Introduction: Me as a Critical and Creative Thinker
As in many things in life, I think that sports act as a great analogy for critical and creative thinking, thus, I chose this football play as my artifact to represent myself as a critical and creative thinker. In sports, one must quickly weigh the options and make decisions to reach a goal. A player, must analyze the who, what, when, where, and why and consider the best way to move forward. Sometimes these thinking exercises lead one to a novel idea that strays from the norm to advance in a truly creative way. In that sense, I feel there is a synergy between critical and creative thinking and I felt that this football play demonstrated how this synergy can unfold. These ideas, in most cases, don’t lead to a “touchdown”, but they advance our thinking and lead to further new ideas that lay down the path toward the goal. These ideas also require the help of our teammates to come to fruition. This is true in my work and personal life as I look to others to guide my thinking and provide new perspectives, insights, information, skills, and advice to help me forge ahead in my thinking. This collaboration allows ideas to develop and become a success while at the same time, requires opponents or obstacles to challenge our thinking to lead to an all-around more effective approach to the goal. I enjoy the challenge, and learning improved ways to challenge myself and my students to become better critical and creative thinkers is a goal in and of itself.
Module 1: What is Critical Thinking?
Critique Bloom's Taxonomy
While Bloom’s Taxonomy is not entirely new to me, I have not included it in my repertoire of teaching tools in the past. I simply didn’t have a deep enough understanding of the tool to use it in my teaching practice. In researching Bloom’s taxonomy for purposes of this assignment and realizing its popularity and widespread use in education, I feel in a sense that I have been missing out. On the other hand, I feel that my past unfamiliarity with Bloom has been a blessing in disguise as Case (2013) lays out the troubling effect of this model within education; however, I don’t share his sentiments that this model “is arguably one of the most destructive theories in education” (p.196). Is it a theory, as Case (2013) suggests, or is it a framework as proposed by Krathwohl (2002)? Is there a difference? I would argue that there is an important difference, and perhaps it is this misinterpretation that has led to Case’s argument of its damaging consequences.
I agree with Krathwohl (2002) that in addition to acting as a measurement tool, Bloom’s Taxonomy serves as a means for educators to communicate using a common language and to determine educational goals. It helps to classify cognitive processes and to set out learning tasks and assessments. As Krathwohl (2002) points out, the Taxonomy Table has practical applications to act as a visual representation to classify learning objectives, activities, and assessments while being used to “examine relative emphasis, curriculum alignment, and missed educational opportunities” (p.218).
The main difficulty I have with Bloom’s Taxonomy, however, is its hierarchical nature as it suggests, perhaps mistakenly, that learners must graduate from the lower cognitive domains to the higher ones. It is this hierarchy that moves the taxonomy from being simply a framework to becoming a theory, and I failed to find any research that supports the idea that learning moves firmly in the direction of this hierarchy. My skepticism is only enhanced by how in the revised version of the Taxonomy, the order of evaluate and create were interchanged without a clear indication as to why one domain is more or less complex than the other. In my opinion, this hierarchy is too simplistic a view of a much more complex cognitive process. And this is where Case’s (2013) argument comes to light that the Taxonomy has been misapplied and has led to three flaws: That it lowers expectations for thinking, encourages transmission of information, and creates false confidence that we are doing more to encourage critical thinking than we really are. Ironically, this misapplication of the Taxonomy leads to missed educational opportunities counter to Krathwohl’s (2002) argument that it helps to avoid them. If teachers evade “higher-order” tasks because the students haven’t mastered the lower domains, they are overlooking the power of these tasks to shape new knowledge and understanding. The value of creative tasks to form new knowledge was easily observable when I first watched my infant son building a tower of blocks. Through multiple attempts and failures, he was gaining a knowledge of how gravity works, the potential energy of blocks as he built higher, the friction between the blocks, and so on. As he gained this knowledge (obviously not the vocabulary), applied it and evaluated his building in the process, he was able to create a taller and sturdier tower. No one could explain this knowledge to him as he didn’t possess the ability to understand, but the act of creating, evaluating, and analyzing led to new understanding and made the building of knowledge possible. The cognitive domains, in this sense, act synergistically rather than hierachically.
