Creative and Critical Thinking
INTRODUCTION
Creative and critical thinking is intertwined and interdependent. Hence, it is essential for effective reasoning skill in generating and evaluating ideas for productivity, problem solving and decision making across different fields and in our daily living. One may wonder what these terms mean and how this working relationship between can could achieved? This paper hopes to look into the nature and principle of both creative and critical thinking and the interplay between them. It would by so doing, demystify it into different aspects for which it may be applied and finally narrow it down to argumentation.
NATURE AND PRINCIPLE OF CREATIVITY
Creative thinking in decision making is so important to man, without which he is no better than apes. Failure to engage our rational thinking capacity causes failure in all works of life. Some scholars are of the opinion that since nothing is new under the sun, creativity is simply referring to what has been to bring up new ideas and things, it is important we look at the principles of creative thinking, which differentiates it from mere thinking as given by Moore:
Creative Breakthrough: Often times one tends to attempt a perceptual (referring to old method) approach in problem solving to a satisfactory extent. Creative breakthrough is completely applying ideas and information new to oneself even though millions of people have attempted same idea and information. It is using a conceptual approach in solving problem.
Preparation: One have to be disposed and make necessary preparation before creative breakthrough can come through. Arriving at different tentative conclusions is essential as a rule in order to get closer to breakthrough, even though it be unsatisfactory. At this point real creative thinkers do not give up.
Incubation: This is the period one’s conscious attention is deliberately diverted to other subjects for a period of time, be it days, weeks, months or even years. The breakthrough is believed to be at the unconscious mind and is yet to pop up on the conscious mind.
Persistence: Since the incubation is not a guarantee for breakthrough, creative thinkers even in the face of failure and criticism, employ perseverance, courage and retrial of the preparatory stage to get a different frame of reference which could connect to the idea in the unconscious mind to pop up for breakthrough to occur.
Mechanical Methods: After the information comes on one’s conscious mind, breakthrough may not occur especially when the mind fail to combine things. Thus, one tends to employ mechanical method by combining the given information with tentative conclusions to get a clearer picture of what the problem is.
Analogies: This comes as a way of comparison of the problem at hand with similar problem already solved in the past. It is the link between the known and the unknown and obviously a fruitful source for tentative conclusions.
Adversity: Nothing good comes easy, adversities are bound to set in, but it could be converted with creative thinking into a reasonable advantage or at least twisted to a reduced level.
Practice: Practice makes perfect, you can’t be a creative thinker until you begin to practice creative thinking skills. As a rule, for practice, one would have to give imagination freedom to range the frame of reference unchecked by critical thinking.
NATURE AND PRINCIPLE OF CRITICAL THINKING
The word “critical” is from a Greek word, krinein meaning “to separate,” “to choose;” it implies conscious, deliberate inquiry.”
There are a lot of misconceptions about critical thinking. It is often viewed as someone who is always faultfinding or against something and is also viewed as emotionless thinking. However, it means thinking that meets the criteria of reasonableness. Also, emotions are essential to critical thinking, they give us data, for instance, the love of truth. Furthermore, critical thinking is reflective, it involves standards, it is authentic, it involves being reasonable and it is divided into three major parts: Asking Questions, reasoning them out and believing the results. Critical thinking in my opinion is a well reasoned thinking, essential for the logical structuring, evaluation and reflective analysis of the ideas that creative thinking puts forward. It fine-tunes, reshapes and brings creative breakthrough to a reasonable conclusion.
According to Steve Padget, “Critical thinking is 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.”
Also, he goes forward to outline the skills involved in critical thinking as regards education as follows: the ability to analyze complex issues and problems:
- Ability to analyze complex issues and problem
- The recognition of different points of view and assumptions;
- The skill of evaluating these against a range of accepted criteria;
- Being able to make inferences and draw conclusions based on available
- information;
- The ability to transfer these skills across subject boundaries;
- Being able to see the interconnectedness of ideas and insights.
