Creativity and Critical Thinking

Prepared by

Appu Aravind
Asst. Professor
DBSH
The Five Senses
“Our sense of self, memories, values,
• SIGHT
beliefs and neural programming all act
as filters that manipulate sensory
• HEARING
input. It is our mind that converts this
• SMELL
sensory data into feelings and
• TASTE
perceptions. Thus, in effect, it is our
• TOUCH
thoughts that create the “reality” we
see around us.”
 Global Economy
LONG AGO.. 21ST CENTURY
• Agriculture and Labour • Information and Knowledge
Intensive driven
• Decisive Factors for a Stable • Decisive Factors for a Stable Job
Job and Income; and Income;
• Knowledge of a trade • Working effectively within a team
• Obedience to orders • Self motivation
• Hardwork • Effective communication
• Ability to rise above the job
defenitions
21st Century Skills
• Learning Skills
• Critical & Creative Thinking
• Collaborating and Communicating
• Literacy Skills
• Information Literacy
• Technology & Media Literacy
• Life Skills
• Flexibility, Initiative
• Productivity & Leadership
What is Critical Thinking
• “The word ‘critical’ when applied to persons who
judge and to their judgments, not only may, but in
very precise use does, imply an effort to see a thing
clearly and truly so that not only the good in it may be
distinguished from the bad and the perfect from the
imperfect, but also that it as a whole may be fairly
judged and valued.”
- Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms
Critical Thinking
• Critical thinking is clear, rational and disciplined
• The thinker is open to reorganizing and raising the efficiency of
his thought process by reflecting on them
• Recognizes the errors and biases that may be present
• Critical thinkers use a group of interconnected skills to analyze,
unify and evaluate what is heard, seen or read
Critical Thinking Skills
• Ability to identify the central issue or the unifying theme and
the possible assumptions of an argument
• Ability to pull together the disparate elements in a situation
• Ability to make bias-free inferences from available data
• Ability to evaluate the veracity and authenticity of claims

Barry K. Beyer in his book Critical Thinking (1995), summarizes

the essential skills required for effective critical thinking.
The Essential Skills
1. Distinguish between variable facts and claims of value
2. Distiguishing relevant data from irrelevant information
3. Determine whether a statement is factually correct
4. Identifying whether a source is credible
5. Spotting ambiguous claims or aurguments
6. Identifying assumptions which are not stated explicity
7. Detecting bias
8. Identifying logical inconsistancies
9. Recognizing errors in the line of reasoning
10. Assesing the strength of an argument or claim
Critical Thinking Models
• Two main models for Critical Thinking

• Fayetteville State University (FSU) Quality Enhancement

Programme Model

• Paul Elder Model & Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA)

Paul Elder Model (PE Model)
• Most generalized model and covers a wider range of critical
thinking process
• According to this model the thought process of a critical
thinker involves three components. These pertain both to
problem at hand and to the individual himself.

• Intellectual Standards
• Elements of Reasoning
• Intellectual Traits
Intellectual Standards
• Standards against which we can compare the thinking
process.
• Alignment to these standards determines whether our
thinking process can be considered critical thinking.
Elements of Reasoning
• Building blocks of reasoning

• The various aspects that a

critical thinker has to work
with
• The resource which he may
eventually transmute into a
solution.
Intellectual Traits
• Expected of a good critical thinker
• Must develop by consistent application of the intellectual
standards to the elements of reasoning
• Called as Virtues of Mind
Creativity
• Creativity – a mental process involving the generation of
new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing
ideas or concepts.

“breaking out of established patterns to look at things in a

different way.”

“the skill of being able to produce something new which

having some value”
Creativity
• It involves the ability to acquire knowledge, break it down
and rearrange it in an altogether different manner to
generate something new and valuable.
“it arises out of skilful restructuring of our thoughts to
allow novel points of view about a given subject or situation.”
What makes a creative person different/special?
• Sensitivity to the existance of problems, opportunities, gaps
in knowledge, inconsistencies, and lack of harmony
• Ability to use existing knowledge in new ways to search for
solutions
• Make guesses and test their validity

“since knowledge is not always gained through language alone,

creative feelings also cannot always be expressed in words.”
Three Levels of Creativity
According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, creativity is a
facet of the highest human need – self actualization. He
proposes three levels of creativity

• Primary Creativity
• Secondary Creativity
• Integrated Creativity
Primary Creativity
• The level from which new and fundamental ideas arises
• Radically differs from what exists
• Often expressed in arts and literature
• Most spontaneous and child-like
• Not always concerned with the utility of the work
• The stress is on self-expression
Secondary Creativity
• Ideas that are based on an existing concept, which take
already existing work further
• The product of collective effort and synergy
• The level of thought and planning is higher
Integrated Creativity
• Level of creativity that often brings out great achievements
be it in art, literature, science, or business
• It combines the elements of primary and secondary levels of
creativity
• The spontaneity of primary creativity is channeled using
extensive thought about the required outcome
Another Defenition
Margeret Boden, another influential researcher, stresses that
creativity is a fundamental feature of our intelligence and it is
present in everyone. He says that it is a skill which can be
learnt by anyone using systematic procedures.

