Quito, June 14, 2017

Rosalia Arteaga Serrano

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BETWEEN COMMON SENSE AND CRITICAL THINKING

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With this issue of Edu @ news in the second semester of this year, we enter fully, we feel that time passes quickly, that the days wear out at a dizzying speed and that the tasks accumulate as the weeks and months progress .

When we talk about things that seem obvious, we mention the famous "common sense" very in passing, and we soon discover that the much vaunted common sense is the least common of the senses, but that it should be present, by way of elementary logical principles, in everybody.

Common sense helps us to solve problems, to face with solutions to the questions posed to us, to make use of that natural capacity, which does not require studies, but does require experience, to judge events, to evaluate what happened, to participate in a fruitful coexistence.

On the other hand, if we say Critical Thinking, we think of the ability to contrast knowledge, to deepen analysis, not to accept what is raised in a general way, but to go further, for what is needed to inquire, seek, raise , to find the best ways to implement it, so it is necessary to organize knowledge, give it a sense and a logic that help us find solutions.

Can we say that common sense and critical thinking collide? do they conjugate? are they coming? I would say yes, in both you need to make use of logic, although the second appears as more demanding, like the one in which previous knowledge is required that does not come only from experience but from study.

In any case, the concern is raised, surely you will find dear teachers and readers, a lot of cloth to cut and many interesting approaches that you will enrich with your own reflections.

Do not forget that the X Educational Excellence contest is open, the maximum time to present your projects is December 10