Critical Thinking in Argumentation
Critical thinking skills is applied in the construction and evaluation of an argument. An argument is said to comprise of a claim, evidence for the claim, a warrant; which that connects the evidence to the claim, and qualifications to the argument. Critical thinking aims at maintaining an objective position, evaluate the coherence. Narrowed down to critical thinking in argumentation, Baker, M., et al. stated that:
…involves the individual’s ability to do some or all of the following: identify central issues and assumptions in an argument, recognize important relationships, make correct inferences from data, deduce conclusions from information or data provided, interpret whether conclusions are warranted on the basis of the data given, and evaluate evidence or authority…and these require a set of skills:
1. Distinguishing between verifiable facts and value claims
2. Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information, claims, and reasons
3. Determining factual accuracy of a statement
4. Determining credibility of a source
5. Identifying ambiguous claims or arguments
6. Identifying unstated assumptions
7. Detecting bias
8. Identifying logical fallacies
9. Recognizing logical inconsistencies in a line of reasoning
10. Determining the strength of an argument or claim
To further present a refined critical thinking, and quoting Paul, outlined three thought traits and/or processes possessed by the critical thinker. These include the following:
Elements of reasoning: To arrive at well-reasoned thinking, certain reasoning elements are to be put into consideration: one has to know the purpose of or question at hand, information and/or facts about the question, assumptions made about the question, interpretation of the facts and data collected, theories and concepts related to the question, and inclusion of other points of view, and finally, an assessment of the conclusions is drawn with emphasis on implications and consequences of the decisions reached as a result of the thinking process.
Traits of reasoning: This includes independent thinking, intellectual empathy, intellectual humility, courage, integrity, perseverance, intellectual curiosity, faith in reason, intellectual civility, and intellectual responsibility. These traits are not only present in critical thinkers, they are consciously utilized to guide the thinking process.
Reasoning standards: These traits in my understanding, should as stated above, consist the logical principles set out as a tool, standard and guide to analyze the reasoning process and also should be measure for setting out conclusions on the validity, soundness and logical coherence of the reasoning process.
THE SYNERGY OF CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING
In our age of globalization, just as stated earlier, effective thinking skills are needed in solving complicated problems, and these skills includes critical thinking and creativity. According to Steve Padget, “creativity and critical thinking can, be regarded as two sides of the same coin…and can be argued that to think well requires both creative and critical capabilities, that neither can be effective without the other’”.
To further explain the relationship, Joe Lau sees critical thinking as “thinking clearly and rationally. It involves thinking precisely and systematically, and following the rules of logic and scientific reasoning, among other things. As for creativity, it is a matter of coming up with new and useful ideas, generating alternative possibilities.” Creative and critical thinking by way of mutual dependency combine effort to ensure that situations and problem we meet have corresponding solution using both creative thinking and analytical, logical critical thinking.
Also, creative thinking has been defined by Edgar Moore “as the formulation of possible solutions to a problem or explanations of a phenomenon, and critical thinking as the testing and evaluation of these solutions or explanations.” Explaining further, he pointed practical example of the interplay between creating and critiquing which proves good outcome. To him,
To put a new product on the market, the manufacturer must first “create” the idea for the new product. But if he has good business sense, he will not market the product until it has been thoroughly “criticized” by testing and evaluation. In solving a crime, a good detective “creates” possible explanations and then tests them with all the evidence he can get. If he fails to “create” the right explanations, he cannot possibly solve the crime. If he is careless in “criticizing” the explanations he has created, his “solution” of the crime may be the wrong one. In diagnosing an illness, the physician first “creates” possible diagnoses that seem to fit the symptoms and then “criticizes” these by further examination of the patient or by laboratory tests. His final diagnosis can¬ not be right unless the possible diagnoses he has “created” include the right one. Even when his possible diagnoses do include the right one, he may still make a mistake if he is careless in “criticizing” his possible diagnoses.
In my understanding here, in creating and criticizing, there is interrelatedness and these ideas yield effective thinking and are both equally important as seen in their complementarity.
More so, creativity and critical thinking have a relationship that is so close to symbiotic. Creativity being something imaginative, purposeful, new, original and of value, etc. needs the ground prepared by critical thinking, being something rational, open-minded, honest, self-conscious, disciplined and judgmental, etc. to grow.