There is a shift from traditional teaching methods that relied on rote memorization of facts, which is inefficient and in many cases ineffective, to more progressive methods that rely on inquiry and embrace this cognitive synergy to promote critical thinking. As newer educational approaches have emerged that include project-based learning, connected learning, and experiential learning, to name a few, critical thinking alongside other important educational goals are moving to the main stage as Case (2005) urges is crucial to the effective promotion of understanding of content and mastery of skills. Case (2005) proposes that critical thinking needs to become more embedded in the curriculum, thinking tools need to be taught, and powerful questions need to be developed to ensure that critical thinking has its fair place in the classroom, and these educational approaches are allowing this proposal to become a reality.
As a framework, there is merit in Bloom’s Taxonomy as a practical tool for assessment as it was intended, but as a theory, it falls short to promote critical thinking as it over-emphasizes the need for the acquisition of knowledge and understanding before higher-order thinking skills can be achieved. While the revised taxonomy does a better job of recognizing the overlap in complexity between the categories of the cognitive process moving up the hierarchy, in my opinion, it still remains too rigid and, thus, becomes misguided as a teaching tool. Its merits require educators to approach it with caution and question whether it still has its place in today’s teaching practices. When educators stick to any idea (see cartoon below) without carefully scrutinizing its effectiveness, fully comprehending the implications of the idea, and thoughtfully reflecting on its merits and its faults, they become blinded to their own creative capacity for improving their educational approach that aligns more to their students’ needs. We know that knowledge is more effectively acquired when it is sought in a meaningful, authentic, and engaging way sparked by one’s curiosity. I don’t believe that Bloom’s Taxonomy needs to be discarded, but perhaps it needs to be revisited to better reflect what we now know about learning and be questioned as to how it is to be used as an educational tool.
References:
Case, R. (2005). Moving critical thinking to the main stage. Education Canada, 45(2), 45-49.
Case, R. (2013). The Unfortunate Consequences of Bloom's Taxonomy. Social Education, 77(4), 196-200.
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), 212-218.
I agree with Krathwohl (2002) that in addition to acting as a measurement tool, Bloom’s Taxonomy serves as a means for educators to communicate using a common language and to determine educational goals. It helps to classify cognitive processes and to set out learning tasks and assessments. As Krathwohl (2002) points out, the Taxonomy Table has practical applications to act as a visual representation to classify learning objectives, activities, and assessments while being used to “examine relative emphasis, curriculum alignment, and missed educational opportunities” (p.218).
The main difficulty I have with Bloom’s Taxonomy, however, is its hierarchical nature as it suggests, perhaps mistakenly, that learners must graduate from the lower cognitive domains to the higher ones. It is this hierarchy that moves the taxonomy from being simply a framework to becoming a theory, and I failed to find any research that supports the idea that learning moves firmly in the direction of this hierarchy. My skepticism is only enhanced by how in the revised version of the Taxonomy, the order of evaluate and create were interchanged without a clear indication as to why one domain is more or less complex than the other. In my opinion, this hierarchy is too simplistic a view of a much more complex cognitive process. And this is where Case’s (2013) argument comes to light that the Taxonomy has been misapplied and has led to three flaws: That it lowers expectations for thinking, encourages transmission of information, and creates false confidence that we are doing more to encourage critical thinking than we really are. Ironically, this misapplication of the Taxonomy leads to missed educational opportunities counter to Krathwohl’s (2002) argument that it helps to avoid them. If teachers evade “higher-order” tasks because the students haven’t mastered the lower domains, they are overlooking the power of these tasks to shape new knowledge and understanding. The value of creative tasks to form new knowledge was easily observable when I first watched my infant son building a tower of blocks. Through multiple attempts and failures, he was gaining a knowledge of how gravity works, the potential energy of blocks as he built higher, the friction between the blocks, and so on. As he gained this knowledge (obviously not the vocabulary), applied it and evaluated his building in the process, he was able to create a taller and sturdier tower. No one could explain this knowledge to him as he didn’t possess the ability to understand, but the act of creating, evaluating, and analyzing led to new understanding and made the building of knowledge possible. The cognitive domains, in this sense, act synergistically rather than hierachically.
