Critical Thinking on Controversial Topic - Research Paper Example

16). The situations given above show that communication is not easy. It can be found anywhere especially leaders deal with such situations that will test their experience and temperament in solving the issue. Clear communication is the key through discipline and proper advancing of agendas, promoting learning and strengthening relationships (Jarkins, 1999, p. 73). In real world situation, conflict is approached head on to solve it. If the conflict is not solved, it may just prolong the agony and the problem would still be there.

Some people may give certain advice on how to make difficult conversations easier. Ten ways can be done: opening the lines of communication, acknowledging the other person’s willingness to talk, setting a time limit, paraphrasing each other’s comments, working out a compromise, making a list of questions to be answered, accepting being wrong, respecting expert opinion, understanding the emotional factors, and reviewing the things learned (Goldsmith, 2011). The paper will not go into the details of the ten ways in dealing with difficult conversations but will focus on critical thinking skills on controversial topics.

Critical thinking helps people to become wise even though they may not be practicing philosophers. What matters most is the concept of giving up two senses: “sense of obviousness and sense of absurdity,” (Sen, 2010, p. 1). Critical thinking contributes to intelligence analysis and a formal meaning may develop the ground towards the understanding of its importance according to the definition of Richard Paul and Lina Elder: that mode of thinking – about any subject, content, or problem -- in which the [solitary] thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them (Moore, 2007, p. 8). The definition clearly shows what critical thinking is.

Basically it is a way or process of thinking about certain matter wherein the person or thinker does his best effort to improve his ability in learning and understanding the reason. In simpler words, each person gives meaning to a certain thing through mental maps or representation of the reality. Such an activity aides the person in proceeding to “revising, expanding, improving […] mental map” and the understanding of the reality. In critical thinking, memory plays a key role (Leicester, 2010, p. 2). Since critical thinking is already defined, the next term is controversial topics.

Controversial topics are issues that people have very strong yet various feelings and opinions and are subject to heated debates. Various opinions may come from social, political or religious beliefs. Controversial topics make people either positive or negative depending upon the created strong arguments for and against the subjects. Controversial topics are used in research assignments especially on reviews and looking at the pros and cons (Questia, n.d.). in other words, controversial are things that have more than two ways of viewing the right answer while topics which are usually controversial are issues that cause heated debate due to more than one “correct” answer (Versfeld, 2005, p. 7). In Harvard Law School being the center for training the would-be law professionals, difficult conversations happen and are allowed.

In the past, the school management of