Curators Key Requirement: Critical Thinking

Robin Good: Critical thinking is a key strategic skill needed by any serious professional curator. 
“Critical thinking provides the keys for our own intellectual independence…” and it helps to move away from “rashy conclusions, mystification and reluctance to question received wisdom, authority and tradition” while learning how to adopt “intellectual discipline” and a way to express clearly ideas while taking personal responsibility for them.
Key takeaways from this video:
Critical thinking refers to a diverse range of intellectual skills and activities concerned with “evaluating information” as well as our own thought in a disciplined way.
 Critical thinking is not just thinking a lot. To be an effective critical thinker you need to seek out and be guided by “knowledge” and “evidence” that fits with reality even if it refutes what the general consensus may want to believe.
 Critical thinkers cultivate an attitude of curiosity and they are willing to do the work required to keep themselves informed about a subject.
 Critical thinkers do not take claims at face value but utilize scepticism and doubt to suspend judgement and objectively evaluate with facts the claims being made.
 Critical thinkers should evaluate information on the basis of reasoning and not by relying on emotions as claims the factuality of a claim cannot be solely based on the level of emotion that accompanies them or the fact that they may be believed by certain groups.
Highly recommended for all curators. 9/10

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLPL5p0fMg 
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