Analytical thinking refers to the process of breaking down complex information into components and understanding how they are interconnected.
The process is systematic, methodical, and leads to the identification of cause-and-effect relationships among the various factors.
Analytical thinking also consists of several other cognitive processes and skills. For instance, Spaska et al. (2021) identify the key components of analytical thinking as:
“…in-depth search, data analysis and evaluation, problem-solving, and decision-making.”
These comments are essential to:
“…reasoning, planning and conducting a learning inquiry process, interpreting the yielded data and findings followed by drawing conclusions” (p. 880).
Analytical Thinking Examples
- Identifying patterns: Analytical thinkers excel at identifying patterns in data to predict future trends. They process patterns in datapoints and extrapolate them to create a model of potential future outcomes, enabling informed decision-making.
- Problem decomposition: Breaking down complex problems into smaller, manageable components is a key analytical thinking skill. This approach makes it easier to identify root causes and develop targeted solutions, ultimately leading to more efficient problem-solving.
- Evaluating solutions: Analytical thinkers evaluate multiple solutions to determine the most effective approach. By comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each option, they can identify the best path forward, optimizing resources and minimizing potential risks.
- Hypothesis testing: Analytical thinkers test hypotheses to draw conclusions about a given situation. They formulate testable predictions, design experiments to test these predictions, and analyze the results to determine whether their hypothesis is supported or refuted.
- Bias identification: Identifying potential biases in data or arguments is crucial for analytical thinkers. They assess the credibility of information sources and the validity of arguments, ensuring that decisions are based on reliable and objective information.
- SWOT analysis: Analytical thinkers often use SWOT analysis to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This strategic planning tool helps them to identify areas for improvement, capitalize on opportunities, and mitigate risks.
- Statistical analysis: Utilizing statistical analysis to interpret data and draw insights is a common analytical thinking skill. Analytical thinkers apply various statistical techniques to identify trends, relationships, and anomalies in the data, informing their decision-making process.
- Decision trees: Creating decision trees helps analytical thinkers visualize potential outcomes and make informed choices. By mapping out various scenarios, they can assess the likely consequences of each option and select the most appropriate course of action.
- Cause-and-effect analysis: Analyzing cause-and-effect relationships helps analytical thinkers understand how variables interact. They examine the links between events or factors, enabling them to predict outcomes and develop effective interventions.
- Root cause analysis: Employing root cause analysis, analytical thinkers identify the underlying issues behind a problem. This approach allows them to address the core problem rather than simply treating its symptoms, resulting in more sustainable solutions.
- Comparing data points: Analytical thinkers compare and contrast various data points to identify trends or inconsistencies. By examining similarities and differences in the data, they can uncover hidden insights and make better-informed decisions.
- Scientific method application: Utilizing the scientific method is a key component of analytical thinking. Analytical thinkers observe phenomena, form hypotheses, conduct experiments, and draw conclusions to explore and explain the world around them.
- Critical reading: Analytical thinkers read texts critically, evaluating the author’s arguments, evidence, and assumptions. This skill helps them extract valuable information, identify potential biases, and formulate well-informed opinions.
- Logical reasoning: Analytical thinkers apply logical reasoning to solve problems and make decisions. They identify logical relationships between ideas and use deductive or inductive reasoning to reach valid conclusions.
- Cost-benefit analysis: Conducting a cost-benefit analysis is an essential skill for analytical thinkers. They compare the potential benefits and costs of a decision or project, enabling them to make well-informed choices that maximize value and minimize risk.
- Scenario planning: Analytical thinkers use scenario planning to anticipate future events and prepare for potential challenges. They develop plausible scenarios, assess their implications, and devise strategies to respond effectively to each situation.
- Data visualization: Creating data visualizations helps analytical thinkers communicate complex information more effectively. By transforming raw data into visual representations, they can highlight trends, patterns, and relationships that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Analytical Thinking on Bloom’s Taxonomy
Analytical thinking is the fourth of six levels of understanding on Bloom’s taxonomy. As it’s toward the top of Bloom’s pyramid, it’s considered a higher-order thinking skill.
In other words, it is a desirable cognitive skill that, when used effectively, demonstrates depth of understanding of a topic and an ability to manipulate and work with datapoints.
As a result, educators often directly aim to assess whether a student can think analytically about the curriculum content. Successful analytical thinking skills demonstrate strong understanding of the topic.
Below is a brief outline of all 6 levels of understanding on Bloom’s taxonomy:
- Remembering: Remembering is considered the lowest level of knowledge because information that is remembered does not need to be truly understood. It simply requires rote learning for the storing and repetition of facts.
- Understanding: Understanding goes beyond remembering and requires that someone can also explain why something is the way it is. For example, you may remember that 5 x 5 = 25 but that doesn’t mean you understand what that really means.
- Applying: Applying refers to the ability to use your understanding in a variety of practical contexts. For example, a student can understand why 5 x 5 = 25, but that doesn’t mean they can apply that in a shopping center when trying to figure out how much it costs if they buy 5 items worth $5.
- Analyzing: Analyzing involves the ability to deconstruct a concept and compare its parts. Usually, this involves being able to categorize it, sort it, and compare and contrast it to other concepts.
