Enhancing Critical and Creative
Thinking Skills
Bhoendradatt Tewarie
Director, Institute of Critical Thinking
UWI St. Augustine
I
Some basics
to
stimulate discussion
2
© Institute of Critical Thinking
“I think, therefore, I am”
• René Descartes (1596-1650)
• French philosopher, mathematician and physicist
• “Father of Modern Philosophy”
• In his Discourse on the Method (1637) he attempted to arrive
at a fundamental set of principles that one could know as true
without any doubt (a foundation of knowledge). To achieve
this, he employed a method of systematic doubt, where he
rejected any idea that could be doubted, i.e. everything he
perceived through his senses.
• Descartes then arrived at the principle: “Je pense, donc je
suis” or “I think, therefore I am” (Latin: cogito ergo sum)
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“I become what I think”
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“High thinking and simple living” –
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
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People, events, things, issues, ideas,
concept – the mundane, material, the world
around us, the meaning of things
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The material, the philosophical, the spiritual
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Is there any relationship between the focus
of one’s thoughts and the quality of one’s
existence, the quality of life?
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II
Logical thinking and
lateral thinking
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Logical thinking
• A process in which one uses reasoning
consistently to come to a conclusion
• The ability to understand and to
incorporate the rules of basic logical
inference in everyday activities
• Cause and effect
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Logical thinking examples
1.
A doctor diagnosing a patient’s illness
2.
An engineer trying to determine why a machine is not
working
3.
You have six pairs of black socks and six pairs of white
socks in a drawer. In complete darkness, and without
looking, what is the least number of socks must you
take from the drawer in order to be sure you get a
matching pair?
4.
A milkman has two empty jugs: a three gallon jug and
a five gallon jug. How can he measure exactly one
gallon of milk without wasting any?
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Lateral thinking
• “methods of thinking concerned with changing
concepts and perception” - (Edward de Bono)
• It is about reasoning that is not immediately
obvious and about ideas that may not be
obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step
logic
• Thinking “outside the box”
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Lateral thinking examples
• Connect the nine dots below using four straight lines
without lifting your pen from the paper.
• How could a baby fall out of a twenty-storey building
onto the ground and live?
• A man walks into a bar and asks for a drink of water.
The bartender thinks for a minute, pulls out a gun and
points it at him. The man says, "Thank you," and walks
out. What happened?
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Deductive reasoning
• In deductive reasoning one arrives at a
specific conclusion based on
generalizations
– All apples are fruit. Some apples are red.
Therefore some fruit are red.
– The houses in this area vary in size so that
some houses may have more rooms or larger
rooms than others.
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Inductive reasoning
• In inductive reasoning one makes
generalizations based on individual
instances
– All observed corbeaux are black. Therefore:
All corbeaux are black.
– All known cases of human bleeding reveal
that the colour of blood is red. Therefore the
colour of human blood is red.
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• Analysis – the process of breaking a complex topic or
substance into smaller parts to gain a better
understanding of it
• Reason – to think in a connected, sensible, or logical
manner; to find a rational motive for a belief or action
• Rationality – the state of having good sense and sound
judgment
• Logic – the study of the principles of valid inference and
argument
• Analysis → Reason → Rationality → Logic
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III
Strategic thinking
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Strategy
• A long-term plan of action designed to
achieve a particular goal
– military strategy
– marketing strategy
– political campaign strategy
– game strategy
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Strategic thinking
• Focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities
to create value
– facilitated by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue
among people who can affect for example, a company’s
direction
– solving a problem
– finding new ways of doing something
• Strategic thinking in an organization, involves synthesis,
using intuition and creatively forming a shared vision of
where the organization should be heading if it is to
survive and prosper in the current and future market
place.
