more pleasant to do. I agree that having a system defining my goals can be life-changing because it increases the productivity of a person immensely.

The Foundation

My choice of going back to school was based on the need to develop my career. This served as a wake-up call to me. In order to obtain leading roles and move further in my sphere of work, I had to move further in my sphere of expert knowledge, to become more qualified and valuable as an employee. Going back to school makes me a better professional and also provides me with more opportunities in my career field.

Unifying Principles

Professional development, loyalty, love, generosity, devotion, motivation, humility, excitement about life, personal changes, spirituality, leadership, purpose, support, independence, financial security, aspiration, hope, moral values, self-assessment, critical thinking, emotional maturity.

Professional development: I will work hard to become more qualified and move forward in my career.

Critical thinking: I will train myself to approach the most important issues critically, collect data, research before forming an opinion.

Leadership: I will develop confidence and professionalism allowing me to make a strong leader at the workplace.

Financial security: I will obtain better work to improve my income.

Leadership is an important priority for me. I feel comfortable obtaining leading roles and I am focused on searching for leadership positions in my career field. In my opinion, becoming a leader is a multi-dimensional principle that requires complex preparation and a lot of knowledge. It combines other principles such as purpose, humility, loyalty, devotion, emotional maturity.

Emotional maturity is my priority, then comes financial security and then leadership.

In case if my personal growth principle is “thrown away” the priority falls on emotional maturity, then come financial security and critical thinking.

Writing goals

Intermediate

1. I will improve my knowledge of logical fallacies in statements and speech.
2. I will educate myself about social diversity issues in schools.
3. I will become better at critical thinking.

Immediate

1. I will refresh the definitions of main logical fallacies by re-reading the websites about them.
2. I will look up articles about the marginalization of non-whites in schools.
3. I will research an issue that interests me in the news and critically form my opinion about its causes through the research.

Conclusion

To keep me motivated I will have a talk with a person that works in the career I pursue and ask them about their working process and path towards this career. This will help me stick to my goals, which will be written down.

Personal Reflection

This course made a significant impact on the way I think today by means of introducing me to the ways of critical thinking, evaluation, and logic approach. It takes me much longer to draw a conclusion because now I prefer to base my opinions on facts and valid information, so I always do my research before labeling things. Besides, my goals started to shift due to my learning. The goals I pursue multiplied and became deeper and more inspiring. I also know how to keep myself motivated and how to prevent myself from getting distracted from following my goals. Moreover, my goals became more precise – I have long-term goals and short-term goals that help me achieve my main goals.

This course has taught me that the relationship between theory research and practice helps an educator to deliver a performance of better quality and avoid a variety of issues of social and professional character at the workplace. Besides, this helps an educator become more professional and build a successful career.

I perceive an educational profession as a crucial source of information for the future generation, as the first stage that shapes the younger society, influences their further intellectual and moral development. This perception makes me very careful about adding my own opinions to the information delivered, because in my opinion teaching critical thinking and avoiding biased perspectives is highly important, as critical thinking helps one “disentangle the often confused jumble of thoughts and feelings” and proceed with productive and deep thinking straight to the point (Chaffee 2010).

According to my personal ethics, professional development and personal growth are the main priorities. This determines my future goals within my profession. I value constant learning and improvement as professional quality. I have always been purposeful about my personal growth; this course made my priorities even stronger and helped me develop strategies for further self-improvement and achievements.

I am glad that this course helped me improve my writing skills and namely my APA citation skills. I support the opinion that dialogic theory and discussion-oriented methods are very useful in education (Krueger & Peek 2006). This course provided me with a lot of connections with peers and scholars that helped me broaden my professional knowledge. My online research skills improved significantly, as well as my analytical reading and writing capacities. Finally, a highly important skill I obtained from attending this course was the capacity to evaluate myself and my progress, notice my weak and strong sides, formulate self-improvement, and self-assessment goals.

Reference List

Chaffee, J. (2010). Thinking Critically. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Krueger, P. M. & Peek, L. A. (2006). Figuring It Out: A Conversation about How to Complete Your Ph. D. College Student Journal, 40(1), 149-151.