Furthermore, on creative and critical thinking being likened to different sides of a coin, similar but not identical; creative thinking is divergent, critical thinking is convergent; one creates something new and the other seeks to analyze and check for validity of that which has been created; one in attempt to create could violate accepted principles and the other makes do with accepted principles.
Co-relation Between Creative and Critical Thinking Disposition
According to the research findings by Kani Ulger, “The critical skill is an expression of creativity [and thus,] it is impossible to gap between critical and creative thinking. [Although,] Creative thinking and critical thinking include many common traits, [however] there is very little research to determine the relationship between both thinking skills and little is known about this relationship.” Hence, the following dispositions have been found to be co-related:
Analiticity and Creative Strength: Analiticity entails the ability to breakdown a given problem and be insistent on simplifying it; Creative Strength in my understanding entails one’s potentials and being sensitive to problem solving. The tendency to be sensitive to problem is meaningful in problem analysis.
Elaboration and Resistance to Premature: Elaboration is the ability to bring forth ideas in details; to be resistant to premature is to be consistent in logical questioning and open mindedness. The relationship is meaningful as what to prob is found in the elaborated ideas.
Creative Strength and Open Mindedness: Since creative strength entails one’s potential and ability to develop them for a solution, Open minded is that tolerance to cope with the different approaches and accept or make mistakes.
Inquisitiveness and Truth-seeking: Being inquisitive is taking into reflection possible solution for a problem and truth seeking relates to finding an objective. One is sensitive and the other is directional to objectivity.
He concluded that non-routine-problem plays important role in the relationship between (and the development of) creative and critical thinking skills
Analysis and Conclusion
This paper has so far being able to clarify the meaning and working relationship between creative and critical thinking as being interdependent and intertwined in decision making, problem solving and argumentation. Also, it proceeded to look into the nature and principles of both creative and critical thinking; the former being an innovative thinking with notable principles such as creative breakthrough, being the facts, idea and information being sort after, and others like preparation, incubation, persistence, etc. the latter being a deliberate, rational, coherent, analytical and well reasoned examination or inquiry into the ideas and information birthed by creative thinking so as to ensure they are correct and follow logical principles. Furthermore, it looked at the synergy between creative and critical thinking as being symbiotic, two different but interrelated sides of a coin. Creative thinking being something imaginative, purposeful, new, original, and of value, etc and critical thinking being something rational, open-minded, honest, self-conscious, disciplined, analytic and judgmental. Going still further, it stated the co-relation between creative and critical thinking disposition and came to the conclusion that non-routine problem plays important role in the relationship between (and the development of) creative and critical thinking.
In conclusion and having analyzed this paper, it came up with the idea that creativity termed new and original takes clue from preexisting knowledge to get features that differentiates it from the preexisting knowledge or idea. Thus, in our contemporary age, it dared to ask if there is something new under the sun independent of existing components? In other not to deviate from the study question raised in the introduction, it agreed that there is a relationship between creative and critical thinking and this relationship lies in their mutual inter-dependency. Thus, productive thinking requires and cannot do without creative and critical thinking.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
____Moore, E. 1967. Creative and Critical Thinking. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 141-150
____Benny Jack, “Critical Thinking” in Barnet S. and Barnet, S. (Ed.) 1993. Current Issues and Enduring Questions, A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with readings. 3
____Current Issues and Enduring Questions, A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with readings. M01_NOSI5149_04_SE_C01.QXD
____What is Critical Thinking. M01_NOSI5149_04_SE_C01.QXD 1-15
____Padget, S. (Ed.) 2013. In Creativity and creative thinking. London: Routledge omw 8& Francis Group. 7
____Baker, M., Rudd, R., et al. Creative and Critical Thinking. Boston
Y___Padget, S. (Ed.) 2013. In Creativity and creative thinking. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 4
____ Lau, J. 2011. An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity, Think More, Think Better. Canada: John Wiley & Sons. 1
_____Taylor & Francis H.U Journal of EducationThe relationship between Creative and Critical Thinking Skill of Students
_____Ulger, K. The relationship between Creative and Critical Thinking Skill of Students. H.U Journal of Education. 31(4). (October, 2016). 700-703
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