Critical Thinking + Creative Thinking = College Thinking

One of the key differences between college and other educational experiences (K-12, job training, etc.) is that you are expected to learn to think differently. While that prospect is frightening to some people, it is not about the university telling you what to think, but rather gaining experience with different ways of thinking.

At a basic level, we all have experience adapting our thought processes to different kinds of tasks. For example, we know that when we are looking at personal finance, we are thinking about products in terms of the cost to purchase them, but when we are in a business management course, we are looking at products in terms of the profit we can generate from selling them; therefore, a low price point is ideal from a personal finance standpoint and a higher one is ideal from a business management one. This is an example of recognizing multiple perspectives on a similar issue.

Since college students take courses in a variety of fields, it is an ideal time to gain more flexibility in your thinking. A key component of college level thinking is the ability to seek to understand something without necessarily agreeing with it or believing it. This is most evident when approaching social, moral, or political questions, but this same idea is important when approaching scientific questions: one can (and should) test a hypothesis without already being convinced of its accuracy.

In most forms of training and most K-12 educational experiences, the focus is on reaching the “right answer.” The goal of college level thinking is being able to ask:

• What if I am wrong?
• What are the other possible answers?

Each of these tasks can also be understood in other terms. When you ask yourself “What if I am wrong?” you are also asking yourself, “What biases or limits might be affecting the way that I am approaching this question or this situation?” This is  critical thinking. And when you ask yourself “What are the other possible answers?” you are also asking yourself  “Are there other ways of looking at this issue?” This is creative thinking.

Successful college level thinking involves both critical and creative thinking. Critical thinking is most useful in eliminating wrong answers, deciding between available options, and is a core component of information literacy.. Creative thinking is most useful in coming up with new ideas, understanding difficult material, and is a core component of effective leadership.

Types of Thinking

In the 1950s, Benjamin Bloom developed a classification of thinking skills that is still helpful today; it is known as Bloom’s taxonomy. He lists six types of thinking skills, ranked in order of complexity: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

As you can see, critical and creative thinking are considered the highest level, but they are built on the lower level skills. For example, you cannot evaluate something critically unless you can analyze it to see how it works and you cannot analyze something that you do not understand. Often college students have experience applying critical and creative thinking to some facets of their lives—especially personal, social, or professional—but may struggle to apply these effectively on academic tasks.

Critical Thinking

The critical thinking process is really nothing more than asking the right questions to understand a problem or issue and then gathering the data you need to complete the decision or take sides on an issue.

What is the problem or issue I am considering really about? Understanding this is key to successful critical thinking. What is the objective? A position? A decision? Are you deciding what candidate in an election will do a better overall job, or are you looking to strengthen the political support for a particular cause? Are you really against a recommendation from your dad, or are you using the issue to establish your independence?

Do you understand the terms related to the issue? Are you in agreement with the proponent’s definitions? For example, if you are evaluating a quotation on the health-care system for use in a paper, your objective might be to decide to use the quotation or not, but before you can make that decision you need to understand what the writer is really saying. If a term like “family” is used, for example, does it mean direct relations or extended family?

What are my options? What are choices that are available to you (if you are making a decision), or what are the “sides” (in the case of a position) you might choose to agree with? What are their differences? What are the likely consequences of each option? In making a decision, it might be helpful to ask yourself, “What is the worst thing that might happen in each scenario?” Examining different points of view is very important; there may be dozens of alternative viewpoints to a particular issue—and the validity of each can change depending on circumstances. A position that is popular or politically correct today may not have been a year ago, and there is no guarantee it will be right in the future. Likewise, a solution to a personal problem that was successful for your roommate may not apply to you. Remember also that sometimes the best option might be a combination of the options you identify initially.

What do I know about each option? First, make sure you have all the information about each option. Do you have all the information to support each of your likely options? What is still missing? Where can you get the information you need? Keep an open mind and don’t dismiss supporting information on any position before you evaluate it carefully.

How good is my information? Now it’s time to evaluate the quality of the support of each option or point of view. Evaluate the strengths and the weaknesses of each piece of supporting evidence. Are all the relevant facts presented? Are some facts presented in misleading ways? Are enough examples presented to support the premise? Consider the source of the supporting information. Who is the expert presenting the facts? Does the “expert” have a vested interest in the position?  Consider that bias, more for understanding the point of view than for rejecting it.

Am I thinking in a biased way? Consider your own opinions (especially when working with emotional issues). Are your emotional ties to a point of view getting in your way of clear thinking (your own biases)? If you really like a particular car model, are you giving the financial implications of buying that car a fair consideration? Are there any errors or fallacies in your logic?

Fallacies are defects in logic that weaken arguments. You should learn to identify them in your own thinking so you can strengthen your positions, as well as in the arguments of others when evaluating their strength.

Fallacies and How to Avoid Them

You will need to use critical thinking throughout your college years and beyond.

Creative Thinking

Creativity is an essential skill, but it is often misunderstood. Some people think of “creativity” as something that only matters in the arts—from their perspective there are “thinkers” (who come up with answers to real questions) and “dreamers” (who come up with weird things that are not useful). Even people who believe in the arts might say that they are “big-picture people” or their brain “just works creatively” so they cannot focus on the details. That is not what creativity or creative thinking is about—instead, creativity is about innovation and problem solving. If “critical thinking” is about eliminating wrong answers; then “creative thinking” is about coming up with new possible answers to examine.

