Thinking Skills: Creative and Critical

      An important goal of education is helping students learn how to think more productively by combining creative thinking (to generate ideas) and critical thinking (to evaluate ideas).  Both modes of thinking are essential for a well-rounded productive thinker, according to scholars in both fields:
      Richard Paul (a prominent advocate of CRITICAL THINKING) says, "Alternative solutions are often not given, they must be generated or thought-up.  Critical thinkers must be creative thinkers as well, generating possible solutions in order to find the best one.  Very often a problem persists, not because we can't tell which available solution is best, but because the best solution has not yet been made available — no one has thought of it yet." {source}
      Patrick Hillis & Gerard Puccio (who focus on CREATIVE THINKING) describe the combining of divergent generation and convergent evaluation in a strategy of Creative Problem Solving that "contains many tools which can be used interchangeably within any of the stages.  These tools are selected according to the needs of the task and are either divergent (i.e., used to generate options) or convergent (i.e., used to evaluate options)." {source}
      Craig Rusbult describes how Productive Thinking is a result of combining knowledge with creative/critical thinking.
 

 
Multiple Intelligences & Learning Styles
      People can think productively in a variety of ways, as described in a theory of MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES developed by Howard Gardner.  Therefore, we should try to find teaching strategies that will be effective for students with different LEARNING STYLES.
      Visual Logic:  We can think logically in a variety of ways;  useful tools for VISUAL THINKING include visually logical organizing techniques — concept maps, matrices and diagrams (cluster, hierarchical, webbing, Venn,...), flowcharts,... — that can encourage and facilitate creative-and-critical thinking.
 

 
Thinking Skills in Education

      Educators are becoming more interested in designing instruction that will help students improve their thinking skills.  An excellent overview is Teaching Thinking Skills by Kathleen Cotton; the second half of her page is a comprehensive bibliography.
      Another useful page — What Is a Thinking Curriculum? (by Fennimore & Tinzmann) — begins with principles and then moves into applications in Language Arts, Mathematics, Sciences, and Social Sciences.
      Educational Leadership devoted an entire issue, including an interview with Howard Gardner, to Teaching for Multiple Intelligences — and you can read (on the web for free) the first three articles, and all abstracts.
      Learning in Bloom's Taxonomy can be described in terms of domains (cognitive, affective, psycho-motor) and levels, as you can see in this overview (of the original & revised versions) & introduction & elaboration.   And here are tips for using Bloom's Taxonomy — sample questions & assessing learning objectives (with examples) & course design.

A variety of ideas about teaching "thinking skills" are in Active Learning Theories & Teaching Strategies.

If you're wondering "What can I do in my classroom tomorrow?", eventually there will be a section for "thinking skills activities" in the area for TEACHING ACTIVITIES.

      Two related questions are:  How can we effectively teach thinking skills?  and  What role should thinking skills play in education?  As explained in the two papers above, a range of views exist for each question.  Among the unresolved issues are the amount of time to invest in developing thinking skills, and the advantages of two general teaching approaches:  infusion (in which thinking skills are closely integrated with content instruction) and separate programs (with thinking skills taught as an independent curriculum).
      Kathleen Cotton says, "Of the demonstrably effective programs, about half are of the infused variety, and the other half are taught separately from the regular curriculum. ...  The strong support that exists for both approaches... indicates that either approach can be effective.  Freseman represents what is perhaps a means of reconciling these differences [between enthusiastic advocates of each approach] when he writes, at the conclusion of his 1990 study: “Thinking skills need to be taught directly before they are applied to the content areas. ...  I consider the concept of teaching thinking skills directly to be of value especially when there follows an immediate application to the content area.” "
      For principles and examples of infusion, check the National Center for Teaching Thinking which lets you see What is Infusion? (an introduction to the art of infusing thinking skills into content instruction), and sample lessons (for different subjects, grade levels, and thinking skills).
      Our links-page for Teaching Strategies to promote Active Learning summarizes and explores a variety of ideas about effective teaching (based on principles of constructivism, meaningful reception,...) designed to stimulate active learning and improve thinking skills.  Later, maybe beginning in December 2011, a continuing exploration of the web will reveal more web-pages with useful "thinking skills & problem solving" ideas (especially for K-12 students & teachers) and we'll share these with you, here and in TEACHING ACTIVITIES.
      Of course, thinking skills are not just for scholars and schoolwork, as emphasized in an ERIC Digest, Higher Order Thinking Skills in Vocational Education.  And you can get information about 23 Programs that Work from the U.S. Dept of Education. 

More ideas are available later in this page, in Problem Solving in Education.