Boden also defines three kinds of creativity:

• Combinatorial Creativity
• Exploratory Creativity
• Transformational Creativity
Combinatorial Creativity
• Known ideas are combined in new and different ways to
form new ideas and concepts
• Familiar ideas are connected in unfamiliar ways
• Eg: making a collage, a poetry
Exploratory Creativity
• New ideas are generated by exploring structured concepts
which currently exists
• It happens often within a domain
• Often incremental but useful and steady
• It contributes greatly by improving and refining existing
structures and redefining boundaries
• Eg: Creation and use of new words like laptop, palmtop by
combining parts of already exisiting words
Transformational Creativity
• The deepest kind of creativity where new ideas emerge by
radically changing the structured concepts themselves
• Forces a substantial restructuring of an artist’s thoughts
• Associated with a great leap of imagination and challenge
the existing frameworks of ideas
• Eg: Pablo Picasso changed the conceptual space of artistic
expression through Cubism
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity put an unlikey spin on the study of
Physics
Creativity..
IS NOT

• A basic capability of the human • A mystical ability that comes only to a

brain few
• A skill – which can be learned and • Inspired or path-breaking ideas all
improved the time
• The product of disciplined thinking • A matter of waiting for inspiration to
• The result of being open to come
experiences and thinking about
them
• A process that involves trials and
errors
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)
Critical and Creative Thinking 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
 Creative vs Critical Thinking
Creative thinking is described as:
• making and communicating connections to think of many possibilities;
• thinking and experiencing in various ways and use different points of view;
• thinking of new and unusual possibilities; and
• giving guidance 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.
Creative vs Critical Thinking

Creative Thinking Critical Thinking

• Divergent • Convergent
• Right brain (global, • Left brain (analytic,
parallel, emotional, serial, logical, objective)
subjective) • Evaluation
• Synthesis
 Convergent and Divergent Thinking
CONVERGENT DIVERGENT

• Ability to arrive at single, most • Thought process works by generating

appropriate and often correct and analysing different solutions for
answer single problem
• Well defined questions • Spontaneous and nonlinear thought
• Emphsis is on speed, accuracy, logic, pattern
recognition of familiar patterns • Associated with curiosity, persistence
• Eg: What is an OLED? and openness to risks
• Eg: What do you think colleges will be
like in the year 2100?
Convergent and Divergent Thinking
• Convergent Thinking
Data Data

Facts Facts
OR
Answer 1 Answer 2

Data Data

Facts Facts
Convergent and Divergent Thinking
• Divergent Thinking
Possibilities

Possibilities Possibilities

Stimulas

Possibilities Possibilities

Possibilities
Myths of Creativity
Myth
• A widely held but false belief or idea that evolved as means to explain
phenomena that were difficult to understand.

• In his book Myths of Creativity:The Truth About How Innovative

Companies and People Generate Great Ideas, David Burkus has
summarized different myths about creativity.
• The Eureka Myth
• The Breed Myth
• The Originality Myth
• The Expert Myth
• The Incentive Myth
• The Lone Creator Myth
• The Brainstorming Myth
• The Cohesive Myth
• The Constraints Myth
• The Mousetrap Myth
Lateral Thinking
• Represents problem solving by an indirect, non-sequential
method using reasoning that is not necessarily obvious
• A process that starts with the generation of new ideas
• There are two main aspects for lateral thinking
• Freeing our thought process from old ideas
• Stimulating the creation of new ideas
• It diverges from the traditional vertical thinking strategies
• It helps in handling problems which has less rigidly defined
steps
Vertical Thinking
• A conclusion is reached by following a series of defined steps
• It is necessary that each step must be correct in itself
• This way, it in itself limits progress to known paths
Differences Between Vertical and Lateral Thinking
Vertical Thinking Lateral Thinking

• Selective • Generative
• Moves only if a direction to move • Moves in order to generate direction
• Analytical • Provocative
• Sequential • Can make jumps
• Path dependent • Does not depend on soundness of path
• Discounts some approaches as wrong • No approach is wrong
• Concentrate on what is relevant • Welcomes outside intrusion
• Rigid categories and classifications • Allows fliud classifications
• Finite • probabilistic
“The Critical and Creative functions of the mind are
so interwoven that neither can be separated from
the other without an essential loss to both.”

- anonymous
Thank You