We can start by addressing two common misconceptions about creativity

1. Creativity is an inherited skill. Creativity is not something people are born with but is a skill that is developed over time with consistent practice. It can be argued that people you think were “born” creative because their parents were creative, too, are creative simply because they have been practicing creative thinking since childhood, stimulated by their parents’ questions and discussions.
2. Creativity is free-form thinking. While you may want to free yourself from all preconceived notions, there is a recognizable structure to creative thinking. Rules and requirements do not limit creative thinking—they provide the scaffolding on which truly creative solutions can be built. Free-form thinking often lacks direction or an objective; creative thinking is aimed at producing a defined outcome or solution.

Creative thinking is one of the reasons that universities have general education requirements: it is something that you can develop by choosing a minor, taking courses outside your major, and taking advantage of the clubs and activities at AUM. Creative thinking in college is about understanding what the rules and requirements are for each task and engaging with them in creative ways. Often, these rules and requirements are not stated directly, but rely on a wide variety of assumptions within the field—assumptions that vary from field to field. When you are asked to come up with a research question or a thesis statement, you are being asked to engage in creative thinking. Your question or statement needs to be yours, but it also needs to be the kind of question that the field explores and the kind of thesis statement that you can support in a paper of the type and length you are supposed to write.

Constraints are useful for creative thinking because they define the boundaries and give you enough direction that you can come up with useful ideas. For example, if you are working on an assignment that requires you to come up with ideas for a print advertising campaign, you would not want to spend your time developing ideas that require video or audio components. No matter how clever those ideas are, they are not the kind of directed creative thinking that this refers to. Even when people are working in fields that have supposedly “unlimited” creativity (like animation or fiction writing), they still involve constraints—whether it is finishing by a set deadline or completing one project before moving onto the next.

People often stereotype critical and creative thinking as opposed to each other. Sometimes they talk about “left-brain” and “right-brain” or “different types of intelligence” or “artist” and “engineer” types of thinking. These divisions are not grounded in research, in fact, developing critical thinking is essential to developing one’s ability to think creatively and thinking creatively builds one’s critical thinking skills. Creativity is not limited to the arts and critical thinking is not limited to the sciences. The top artists and the top researchers need to excel at both! Signal to Noise

The SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) compares meaningful or desired output to meaningless or undesired output. The literal ratio is used in engineering, but it is now widely used as a metaphor to describe the proportion of useful information (signal) to useless information (noise). Critical thinking is about helping us eliminate the noise to focus on what is useful for solving a problem, and creative thinking helps us identify useful information that other people might overlook. Because the internet provides a place where everyone can “publish” their thoughts and it is easy to find someone who agrees with even the wildest conspiracy theory, there is more noise now than ever before.

By applying principles of logic (and avoiding fallacious lines of reasoning), we can reduce the noise in our decision-making processes. Likewise, when we carefully define the goal or problem, we can focus our creative thinking to come up with useful solutions (which makes brainstorming more efficient).

Applying Critical and Creative Thinking

Much of your college and professional life will be spent solving problems; some will be complex, such as deciding on a career, and require time and effort to come up with a solution. Others will be small, such as deciding what to eat for lunch, and will allow you to make a quick decision based entirely on your own experience. But, in either case, when coming up with the solution and deciding what to do, follow the same basic steps.

• Define the problem. Use your analytical skills. What is the real issue? Why is it a problem? What are the root causes? What kinds of outcomes or actions do you expect to generate to solve the problem? What are some of the key characteristics that will make a good choice: Timing? Resources? Availability of tools and materials? For more complex problems, it helps to write out the problem and the answers to these questions.
• Narrow the problem. Many problems are made up of a series of smaller problems, each requiring its own solution. Can you break the problem into different facets? What aspects of the current issue are “noise” that should not be considered in the problem’s solution? (Use critical thinking to separate facts from opinion in this step.)
• Generate possible solutions. List all your options. Use your creative thinking skills in this phase. Did you come up with the second “right” answer, and the third or the fourth? Can any of these answers be combined into a stronger solution? What part of existing solutions can be adapted or combined to solve this problem?
• Choose the best solution. Use your critical thinking skills to select the most likely choices. List the pros and cons for each of your selections. How do these lists compare with the requirements you identified when you defined the problem? If you still cannot decide between options, you may want to seek further input from your brainstorming team.

 Warhawk Wisdom:

To engage in college thinking (critical+creative thinking), we should embrace curiosity, humility, and honesty as we practice our deep thinking skills. When we approach ideas without judgment as we try to understand them, we are allowing ourselves to be curious without committing to agreeing or disagreeing.  It takes honesty and humility to examine your own thinking, and it can be especially challenging when emotions are heightened. See if you can catch yourself next time you start thinking emotionally rather than critically.

Journal Prompts:

1. Who are you now?
   • Where do you find yourself needing to think critically in your life?
   • Where do you find yourself needing to think creatively in your life?
   • What kinds of logical fallacies have you noticed being used by people in the real world?
2. Who would you like to be?
   • How would you handle a conversation with someone using logical fallacies in their argument?
   • How often do you examine things from another perspective? How would you like to grow in this area?
3. Who are you becoming?

• • How can we hold ourselves and others accountable to logical, rational thinking?
  • What specific strategy will you use to resist bias in your own thinking?