Life is coming toward us at such a rate that every second displays a new scene of potentially new challenges. Therefore, we must expand our thinking abilities in order to survive. Technology is also growing rapidly, thus we are continually influenced and pushed to find new alternative options. Thinking is a process of response, and if it is productive, it results in changing our world views and knowledge. It is an independent action that happens continually whether we choose it or not. Buddha argued that, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” As a result, we affect the world with the way we think about it. Our brains are regularly dealing with thoughts which are reflected in our facial expression, speech, and attitude. There are two ways in which we think, convergent and divergent, which were introduced first by Joy Paul Guilford in 1967. When multiple options are offered, the best one is chosen and that is convergent thinking. However, divergent thinking offers just one option with a variety of outcomes. While convergent thinking is essential in academic achievement, divergent thinking is essential to succeed in today’s world.
Convergent thinking has the ability to reduce a large set of ideas to a few and provide just one right answer. It is characterized with a strong emphasis on speed, accuracy, and logic. Those thinkers have clear goals where the path to a solution and obstacles are based on the facts given. As White points out, “It is the correct answer, the known answer, the general response extended in intelligence and academic tests” (7). Accordingly, convergent thinkers gather all relevant information and, in the end, come up with the best pos...
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“True Enlightenment”, Buddha Quotes for Enlightenment! May 13, 2005
White, William “It's All In Your Mind." Scholastic Parent & Child 19.2 (2011): 67-72 Professional Development Collection. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.
Howard Gardner used to define intelligence as “the ability to solve problems or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings” (Gardner 33). The modern day human being would most likely include the words “smart” and “dumb” in their definition of intelligence. Gardner questioned the belief of only one intelligence so he created his own theory that involved seven different discoveries. He didn’t want to call these discoveries “skills” or “talents” or gifts” because those all suggested a drawback so he decided on the word “intelligence,” creating his theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner 33). Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences including, linguistic, logical/mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, intrapersonal and interpersonal, has many implications for modern education and culture.
General intelligence tends to relate to various degrees with each other (Cohen 2012). An example of this is that if an individual is good in math, they may also be good in spelling. In this weeks reading we reviewed several different models of measurement of intelligence. In regard to these theories and general intelligence (g), the theories are various but have commonality and overlap. The Spearman's two-factor theory is if a test has high correlation with other test than the measurement of g is highly saturated (Cohen, 2012). The greater the importance of g on a test, the better the test is believed to predict intelligence
Paul, R. and Elder, L., (2008). The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking-Concepts and Tools, 5th. Ed., Foundation for Critical Thinking Press: Dillon Beach, CA
A Creativity Researcher For More Than 30 Years, ihaly Csikszentmihalyi Is A Professor Of Human Development And Education In The Department Of Psychology At The University Of Chicago. He Has Written 13 Books, Including The Best-Seller Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience (Harper Collins, 1991). Here Are Highlights Of His Books “Creativity”. This Book Is About What Makes Life Worth Living. The Creative Excitement Of The Artist At Her Easel Or The Scientist In The Lab Comes As Close To The Ideal Fulfillment As We All Hope To, And So Rarely Do. Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Interviewed More Then Ninety Of Possibly The Most Interesting People In The World - People Like Actor Ed Asner, Authors Robertson Davies And Nadine Gordimer, Scientist Jonas Salk And Linus Pauling, Senator Eugene Mccarthy - Who Have Changed The Way People In Their Fields Think And Work To Find Out How Creativity Has Been A Force In Their Lives. The Author Defines Creativity In A Mode He Designates As “Capital C”, Distinct From Individual Creative Impulses Or Acts That Occur Without Initiating Significant Cultural Change. The Creativity With A Capital C That Is Of Interest To Csikszentmihalyi Is The Act Of Creativity By Which Culture And Cultural Evolution Are Seminally Altered. What Made Galileo And Einstein Think Otherwise And But Couldn’t It Be This? What If They Hadn’t? They Aren’t Around To Ask. But There Are Others Who Are. Creativity Provides A Groundbreaking Overview Of Those Characteristics Shared By Some Of The Most Extraordinary Visionaries Of Our Most Recent Century, Painstakingly Gleaned From Hundreds Of Hours Of Personal Interviews. Finally, It Proposes Ways In Which We Can Capitalize On These Commonalities In Order To Further Creativity In O...