There is a shift from traditional teaching methods that relied on rote memorization of facts, which is inefficient and in many cases ineffective, to more progressive methods that rely on inquiry and embrace this cognitive synergy to promote critical thinking. As newer educational approaches have emerged that include project-based learning, connected learning, and experiential learning, to name a few, critical thinking alongside other important educational goals are moving to the main stage as Case (2005) urges is crucial to the effective promotion of understanding of content and mastery of skills. Case (2005) proposes that critical thinking needs to become more embedded in the curriculum, thinking tools need to be taught, and powerful questions need to be developed to ensure that critical thinking has its fair place in the classroom, and these educational approaches are allowing this proposal to become a reality.
As a framework, there is merit in Bloom’s Taxonomy as a practical tool for assessment as it was intended, but as a theory, it falls short to promote critical thinking as it over-emphasizes the need for the acquisition of knowledge and understanding before higher-order thinking skills can be achieved. While the revised taxonomy does a better job of recognizing the overlap in complexity between the categories of the cognitive process moving up the hierarchy, in my opinion, it still remains too rigid and, thus, becomes misguided as a teaching tool. Its merits require educators to approach it with caution and question whether it still has its place in today’s teaching practices. When educators stick to any idea (see cartoon below) without carefully scrutinizing its effectiveness, fully comprehending the implications of the idea, and thoughtfully reflecting on its merits and its faults, they become blinded to their own creative capacity for improving their educational approach that aligns more to their students’ needs. We know that knowledge is more effectively acquired when it is sought in a meaningful, authentic, and engaging way sparked by one’s curiosity. I don’t believe that Bloom’s Taxonomy needs to be discarded, but perhaps it needs to be revisited to better reflect what we now know about learning and be questioned as to how it is to be used as an educational tool.
References:
Case, R. (2005). Moving critical thinking to the main stage. Education Canada, 45(2), 45-49.
Case, R. (2013). The Unfortunate Consequences of Bloom's Taxonomy. Social Education, 77(4), 196-200.
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), 212-218.
Module 2: Activities for Critical Thinking
Strategies for Critical Thinking
While reading Judy Wearing’s (2019) article, Teaching Strategies for Critical Thinking Learning Activities, I was forced to reflect upon how I encourage critical thinking during my lessons. I realized that a lot of the strategies that Wearing presented are ones that I frequently use, albeit, probably not always to the best effect. Becoming more aware of these strategies and how they can be implemented to develop better critical thinking has helped me to consider how to structure my lesson plans to make better use of these strategies and think carefully about how to use them more effectively with my students.
As I am currently on winter vacation, I couldn’t put these strategies to the test with my Grade 6 students in school, however, I teach private English lessons on the side, and this gave me a good opportunity to apply what I had learned. One of my private lessons is with two middle school girls who love English pop music, so about once a month we pick a song to critique, analyze and pick apart for its meaning. This week I thought I would change it up a bit and try to create an opportunity to think more critically about the music using a variation of the “Judge the Better or Best” strategy.
We started the class by each choosing a song that we really like, myself included, giving us three songs to consider. We listened to a couple minutes of each song and commented about our feelings about the songs and then discussed whether we liked or disliked the song and our reasoning. Then I presented the critical challenge by problematizing the task. I told the students that the Billboard Top 40 is having a hard time deciding which song should be this week’s number one hit, (they are stumped on the three songs we chose) and they would like our help to make this decision for them. To complete this task I had the students develop criteria for judging the best song. Together they decided on four criteria for the best hit song: Good sound (vocals and instruments), quality lyrics, catchiness, and style (song and artist). I challenged them as to why the artist’s style and appearance was important, which they justified quite well: No one wants to listen to music by a musician that has poor taste in fashion. I accepted.
Next, we put the criteria and songs in a chart (see attached photo) and we listened to the songs again while deliberating on the positive or negative points for the criteria. This spurred some good debate and did a great job of making their thinking more overt. For example, one of the students commented that one of the songs was not unique (in the style category), and this led to a heated discussion between the students as to what constituted being unique, which led to the creation of sub-criteria for the definition of unique. They also decided that the song I had chosen was “old-man style” and is therefore incapable of being a hit with a younger audience. They justified their reasoning. We also read through the lyrics to be sure that the song was meaningful and relatable to a wide audience and talked about the overall appropriateness of the song and its message. This led to the conclusion that Ariana Grande is a “bad girl” and that her message is not good for young people. I have to say, I was quite pleased with how they were able assess the lyrics and their meaning as ESL learners.
