What is Critical Thinking?

I believe critical thinking is when you allow yourself to think outside the box.  If you're in an argument, you allow yourself to see both sides but form your own opinion and make decisions with out being influenced by anything.  I know I have heard this term before, but I'm not sure I can pin point exactly where.  I believe it must have been in a communication studies class that I have had in the past.  When searching for an expert definition on the topic, I found a website titled criticalthinking.org.  On the website, there is a statement given by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul for the National Council for excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction.  They define critical thinking as, "Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness."  A more simple definition on the website says critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking andnimposing intellectual standards upon them.  (http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/410).  The website doesn't necessarily provide a process for one to engage in in order to think critically, but says people who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, and emphatically.  In order to be a critical thinker, you need to accept new and different ideas from your own and keep an open mind.  Critical thinking is related to my IM 204 Research Strategies class because the class is designed for us to demonstrate how well we can use different critical thinking skills.  The class involves researching and using observation to challenge the assumptions.