Critical (noun):
•exercising or involving careful judgement or judicious evaluation
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/critical
In the syllabus, “Ways of seeing: Adventures with Image and Text”, it states, “Use writing as a process of discovery, building habits of critical thinking”
In other words, it means to use your thinking to the best of your abilities.
I’m glad you took the time to better understand the term critical thinking. Even though the dictionary you used doesn’t have that term, you can find definitions for it by doing a google search and reading a few of the top results. This is the perfect example of using a different resource to define a word or term, rather than a regular dictionary. I think we will all benefit from a more specific definition of critical thinking. You can edit this post–either by revising it or by adding to it. I look forward to reading your updated post!