Reflection

Introduction

Critical thinking is a mode of thinking about any subject or issue that has to be evaluated for further improvements and analyze the thoughts to give a better quality to resolve the issue, in order to make the rightful judgement.

People analyze their thinking before making a decision or take any action. They consider other alternatives in case a plan doesn't work, as we call it a ‘Plan B'.

Some ways to analyze a thought is asking questions, for example tell people like family or friends or even a stranger about your idea, then get their side of the thought, then ask for their feedback, if you want a precise answer to make a judgment.

Some people don’t think about anything so they just pounce to their intuitions, in other words, just a ‘Gut Feeling’. Most of them don’t succeed with following their hunches. Thinking critically about something may fail but there are always other replacements. Unlike following their instincts, it’s always a one way road. Plus, reckless thinking can lead to bad decisions.

Independent Research Project (Advertising Project)

I learnt that there are types of persuasive techniques when it comes to advertising, people may not identify it easily, but I learnt how to identify the strategies used in advertisement, either it’s on a magazine or Youtube. There 3 strategies which are pathos, logos, and ethos.

Pathos is when advertisers use emotion to grab peoples’ heart. It can be positive or negative emotions. In the project we also chose the Ethos strategy:

The one above shows the negative effects of smoking and the harm it can cause to a person who smokes. It pulls the negative emotion of the consumers to stop smoking.

Logos is when advertisers use statistics and facts so consumers will choose their product because it has better results or better effects. For example that I have noticed, lifebuoy hand wash, all toothpaste products, cleaning detergents, shampoos, and more.

Ethos is very popular because most TV ad or magazines use celebrities to make the customer buy their product, we also used ethos in the project.

Scientific Research Project

The research question is: 'Why do female students attend the Dubai women's college?'

Firstly, why is this question chosen? Well, because DWC has been running for quite a long time now, I and my partner in this research project decided why not ask current students. We generally want to know as to why did they attend DWC, then we asked ourselves: "who are they?", so we added female students to get  a more specific answer to our question.

An Old Photo

Secondly, we created a survey and distributed the link to female students for them to answer, for us to evaluate. we used survey monkey to create our questions, then copied the link, then we sent it through BBM broadcasts and Whatsapp broadcasts, so we they can easily just click the and will directed to the survey.

Thirdly. when we got the results, we did an analysis through all the questions asked to check what the majority of them thought. I learnt that most students study college for better job opportunities in the future and a good paying salary. also, most of them actually chose to study because the want to, not because the parents forced them to do so or the influence of friends. 

Some of their responses above

Lastly, asking random people is a bit difficult because the questions we make has to be safe for them to answer and not get offended by it whatsoever.

Sometimes there are people who aren't serious while taking the survey, so the answers can be a little bit inaccurate at times.

Summary of what I learnt

Choosing the correct words to ask other people is very important, like it's my job to think it through wisely, for the respondent's comfort. There are advertising techniques that I didn't know about until i learnt about them in this course. basically, critical thinking can happen anywhere and at any time. Sometimes people actually forget to think through something before making a decision. It may not be much, but the little things that I learnt is enough for better understanding in the further future.