In the end, we made a decision to choose the new number one hit using our criteria. Overall, this strategy developed great, and sometimes heated, discussion and debate. The students were highly engaged and challenged, and I even had to take the class past the hour to complete the lesson at the students’ request. I felt that this activity met a lot of the qualities that Case (2008) discusses for powerful critical challenges: The topic appealed to the students in that it connected to issues that they wanted to explore, it was personalized to the students’ interests, it developed compelling discussion, and it was really fun. I had never really given much thought to how I could leverage the students’ interest in pop music to engage in critical thinking, and I am delighted to have had the opportunity to stimulate thought-provoking conversation that helped to develop language and communication skills while thinking critically about the challenge. I gained more insight into how these critical thinking strategies, when carefully planned and focused, can be used to promote critical thinking and I look forward to implementing these strategies in future lessons.
References
Case, R. (2008) Beyond Inert Facts: Teaching for Understanding in Elementary Social Studies.
Wearing, J. (2019) Teaching Strategies for Critical Thinking Learning Activities [Class handout] Faculty of Education, Queen's University, Kingston ON.
As I am currently on winter vacation, I couldn’t put these strategies to the test with my Grade 6 students in school, however, I teach private English lessons on the side, and this gave me a good opportunity to apply what I had learned. One of my private lessons is with two middle school girls who love English pop music, so about once a month we pick a song to critique, analyze and pick apart for its meaning. This week I thought I would change it up a bit and try to create an opportunity to think more critically about the music using a variation of the “Judge the Better or Best” strategy.
We started the class by each choosing a song that we really like, myself included, giving us three songs to consider. We listened to a couple minutes of each song and commented about our feelings about the songs and then discussed whether we liked or disliked the song and our reasoning. Then I presented the critical challenge by problematizing the task. I told the students that the Billboard Top 40 is having a hard time deciding which song should be this week’s number one hit, (they are stumped on the three songs we chose) and they would like our help to make this decision for them. To complete this task I had the students develop criteria for judging the best song. Together they decided on four criteria for the best hit song: Good sound (vocals and instruments), quality lyrics, catchiness, and style (song and artist). I challenged them as to why the artist’s style and appearance was important, which they justified quite well: No one wants to listen to music by a musician that has poor taste in fashion. I accepted.
Next, we put the criteria and songs in a chart (see attached photo) and we listened to the songs again while deliberating on the positive or negative points for the criteria. This spurred some good debate and did a great job of making their thinking more overt. For example, one of the students commented that one of the songs was not unique (in the style category), and this led to a heated discussion between the students as to what constituted being unique, which led to the creation of sub-criteria for the definition of unique. They also decided that the song I had chosen was “old-man style” and is therefore incapable of being a hit with a younger audience. They justified their reasoning. We also read through the lyrics to be sure that the song was meaningful and relatable to a wide audience and talked about the overall appropriateness of the song and its message. This led to the conclusion that Ariana Grande is a “bad girl” and that her message is not good for young people. I have to say, I was quite pleased with how they were able assess the lyrics and their meaning as ESL learners.
In the end, we made a decision to choose the new number one hit using our criteria. Overall, this strategy developed great, and sometimes heated, discussion and debate. The students were highly engaged and challenged, and I even had to take the class past the hour to complete the lesson at the students’ request. I felt that this activity met a lot of the qualities that Case (2008) discusses for powerful critical challenges: The topic appealed to the students in that it connected to issues that they wanted to explore, it was personalized to the students’ interests, it developed compelling discussion, and it was really fun. I had never really given much thought to how I could leverage the students’ interest in pop music to engage in critical thinking, and I am delighted to have had the opportunity to stimulate thought-provoking conversation that helped to develop language and communication skills while thinking critically about the challenge. I gained more insight into how these critical thinking strategies, when carefully planned and focused, can be used to promote critical thinking and I look forward to implementing these strategies in future lessons.
References
Case, R. (2008) Beyond Inert Facts: Teaching for Understanding in Elementary Social Studies.
Wearing, J. (2019) Teaching Strategies for Critical Thinking Learning Activities [Class handout] Faculty of Education, Queen's University, Kingston ON.
