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Creative Thinking and Reading.

Chris Williams

Description

Creative thinking and reading includes teams of students that work together to solve assigned problems using text provided by the teacher.The purpose of creative thinking reading is for students to combine their own knowledge with their classmates to solve problems or assignments that the teacher provides. This will test the student’s ability to be a part of a team and cooperate with their classmates along with testing their problem solving skills. The following are directions on how to perform creative thinking reading correctly:

1. Assign chapters for the students to read before the beginning of class. If the student comes to class with background knowledge of the topic, the lecture flows smoothly and without as many interruptions.
2. Lecture on the topic and allow the students to ask questions.
3. Divide the class into small groups of typically four or five members (group numbers may vary depending on the preference of the professor and the size of the class).
4. Assign each group with a problem.
5. Allow the groups to work together to solve their assigned problem.
6. After all groups have their problem solved, each group will address the problem and possible solution in front of the class.

Major Concepts

Any program that requires a group of students working together to solve a problem or reach a common goal may be well suited for the creative thinking and reading strategy. Such a setup is a typical model for the Collaborative Learning Theory. Examples of programs that may utilize the creative thinking reading strategy may include engineering, construction, forensics, and medicine. These are professions that require a group of people collaborating to solve a problem or reach a common goal. For further research, I would suggest reading Creating a Learning Environment to Produce Competent Residents: The Roles of Culture and Context by T. Hoft, Where Do Learners Come From? By R. Zemke, and Organizational Learning by C. Fiol (Sheaff, 2006). Albert Einstein helped pave the way for creative thinking and reading because of his analytical personality and his vast knowledge. He helped change the way scientists analyzed information and is a contributor to modern-science. According to Walker (2003) students need to be exposed to diverse teaching methods that promote critical thinking in order to nurture the critical thinking process. Sometimes students are stuck and are unable to understand that various answers exist for one problem. Students must be exposed to ambiguity and multiple interpretations and perspectives of a situation or problem in order to simulate growth (p. 263). This relates to adult learning and because a lot of times adult learners learn in “black and white”. They think that if they have a specific problem, they will always have the same, specific answer. Many of times there are gray areas in the topic. There may be multiple interpretations and perspectives of a situation and there may be multiple different correct answers for the same problem. As an adult learner, we are expected to take that next step and analyze situations or problems and not only think in black and white. Creative thinking and reading allows adult learners to do just that. This also relates to the Content aspect of Pratt’s General Model. Instead of evaluating your content as a teacher, it is important to evaluate the information gathered as a learner. Question the information that is gathered and think of possible answers to the question. An example of a question that the students may ask themselves would be “What did I learn and what can I do with this knowledge?”

Relationship to Teaching Perspective

Critical thinking and reading may be well suited in the Developmental Perspective because students are taught to analyze ideas or issues critically and develop intellectual/thinking skills as well as comprehend principals or generalizations (Pratt, 1998, p.107). Critical thinking and reading, again, allows the student to find the gray areas in topics and further analyze their knowledge to solve a problem.

Benefits

Benefits of critical thinking and reading include students developing into inquisitive and independent thinkers, production of students with the habit of critically reading literature, increase in retention of facts, introduction of students to their own creative abilities a new self-confidence in their ability to think creatively and express themselves.

Drawbacks and Cautions

The possible drawbacks of critical thinking and reading include student frustration, students over-analyzing information, and students not cooperating as a team (Paulovich, 1993, p.566). Fortunately the benefits of critical thinking and reading outweigh the drawbacks and critical thinking and reading is a great strategy to utilize.

Final Thoughts

I have had great results with the critical thinking and reading perspective. Many of my athletic training professors encouraged me to critically analyze information that we learned in class. I had a clinical coordinator that was very hard on me as a senior. I already had a vast knowledge in athletic training, but I was not analyzing situations critically. She encouraged me to think critically by asking me why I was performing certain techniques or how the technique works. I would have to analyze my previous knowledge of the technique to answer her questions and I learned a lot from her. This strategy is very valuable because there are a lot of gray areas in my profession and a lot of the time one may not realize it until they analyze their previous knowledge.

References

Paulovich, A. (1993). Creativity and Graduate Education. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4, 565-568.

Pratt, Daniel. D. (1998). Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and Higher Education. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.

Sheaff, R. D. (2006). Can learning organizations survive in the newer NHS? BioMed Central, 26, 1-11.

Walker, Stacy. E. (2003). Active Learning Strategies to Promote Critical Thinking. Journal of Athletic Training, 38(3), 267.

--Clwilli4 00:01, 29 March 2007 (EDT)