- Evaluating: Evaluating steps beyond analysis and involves coming to a rational value judgement about something. It goes beyond just organizing, synthesizing and comparing and steps up to thinking about the logical or moral consequences of what you’ve analyzed.
- Creating: Creating means not just looking at existing information, but creating something new from scratch. It’s considered the highest level of understanding because you’re going beyond what’s known and creating brand new knowledge or insights.
See some example learning outcomes based on Bloom’s Taxonomy
The 5 Analytical Thinking Proficiency Levels
Like most everything else in life, there are degrees of analytical thinking skills. Chicago State University offers a breakdown of three proficiency levels that range from fundamental to more advanced skillsets.
- Level 1: Collect and process information to develop a basic understanding; able to detect trends and formulate logical deductions; can identify a solution.
- Level 2: Organize and synthesize all relevant data to identify key causal factors; able to identify logical outcomes and generate solutions to problems.
- Level 3: Consolidate all relevant information to produce graphs and charts; able to integrate insights from various disciplines; identify primary causal relationships; generate effective solutions and extrapolate consequences.
Developing analytical thinking and all of the associated skillsets is one of many priorities of school systems in the 21st century. These skills are used in a wide range of professional capacities, from marketing to strategic planning, from teaching to product design.
Case Studies of Analytical Thinking
1. Bridge Building In STEM Class
Building a bridge out of paper taps into numerous components of analytical thinking. Considerations have to be given as to how to shape the paper and connect the individual parts. It also requires trying to anticipate problems and generate effective solutions ahead of time.
Whether it be at the university or middle school level, these kinds of activities that occur in STEM programs are great ways to help students develop analytical thinking.
The students must apply the principles of physics and structural engineering to construct the strongest bridge possible. They usually work in small teams of 2-4, which adds a collaborative dynamic to the exercise that has benefits all its own.
At the end, each group’s bridge will be put the test.
Here is a video that provides a great explanation of the principles behind a paper bridge, and these two videos show how to make simple bridges from paper or straws.
2. Analytical Thinking in Medical School
Doctors are among the most advanced analytical thinkers in the world. Understanding the complexity of the human body requires the ability to identify causality among highly-interdependent systems.
Then, when there is something amiss, the doctor must evaluate numerous treatment options and choose the one with the highest likelihood of effectiveness.
For these reasons, medical school is usually one of the most demanding academic institutions that exist in most countries.
Not only must students memorize countless terms and concepts, but they must be able to problem-solve under immense pressure.
So, instead of students attending hours and hours of lectures and rote learning, many medical schools utilize a project-based approach.
Students work in teams and are presented with an actual clinical case.
Each team must analyze the data given, formulate a diagnosis, and design a treatment regimen. Those are all fundamental components of analytical thinking.
3. The Research Process
Scientific research does a lot more than just help mankind accumulate knowledge. It drives decision-making in nearly every industry, from technology to medicine, to engineering and astrophysics.
It also is a key driver of decisions in education. When teachers need to know which instructional approach works best for which type of student, the research is there to provide the answer.
Although there are some variations, the basic steps in the research process are very similar no matter the discipline.
Several steps in the process require analytical thinking. Conducting a literature review means being able to synthesize findings and identify gaps in knowledge.
Designing a study is a strenuous exercise in anticipating problems and devising solutions. Collecting data is like project management with strict timetables and continuous monitoring of progress.
Performing statistical analyses, interpreting the results, identifying key findings and then graphing the findings makes for a short descriptive sentence, but can take weeks and months at the computer.
Finally, those findings have to be understood in the context of implications for the existing body of knowledge, another exercise in analytical thinking.
Conclusion
Analytical thinking involves the ability to understand a complex, multifaceted subject by breaking it down into its various components.
This requires the ability to organize and classify information on fundamental issues related to the subject, and then synthesize that understanding in a way that is logical and coherent.
The interconnectedness of key factors involved in each component can be illustrated through the construction of graphs and charts displaying the results of statistical analyses.
This will allow the identification of causality and the ability to generate a range of possible solutions to subject challenges.
The ability to evaluate the likely effectiveness of each solution and extrapolate the ramifications requires additional analytical thinking skills.
Analytical thinking is necessary in numerous professions. For this reason, helping students develop advanced analytical thinking skills is a top priority of many school systems.
References
Areesophonpichet, S. (2013). A development of analytical thinking skills of graduate students by using concept mapping. In The Asian Conference on Education (Vol. 1, p. 15). Osaka, Japan: Official Conference Proceedings.
Charvat, J. (2003). Project management methodologies: Selecting, implementing, and supporting methodologies and processes for projects. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership that gets results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Press.
Provost, F., & Fawcett, T. (2013). Data science for business: What you need to know about data mining and data-analytic thinking. O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Spaska, A. M., Savishchenko, V. M., Komar, O. A., & Maidanyk, O. V. (2021). Enhancing analytical thinking in tertiary students using debates. European Journal of Educational Research, 10(2), 879-889.
Wang, Z., Sundin, L., Murray-Rust, D., & Bach, B. (2020, April). Cheat sheets for data visualization techniques. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).
Dr. Cornell has worked in education for more than 20 years. His work has involved designing teacher certification for Trinity College in London and in-service training for state governments in the United States. He has trained kindergarten teachers in 8 countries and helped businessmen and women open baby centers and kindergartens in 3 countries.
This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.