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Strategic thinking
• Systems perspective – see the system as a whole and
the linkages between the individual parts
• Intent focus – convey a sense of direction and
discovery
• Hypothesis driven – embrace hypothesis generation
and testing as core activities
• Think in time – able to connect the past with the present
and link it to the future
• Intelligent opportunism – open to new experiences
Jeanne Liedtka. (1998). Strategic thinking; can it be taught?, Long Range Planning, 31, (1),
120-129
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Strategic thinking
SYSTEMS
PERSPECTIVE
INTENT
FOCUS
STRATEGIC
THINKING
INTELLIGENT
OPPORTUNISM
HYPOTHESIS
DRIVEN
THINKING
IN TIME
Liedtka Model
“Taken together, these five elements describe a strategic thinker with a broad
field view that sees the whole and the connections between its pieces”. (Liedtka
1998)
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Analytical thinking
• In analytical thinking, one uses a methodical
step-by-step approach to break down complex
problems or processes into their constituent
parts, identifies cause and effect patterns and
analyzes problems to arrive to an appropriate
solution
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Strategic planning
• Strategic planning is about analysis (breaking
down a goal into steps, determining how the
steps could be implemented, and identifying the
possible consequences of each step)
– An organization's process of defining its strategy, or
direction, and making decisions on allocating its
resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital
and people
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• Strategic implementation and the
achievement of outcomes
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IV
Creative thinking
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Creative thinking
• Creative thinking – generating new ideas by combining,
changing, or re-applying existing ideas
• Schumpeter (1883-1950) described an entrepreneur as
an individual who carries out “new combinations” such
as:
– Introducing a new good
– Introducing a new method of production
– Opening a new market
– Identifying a new source of supply of raw materials
– Forming a new organization of any industry
Joseph Schumpeter (1934). The Theory of Economic Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press
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Creativity
• Creativity – a mental process involving
the generation of new ideas or concepts,
or new associations between existing
ideas or concepts
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The creative process
• One of the earliest models of the creative
process is attributed to Graham Wallas (1926)
who proposed that creative thinking proceeds
through four phases:
– Preparation (definition of issue, observation, study,
information gathering)
– Incubation (laying the issue aside for some time)
– Illumination (emerging of the new idea)
– Verification (checking it out)
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The creative process
• Several other models have been proposed, but
one common theme is that the creative process
involves:
– Analysis (breaking down the problem/issue into
smaller more easily understandable parts)
– Evaluation (determining whether an item or activity
meets specified criteria)
– Imagination (forming images and ideas in the mind)
– Synthesis (combining existing ideas/concepts into
something new)
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The creative process at work
•
Music
•
Art
•
Dance
•
Inventions – airplane, telephone
•
Innovations – Apple iPhone, Gateway (Dell personal
computers)
•
Creative problem solving – using a knife/letter opener to
tighten a screw when a screwdriver is not available
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V
Critical thinking
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Critical thinking
• “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” (Scriven & Paul, 1992)
• “reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what
to believe or do” (Ennis, 1992).
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Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive
domain
EVALUATION
SYNTHESIS
ANALYSIS
High order
thinking
skills
APPLICATION
COMPREHENSION
KNOWLEDGE
Low order
thinking
skills
Bloom, B., Englehart, M. Furst, E., Hill, W., & Krathwohl, D. (1956). Taxonomy of educational
objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York,
Toronto: Longmans, Green
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Critical thinking, creativity and the
critical/creative process
• Both creative and critical thinking involve the use
of high order thinking skills
• In the creative process one uses:
– creative thinking skills (synthesis and imagination) in
the preparation and verification phases
– critical thinking skills (analysis and evaluation) in the
incubation and illumination phases
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Creative vs critical thinking
Creative thinking is described as:
• making and communicating connections to think of many
possibilities;
• think and experience in various ways and use different points of
view;
• think of new and unusual possibilities; and
• guide in generating and selecting alternatives.
Critical thinking is described as:
• analyzing and developing possibilities to compare and contrast
many ideas
• improve and refine ideas
• make effective decisions and judgments, and
• provide a sound foundation for effective action.
(Isaksen and Treffinger (1985), Creative Problem Solving: The Basic Course)
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Creative vs critical thinking
Creative thinking
• Divergent
• Right brain (global,
parallel, emotional,
subjective)
• Synthesis
Critical thinking
• Convergent
• Left brain (analytic,
serial, logical,
objective)
• Evaluation
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• Scientific thinking – using the scientific method (1. Identify a
problem you would like to solve; 2. Formulate a hypothesis; 3. Test
the hypothesis; 4. Collect and analyze the data; 5. Make
conclusions) to study or investigate nature or the universe
• Innovative/adaptive thinking – the ability to react to unexpected
changes
• Problem-solving – the ability to analyze information related to a
given situation and generate appropriate response options
• Judgment – the formation of an opinion after consideration or
deliberation
• Decision-making – the process of choosing between alternative
courses of action
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Summary of elements of critical
thinking
Critical thinking involves using the following skills to
make a decision, come to a conclusion or solve a
problem.
