CRITICAL THINKING
USING SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AND DECISION MAKING
Thinking About Thinking
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
Good situational awareness requires:
1.Gathering data (sensing, perception), seeking cues in the environment
2.Assembling information to give understanding (comprehension)
3.Thinking ahead (projection)
Thinking about situational awareness involves:
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Directing our attention to seek data; scanning a range of sources
Evaluating information without bias, for accuracy and relevance
Understanding, using our knowledge and previous experiences
Comparing and checking, visualizing future events — ‘What if?’
Planning ahead, considering possible outcomes
Situation
Gathering
data
Understanding
Planning
Ahead
Offense
Defense
Play
Now
Future
Decision Making
Decision making requires an understanding of the situation and
controlled thinking.
Decision making involves assessment and choosing a course of
action.
The situation determines the urgency of the decision, risks and
limits of action.
Controlled thinking:
Reduces risk
Moderates behavior
Manages time constraints
Uses knowledge; seeks options
Judges relevance and the quality of the choice
Prepares for action, evaluates the outcome or a future situation
OADA
Observe
Analyze
Deduce
Act
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking provides the mental control and discipline required for
situational assessment and decision making. It involves several skills that
can be learned, practiced and improved.
Critical thinking is the skill of
thinking about your thinking
Control your mind by:
Seeking and understanding information, facts and data
Effective planning, briefing and communication
Increasing knowledge; gaining experience
Learning within a context (situation)
Maintain discipline by:
Being aware of how you think; affects possession
Evaluating your actions; having self regulation
Being aware of all available resources
Being sensitive to feedback
Think inside the box
before you think
outside of the box
“Are we in charge of our thinking, or is our thinking in charge of us?“
Critical Thinking — Self awareness
Self awareness — self questioning, self monitoring
Am I biased in my thinking?
Have I made a plan for what I want to do?
Are my ideas or knowledge on this issue correct?
Am I aware of my thinking; what am I trying to do?
Am I using all of the resources for what I want to do?
Am I evaluating my thinking; what would I do differently next time?
Am I aware of how well I am doing; do I need to change my actions or intentions?
Monitoring is checking the quality or testing the accuracy of a situation on a regular basis. It is keeping a
close watch over parameters and supervising the outcome.
It is checking for threats in our thinking.
CRITICAL THINKING — KNOWLEDGE
Improving your thinking — Knowledge
About yourself
Commitment: training, not letting feelings or individual preference detract from the game
Positive attitudes: seeing the big picture, persistence, resourcefulness, learning from set-backs
Attention to detail: determining relevance, assessing affects
About the thinking processes
Knowing the facts necessary to do a task by seeking information
Knowing how to do a task, how to scan, understand and think ahead
Knowing why certain strategies work, when to use them, why one is better than another
Knowledge to control the thinking processes
Self evaluation: assessing current technical knowledge, setting objectives, selecting resources
Self regulation: checking progress; reviewing choices, procedures, objectives, resources
Planning: choosing and planning a path to the objective, using procedures
Planning is the process of thinking about what you will do in
the event of something happening or not happening.
Critical Thinking — Habits
Improving your thinking — Habits
Changing our thinking habits requires effort; clear thinking is an essential part of officiating
and has to be developed throughout our careers.
5 Levels of skill:
Unskilled: Basic training only provides those skills necessary to be on the field.
Skilled:
Continuation training and experience enable effective management.
Effective: More technical knowledge, practiced skills and experience give an efficient operation.
Efficient: Skillful command in controlling the game and crew leadership move toward a precision
Precision:
operation.
An official who has gained and maintains precise technical and non-technical skills as a result of
great personal effort.
Expert thinkers
Focus on central issues
Identify relevant information
Consider information on merit
Test and check the basis of their awareness and decisions
Critical Thinking — Personal briefing
Improving your thinking — Briefing
Before games, self-briefing reinforces memory cues and knowledge, which aid the
recall of information for use in situational assessment and decision making.
Know what, who, where and when to prioritize your attention
Always brief routine situations — repetition aids memory
Structure the briefing along game situations
Visualize your actions (position, players, calls)
Consider the significant game situations
Recall lessons from training
Refresh mechanics and rules
What if questions
Do not rush:
Your thoughts control your actions.
Critical Thinking — Personal debrief
Improving your thinking — Debrief
After each game, consider the following points: Plus, Minus, Interesting
Plus:
What was good
What went according to plan
Interesting:
Have you changed the way you see things:
situations, penalties, players, mechanics
What did you learn, why, and where did the
Minus:
information come from?
What was not so good, and why
What didn’t you know; find the answer before the next game Will you share this with others; if not why not?
Anything for a commissioner, assignor to report?
Any issues for confidential reporting?
Did you experience:
Administration, field, supply issues?
Poor attitudes
Biased opinions
Mismanaged time
Unanswered questions
Thinking about Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Situational awareness and decision making
depend on our ability to think.
Thinking enables humans to be very successful, but this
ability also enables errors that, if not controlled, present
risks in our daily activities.
Senses:
See
Situational
Awareness
Value your ability, use it wisely
Game
Players
Decision
Making
Situations
Monitor
Review
Hear
Responses
Pattern recognition
Comparison
Working memory
Long-term memory - knowledge, biases,
beliefs
Choice
Selection
Action
CRITICAL THINKING — FOR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
Critical thinking for situational awareness — seek information
Essential components:
Accuracy — Is the information true?
Clarity — Can the information be understood?
Precision — Seek detail to understand the situation.
Relevance — Is the information connected to the situation?
Depth — Does the information address the complexity of the situation?
Breadth — Are there other points of view or other ways to consider this situation?
Logic — Does your understanding of the situation make sense?
Whenever you do not understand something,
ask yourself a question for clarification
Critical Thinking — for Decision Making
Critical thinking for decision making — the choice of action
Essential components:
State the objective of the decision to be made
Identify information to be used in making the decision
Gather the evidence and information required to make a decision
Make a decision based on criteria (a safe outcome), information and risks
Ask what the evidence and information mean, considering the objective
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is at the center of all safety processes and human activity.
Safety, Game, Player Management
Critical Thinking
Situational
Awareness
Decision
Making