On Tuesday, 27^th January, 2026, Mr. Rafiq Jaffer, Director, Institute of Social Sciences, delivered a talk on “Critical Thinking” to the participants of the 39^th SMC.

Mr. Jaffer began with mind mapping as a way to organise thoughts. He explained the difference between creative and critical thinking. Creative thinking generates new ideas. Critical thinking evaluates the quality of those ideas. The suggested sequence was simple. First brainstorm freely, then assess. He also noted the common view that the right side of the brain supports creativity while the left side supports analysis. Moving to the essentials, he set out eight features of critical thinking: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, and fairness.

He advised participants to recognise their barriers before trying to remove them. Five powerful barriers were named: egocentrism, sociocentrisin, unwarranted assumptions, wishful thinking, and relativist thinking. He added a practical rule and asked not to mix creative and critical modes. Let ideas grow first, then apply tests to select the best one. In this way, critical thinking improves decisions without blocking the flow of new ideas.