His anecdotes presented in the article are appropriate in terms of his subject and claims. The author responds back to the naysayers by saying that people only look at the test scores earned in school, but not the actual talent. He says, “Our culture- in Cartesian fashion- separates the body from the mind, so that, for example we assume that the use of tool does not involve abstraction. We reinforce this notion by defining intelligence solely on grades in school and number on IQ tests. And we employ social biases pertaining to a person’s place on the occupational ladder” (279). The author says that instead of looking at people’s talent we judge them by their grades in school or their IQ score, and we also employ them based on these numbers. People learn more each time they perform a task. He talks about blue collared individuals developing multi-tasking and creativity skills as they perform the task they are asked to
The key difference between Walter Isaacson’s, author of “The Genius of Jobs”, and Carol Dweck’s, author of “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”, perspective of intelligence lies in their thought of inherent ability; Isaacson believes that intelligence is a natural gift that can be expanded upon, but Dweck would respond by agreeing to a degree but believing that the beauty of intelligence lies in that expansion.
... Unquiet Mind, p.72). Such unique ideas and associations provide significant evidence for aid in all types of creativity.
Sternberg, Robert J. & Janet E. Davidson, eds. 1995. The Nature of Insight. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
The concepts of critical thinking and creative thinking are both gaining increasing importance in the world today. Critical thinking allows people to understand difficult concepts in a manner that is clearer and more defined. They can more readily understand those concepts if they employ critical thinking. In all portions of everyday life, a person is expected to make independent judgments. Those judgments are based on experience and knowledge. Without the ability to think critically, every situation that a person comes across would have to be considered in isolation from all other situations. When a person encounters a problem that is a new one, he or she may be able to use critical thinking to solve those problems.
Paul, R. & Elder, L. (2004). Critical Thinking: Nine Strategies for Everyday Life, Part I.
Critical thinking is the skill of examining and assessing thinking with an outlook to improving it. This entails thinking cautiously with clarity, precision, depth, accuracy, and logic. Critical thinking entails a course of thinking in a particular manner. Critical thinking is the practice of thinking clearly, with precision and diligence; of thinking carefully, with reason and deepness; and of thinking open-mindedly, by investigating points of view and recognizing assumptions and biases within a given point of view. Thinking critically exposes one to examine and to evaluate ideas against what one already know and thereof making resolutions about their worth. A critical thinker tries to uphold an objective position and attempts to compare all side of an argument and appraise its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, critical thinking skills involve: vigorously looking for all sides of an argument, testing the reliability of the claims made and testing the accuracy of the evidence used to sustain the claims. Since a critical thinker is objective, he/she is supposed to be an open minded. Questioning is at the backbone of critical thinking because it permits one to go ahead of the basic information. A critical thinker becomes vigorous examiner by asking questions (Moore, et al. 2007).
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence focuses more on how numerical expressions of human intelligence are not a full and accurate depiction of people’s abilities (McFarlane, 2011). He includes and describes eight intelligences that are based on skills and abilities that are valued within different cultures. The eight intelligences include visual-spatial (e.g. sailor navigating with no navigational systems), verbal-linguistic (e.g. poets, writers, orators, and communicators), bodily-kinesthetic (e.g. dancers, athletes, surgeons, craftspeople), logical-mathematical (e.g. mathematicians and logicians), interpersonal(e.g. salespeople, teachers, clinicians, politicians, and religious leaders), musical (e.g. musicians and
Kirby, G., Goodpaster, J., (2007). Thinking: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Critical and Creative Through. [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Retrieved January 18, 2007, from University of Phoenix, rEsource, MGT350-Critical Thinking: Strategies in Decision Making Course Web Site.
It is believed that cultivating critical think and disposition is critical in the 21st century. Yang & Chung set out to ascertain whether introducing critical thinking within the parameters of a civic class would help students to better retain the skills taught. The research comes on the heels or potential in response to the Ministry of Education of Taiwan announcement of the development of a 9 year integrated curriculum which focused on independent critical thinking and problem solving ability as educational goals.
The chair of the UK Government had a test made to see the ability to think in “divergent or non-linear ways” between the ages 3- 25. Out of 1,600 children aged three to five showed that 98% of them can think divergent. Out of the same number of kids age’s eight to ten, 32% could think divergently. When the same test was applied to 13-15 year olds, 10% could think divergently. Then when the test was us...