Applying the 6 Strategies for Critical Thinking
When I return back to school next week following winter vacation, we will be starting our Grade 6 social studies unit on the Age of Imperialism. I am thinking of ways to incorporate the 6 strategies for critical thinking to invite more reasoned judgment to our study of the unit. Here are some ideas that I am working on:
The unit opens with a glance at the Industrial Revolution, however, the textbook is quite minimal in its delivery of information for such a huge topic. This is a good opportunity to Critique the Piece. Students will think about if the author has given an adequate account of the Industrial Revolution. What crucial information is missing? The students will compare the textbook’s account with other resources and decide, with criteria, if the textbook is sufficient and accurate.
At this point, the students will have discovered missing pieces of key information that should be added or changed in their textbook. Here is a good place to tie in the Better or Best strategy. In groups, the students can select a few new facts that they have discovered and decide which facts are most relevant to include in the Industrial Revolution section of the textbook using criteria that they have established. This naturally leads into Rework the Piece. Provided with new information and criteria to determine the importance and relevance of information for a textbook, students will revise the textbook account of the Industrial Revolution by adding new information.
Now, that students are armed with new information about the Industrial Revolution, they have most likely realized that the steam engine was not the only important invention from this time (the only example provided in the original textbook paragraphs). To think about and learn about other key inventions that helped to change the world, the students will engage in a Decode the Puzzle activity. The students will be given a selection of photographs of key Industrial Revolution inventions to determine their function and explain their significance in changing the world. I thought it might be even better if the students chose these photographs based on information that they had previously researched.
As we move onto how the Industrial Revolution led to the colonization of Africa, to help get into the mindset to understand the impacts of colonization, the Design to Specs strategy is a good means to provide this opportunity. Students can write a story/diary entry from the perspective of a Zulu warrior fighting against the British (or other relevant perspective). This story should meet specifications that are laid out to promote a deeper understanding of the events and time period, for example, demonstrating the feelings of the warrior, reasons for fighting, the effects, etc.
Finally, to Perform to Specs, students can apply their knowledge to create a short documentary or podcast that demonstrates their learning throughout the unit and provide their perspectives on The Age of Imperialism.
Resource:
Case, R. (2008) Beyond Inert Facts: Teaching for Understanding in Elementary Social Studies.
The unit opens with a glance at the Industrial Revolution, however, the textbook is quite minimal in its delivery of information for such a huge topic. This is a good opportunity to Critique the Piece. Students will think about if the author has given an adequate account of the Industrial Revolution. What crucial information is missing? The students will compare the textbook’s account with other resources and decide, with criteria, if the textbook is sufficient and accurate.
At this point, the students will have discovered missing pieces of key information that should be added or changed in their textbook. Here is a good place to tie in the Better or Best strategy. In groups, the students can select a few new facts that they have discovered and decide which facts are most relevant to include in the Industrial Revolution section of the textbook using criteria that they have established. This naturally leads into Rework the Piece. Provided with new information and criteria to determine the importance and relevance of information for a textbook, students will revise the textbook account of the Industrial Revolution by adding new information.
Now, that students are armed with new information about the Industrial Revolution, they have most likely realized that the steam engine was not the only important invention from this time (the only example provided in the original textbook paragraphs). To think about and learn about other key inventions that helped to change the world, the students will engage in a Decode the Puzzle activity. The students will be given a selection of photographs of key Industrial Revolution inventions to determine their function and explain their significance in changing the world. I thought it might be even better if the students chose these photographs based on information that they had previously researched.
As we move onto how the Industrial Revolution led to the colonization of Africa, to help get into the mindset to understand the impacts of colonization, the Design to Specs strategy is a good means to provide this opportunity. Students can write a story/diary entry from the perspective of a Zulu warrior fighting against the British (or other relevant perspective). This story should meet specifications that are laid out to promote a deeper understanding of the events and time period, for example, demonstrating the feelings of the warrior, reasons for fighting, the effects, etc.
Finally, to Perform to Specs, students can apply their knowledge to create a short documentary or podcast that demonstrates their learning throughout the unit and provide their perspectives on The Age of Imperialism.
Resource:
Case, R. (2008) Beyond Inert Facts: Teaching for Understanding in Elementary Social Studies.