– Conceptualization: forming ideas
– Application: using information in new situations
– Analysis: breaking down problems/issues into smaller
more easily understandable parts
– Synthesis: combining existing ideas/concepts into
something new
– Evaluation: determining whether an item or activity meets
specified criteria
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12 pillars of economic
competitiveness
1.
2.
3.
4.
Institutions
Infrastructure
Macroeconomic stability
Health and primary
education
5. Higher education &
training
6. Goods market efficiency
7. Labour market efficiency
8. Financial market
sophistication
9. Technological readiness
10. Market size
11. Business sophistication
12. Innovation
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Global Competitiveness Index
(Ranks 1-20)
Country/Economy
GCI 2009-2010
rank
Country/Economy
GCI 2009-2010
rank
Switzerland
1
Hong Kong SAR
11
United States
2
Taiwan, China
12
Singapore
3
United Kingdom
13
Sweden
4
Norway
14
Denmark
5
Australia
15
Finland
6
France
16
Germany
7
Austria
17
Japan
8
Belgium
18
Canada
9
Korea, Rep.
19
Netherlands
10
New Zealand
20
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Global Competitiveness Index
(Ranks 21-40)
Country/Economy
GCI 2009-2010
rank
Country/Economy
GCI 2009-2010
rank
Luxembourg
21
Czech Republic
31
Qatar
22
Brunei Darussalam
32
United Arab Emirates
23
Spain
33
Malaysia
24
Cyprus
34
Ireland
25
Estonia
35
Iceland
26
Thailand
36
Israel
27
Slovenia
37
Saudi Arabia
28
Bahrain
38
China
29
Kuwait
39
Chile
30
Tunisia
40
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Global Competitiveness Index ranks in
Latin America and the Caribbean
Country
GCI 2009-2010 Rank
Country
GCI 2009-2010 Rank
Chile
30
Argentina
85
Puerto Rico
42
Trinidad & Tobago
86
Barbados
44
Honduras
89
Costa Rica
55
Jamaica
91
Brazil
56
Dominican Republic
95
Panama
59
Suriname
102
Mexico
60
Guyana
104
Uruguay
65
Ecuador
105
Colombia
69
Venezuela
113
El Salvador
77
Nicaragua
115
Peru
78
Bolivia
120
Guatemala
80
Paraguay
124
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Global Competitiveness Index ranks
in some small states
Country
GCI 20092010 Rank
Population
(in millions)
Denmark
5
5.52
Finland
6
Singapore
Country
GCI 20092010 Rank
Population
(in millions)
Botswana
66
1.95
5.34
Estonia
35
1.34
3
4.84
Trinidad &
Tobago
86
1.34
Norway
14
4.83
Mauritius
57
1.29
United Arab
Emirates
23
4.60
Cyprus
34
0.80
Ireland
25
4.42
Guyana
104
0.76
Puerto Rico
42
3.98
Suriname
102
0.52
Panama
59
3.45
Luxembourg
21
0.49
Uruguay
65
3.36
Iceland
26
0.32
Jamaica
91
2.72
Barbados
44
0.26
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T&T Global Competitiveness Index
ranks from 2001 to 2009
Year
GCI rank
2009
86
2008
92
2007
84
2006
67
2005
60
2004
51
2003
49
2002
37
2001
38
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Trinidad & Tobago economy
• GDP (ppp): $24.2 billion
• GDP per capita (ppp): $18,087
[source: ECLAC (2008 preliminary figures)]
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T&T – Share of GDP
Sector
Share of GDP
(at current prices, 2008)
Manufacturing
19.8%
Oil & Asphalt including Mining & Refining
27.8%
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
0.3%
VAT
3.6%
Electricity, Water and Construction
10.0%
Distribution and Restaurants & Hotels
14.0%
Transport, Storage and Communication
4.7%
Other activities including Government
19.8%
[source: CSO Pocket Digest 2008]
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T&T – Labour force
Age
Population (2008)
(thousands)
(% of total pop.)
0-14
282
21.1
15-19
120
20-24
Economically active
population (2008)
(thousands)
(% of total pop.)
