UIII Examining the Role of Critical ThinkingElder and Paul (2011) posit: “There are predictable stages through which anyone developing as a critical thinker goes through” (p. 1) . I agree with this statement. If we assume that the principle of learning as a process is true, then this process provides excellent insight into Elder and Paul's argument. The final premise of learning as a process shows that a thinker must move from a familiar to an unfamiliar region. Critical thinking requires that a person understand the basic concept of a theory if he or she is to think critically about that theory. The converse idea that critical thinking precedes basic understanding is fallacious. This makes the critical thinking process predictable. Paul and Elder (2002) point out that the next step in critical thinking is the need to expand basic understanding. This can be acquired through an area of ​​knowledge that is “explained, illustrated, analyzed, applied, evaluated, organized, learned or transformed” (Paul and Elder, 2002, p. 160). The thinker then synthesizes these simplistic applications to acquire...