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Thinking Skills
Creative and Critical Thinking
Creative thinking is defined by Costa in Developing Minds as ‘the
act of being able to produce along new and original lines’
(1985). Students of today will be involved in careers and experiences
which will require the use of creative problem-solving skills. Research
indicates that an individual’s creative abilities can be developed
through systematic training. Teaching for creative thinking means
that students will be producers of knowledge rather than consumers
of knowledge, and encourages divergent thinking abilities, the use
of higher-level thought processes and the development of a variety
of talents.
Critical thinking is a persistent effort to examine evidence which
supports any belief, solution or conclusion prior to its acceptance.
The ability to think clearly and reason logically is a primary goal
of education. The twelve aspects of critical thinking are:
- Grasp the meaning of a statement.
- Judge if contradictions exist.
- Judge the specificity of a statement.
- Judge the reliability of an observation.
- Judge if a problem has been identified.
- Judge if a statement is credible. |
- Judge whether ambiguity exists.
- Judge if a conclusion necessarily follows.
- Judge if a statement relates to a certain principle.
- Judge if an inductive conclusion is warranted.
- Judge if a definition is adequate.
- Judge if something is an assumption. |
Critical thinking tends to be more reactive and vertical in nature,
while creative thinking tends to be more proactive and lateral in
nature. Another way of saying this is that critical thinking tends
to involve tasks that are logical, rational, sequential, analytical
and convergent. Creative thinking, on the other hand, tends to involve
tasks that are spatial, flexible, spontaneous, analogical and divergent.
Critical thinking is ‘left brain’ thinking, while creative
thinking is ‘right brain’ thinking.
Problem Solving
Young children, especially young gifted children, are very problem
sensitive. Young children are usually more curious and will use
more alternatives for problem solving. Teaching them the skills
of brainstorming to find ideas, being open to all possibilities
and the SCAMPER method of working with ideas (Substitute, Combine,
Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate and Reverse) provides
a creative learning environment in which children’s curiosity
can guide them to explore and search for new knowledge while developing
higher-level thinking skills.
Edward de Bono is a pioneer in the teaching of thinking in education.
The CoRT (Cognitive Research
Trust) program, which he first wrote in 1972, is now the most widely
used program throughout the world for teaching thinking as a curricular
subject.
His series of books on the Six
Thinking Hats can be used with students from Kindergarten to
Year 12. Each book in the series is graded for use in the classroom.
A video and posters are also available. The Six Thinking Hats framework
is a valuable tool for writing or talking about any subject. Therefore,
this method may be taught as part of such subjects as English, Society
and Environment, Science and Maths.
The Six Thinking Hats books and the Complete CORT are both published
by Hawker Brownlow Education.
Recommended Resources
Integrating Instruction in
. . . series by Imogene Forte and Sandra Schurr
Thinking Skills Resource Book
by Lorene Reid
Scamper and Scamper
On by Bob Eberle
Be a Problem Solver by Bob
Eberle
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