9.0
31
2.3
144
10.8
113
8.4
25-39
330
24.7
283
21.2
40-54
267
20.0
212
15.8
55-64
103
7.7
52
3.9
65+
91
6.8
8
0.6
Total
1,338
100
701
52.2
[source: LABORSTA (ILO database on labour statistics) <http://laborsta.ilo.org/>]
(2008 projections)
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T&T – Employment by economic
activity
• Agriculture: 3.8%
• Mining and quarrying (incl. petr. & gas extraction): 3.5%
• Manufacturing: 9.2%
• Construction and utilities: 19.5%
• Services and other: 64.0%
• Public sector: 26.5%
– General government sector:23.1%
– Publicly owned enterprises: 3.4%
• Private sector: 73.5%
[source: LABORSTA (ILO database on labour statistics) http://laborsta.ilo.org/]
(2008 figures)
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T&T Exports
• Exports: $15.9 billion
• Oil and gas account for 80% of exports
[source: World Factbook (2008 estimates)]
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Unemployment Relief Programme
(URP)
• Main objective is to provide short term employment relief
while enhancing the skills of individuals in the community
• Work is provided on a rotation basis, every two to three
fortnights (four to six weeks)
• URP workers are not entitled to any employment benefits or
vacation leave
• Labourers are paid a stipend of about $650 a fortnight (about
$1,300 per month)
• URP employs 50,000-60,000 people
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Community Based Environmental Protection
and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP)
• Designed to facilitate social transformation in the national
community through empowering communities to improve their
living standards by increasing employment opportunities;
enhancing and improving the environment; and developing a
cadre of entrepreneurs
• CEPEP has over 100 contractors who employ over 5,000
contract workers
• In 2008/2009 national budget, TT$300 million allocated to
CEPEP
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CEPEP – For $300m shared among
100 contractors and 5,000 workers
Contractors
Workers
$100m to contractors,
$200m to workers
$100m/100 =
$1m per contractor
$200m/5,000 =
$40,000 per worker
$200m to contractors,
$100m to workers
$200m/100 =
$2m per contractor
$100m/5,000 =
$20,000 per worker
$300m shared equally $58,824 per contractor
© Institute of Critical Thinking
$58,824 per worker
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T&T – Tertiary education
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (tertiary)*: 11%
• Total tertiary enrolment*: 17,000
• Enrolment in science and technology**:
– Science: 13.7%
– Engineering, manufacturing and construction:
22.6%
[source: UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2009]
*2005 data; **2004 data
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Productivity
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DAY 2
VI
Non-critical thinking
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Non-critical thinking
• Prejudicial thinking – gathering evidence to support a
particular position without questioning the position itself
• Habitual thinking – thinking based on past practices
without considering current data
• Group thinking (groupthink) – “A mode of thinking that
people engage in when they are deeply involved in a
cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for
unanimity override their motivation to realistically
appraise alternative courses of action” (Janis, 1972)
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VII
The Art of Deception
and
the Role of Critical Thinking
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How to gain audience sympathy
• Appeal to pity, appeal to emotions
• Appeal to authority, experts
• Appeal to tradition – ideals, accepted
norms
• Appeal to precedent
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Presenting facts
• Use of statistics
– Is the source reliable?
– What is and isn’t being said? e.g. “More people
choose brand X than Y” How much is “more”?
– How is the data being interpreted/represented?
– Don’t be fooled by large numbers, don’t overlook
small numbers
• Organizing/classifying information – use of “all”
or “some”, or implicit use of “all”
• Definition of terms
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The role of critical thinking
• Critical thinking can be used to help make
more well thought-out evaluations and
judgements in tasks such as reading
reports, listening to interviewee responses
and mediating conflicts.
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Critical reading skills
• What is the problem?
– How is the problem formulated?
– Why is this problem important?
– What is the history of this problem?
– Which prominent personalities have been
interested in this problem?
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Critical reading skills
• What solutions to the problem are there?
–
–
–
–
What are the conclusions reached?
By what argument(s) is the conclusion reached?
What facts or assumptions serve as premises?
When a prominent personality offers a solution, does
he also argue for or against other prominent
personalities? Does he raise objections to alternative
solutions? Does he consider objections to his own
solutions?
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Critical reading skills
• Evaluation
– What are the advantages and disadvantages
of the alternative formulations to the problem?
– Has the importance or history of the problem
ever been misrepresented?
– Are the solutions logically related to the
premises?
– Are the facts true? Are the assumptions
acceptable? Are the objections answerable?
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VIII
Some important things
to appreciate
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• Brain – the portion of the vertebrate central
nervous system enclosed in the skull
• Intellect – capacity for knowledge
• Mind – the element or complex of elements in an individual
that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons
• Imagination – the act or power of forming a mental image of
something not present to the senses or never before wholly
perceived in reality; a creation of the mind
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• The creative process at work
• Models of creativity
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IX
Developing your
thinking skills, your
creativity and your mind
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CREATE
Create
Relate
Explore
Analyze
Transform
Experience
C
O
N
N
E
C
T
D
I
S
C
O
V
E
R
I
N
V
E
N
T
Open mind
A
P
P
L
Y
Mind
shift
Closed mind
From personal to
global – From
global to personal
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Multiply vs divide – striking the balance
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Body, mind, spirit – Harmony
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A sunny virtual space
for self immersion
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• Using humor to undermine fear
• Transforming fear into directed energy
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Triumph over cynicism
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Learn to live free by breaking free and
persisting
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Take control of your life
Make the obvious more obvious
Jump steps to success
Travel the clear-unclear road to happiness
Get unstuck
Relax the big squeeze of life
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• Maintain the essential tension
• Resist the slides of boredom and
indifference
• Never pass on your passion
• Call it like you see it, honestly
• Remake your self-image
• Take your time … and your space
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• Hmmm…find new ideas in the paradox
• “Simplexity”: See the simple in the
complex
• Cut the stress lines
• Hunt for satisfying work
• Remove the walls of your mind
• Envision your creative process
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• Fish for the bigger meaning
• Add to invention
• Shift your social solar systems
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• See the whole of your creativity
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X
Complex thinking
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Complex thinking
• Complex thinking combines the basic learning and recall
of accepted information, critical thinking, and creative
thinking into larger, action-oriented processes.
• Cohen (1971) and Presseisen (2001) described four
specific complex thinking processes:
– problem solving (resolve a known difficulty)
– decision making (choose the best alternative)
– critical thinking (understand particular meaning)
– creative thinking (create novel or aesthetic ideas or
products).
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Complex thinking for public sector
leaders
• Although different in many aspects, public
and private sector leaders focus on value
for their customers/clients
• The customers of the public sector are the
citizens to whom services are provided
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Complex thinking for public sector
leaders
Complex thinking can be used to:
– Systematically solve problems by sensing,
researching information, scanning the global
environment, formulating the problem, finding
alternatives, choosing a solution and building
acceptance
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Complex thinking for public sector
leaders
Complex thinking can be used to:
– Produce new ideas by designing, imagining
and formulating goals
– Invent, assess and revise a product
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Complex thinking for public sector
leaders
Complex thinking can be used to:
– Make decisions
– Systematically selecting between alternatives
by identifying issues, generating alternatives,
making choices and evaluating
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XI
Learning Community
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Communication for a learning
community
• “The defining quality of a learning
community is that there is a culture of
learning in which everyone is involved in a
collective effort of understanding.” Chris
Dede, Technical Horizons in Education (2004)
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Communication for a learning
community
• The use of technology enhances the
capability of complex thinkers to solve
problems, formulate new ideas and make
sound decisions
• Learning communities in the educational
environment are exposed to knowledge
sources embedded in real world settings
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Communication for a learning
community
• The University of the West Indies is
presently utilising Moodle as a
communications tool to expand the
University’s learning community with onsite academics and students as well as
with international scholars.
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Communication for a learning
community
• Facilitates the transfer from the traditional
behaviourist model of learning to broader
more action-oriented learning
• Allows the learner to actively participate in
the analysis and synthesis of data →
information, information → knowledge and
knowledge → power
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Communication for a learning
community
• Members of the learning community are
masters and creators of their knowledge
• The transfer of knowledge is creative and
assists in the formulation of innovative
ideas
• Technology can be used easily to create,
communicate and innovate
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Communication for a learning
community
• The learning community, through the
exchange of ideas becomes a tool for
development
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XII
Motivation, inspiration and
team achievement
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XIII
Where do we go
from here?
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