Module 3: Pedagogy for Critical Thinking - The Bigger Picture
Strengths and Weaknesses
Case and Daniels (2008) stated that “The ability to think critically develops gradually as students expand upon and enrich their pool of intellectual resources or tools” (p.78) and that this is a “K-16 challenge”. I couldn’t agree more with this notion. Educators have a great responsibility to help our students to develop these tools, although sometimes the progress seems to move at a glacial pace, which admittedly, can be source of frustration at times. Part of this sense of frustration that I express is due to having a particularly challenging class this year. Last year, I felt I had a tremendously successful year teaching sixth grade, however, this year teaching the same grade, the same content, and starting off with much the same approach as the previous year made me realize quickly that this approach wasn’t going to work. I feel that this demonstrates both a strength and weakness in itself; the strength being the ability to acknowledge when an approach isn’t working and the need to adapt, and the weakness being that I still haven’t figured it all out. I like a good challenge and this year has proved to be an effective learning experience and opportunity to build upon my strengths and strategies for teaching the tools for critical thinking while reflecting and improving upon my areas for growth.
One of my strategies for encouraging a “community of thinkers” described by Case and Balcaen (2008) begins at the start of the year. Rather than laying out my rules and expectations, I have the students tell me what they think they should be and I write them down on poster paper. We discuss why we have these rules and expectations in place, which usually leads to the ideas of creating a good learning environment, respect for each other, and a safe place where we can enjoy ourselves. These ideas become criteria for the next activity in which students work in groups to consider what would be their ideal classroom that supports the criteria we developed. After some brainstorming, students share their ideas and justify their reasoning, no matter how far-fetched. For example, one group this year said that we should move the classroom outside. This caused laughter and led to arguments saying that it wasn’t possible or didn’t meet the criteria. After the laughter stopped, the students justified their reasoning and then, as a class, we discussed a realistic way that this could be possible. We agreed that studying in the classroom every day may be boring at times and may not always be the best way to learn, so we made the promise to, on occasion, move the class outside or to a new environment to keep things fresh. Through this activity, as a class, we make decisions about how to create a classroom community that best supports learning. It gives us lots of ideas about what we need to engage in our learning as a community and demonstrates that ideas, even when they first appear to be far-fetched, should be respected and discussed supportively with reasoning to be reworked and compromised to reach a sound solution. This helps to set the tone for the remainder of the school year, and as long as students keep their word to keep the rules and expectations that they created, I will keep my word to help to make the ideal classroom that they have envisioned.
A strategy that I use to foster habits of mind for critical thinking is by holding student-teacher conferences two or three times a year (or more when necessary). I take the time to meet personally with each student to discuss what is going well or not-so-well. I have students show me some of their work from their portfolios that they are proud of and we discuss what made this particular assignment a success. We also look at some work that they would like to improve upon and discuss what factors would help them. We use this as a time to reflect, provide feedback, and develop self-regulated learning skills and thinking strategies that could help to develop more effective habits of mind and become better critical thinkers.
To invite critical thinking, an approach that I started this year was creating a “Big Questions Wall”. Instead of only posting completed student work on the wall that show the final results of learning, I thought it would be a good idea to devote one of our walls to the process of learning and thinking. As we work through the units of study in all subjects, when students develop a strong question for inquiry, I post it on the wall as a poster and students stick Post-It notes to the wall with ideas and thoughts they have about the “Big Question”. We used yellow notes for thoughts and ideas, pink notes for new evidence (from sources), and blue notes for further questions. The wall quickly became a web of ideas that expanded as we gained more knowledge and understanding of the content and went beyond. One of the “Big Questions” we posted on the wall, which got brought up during our science unit on weather and climate was, “Why was it so hot this summer?” This led to the first thought being posted, “Because of global warming”, which led to the question, “What causes global warming?”, which led to ideas supported by evidence, further questions, more thoughts, and so on. This wall was a hit and created great class discussion as students related their learning to the questions, gained new perspectives of a problem, and thought more deeply about the curriculum content and applied it to the “Big Questions”.
While these strategies cover a few of my strengths for encouraging critical thinking, some areas I need to work on are teaching critical thinking vocabulary and making criteria overt. As my students are English language learners, becoming familiar with critical thinking vocabulary is crucial for success, but is where I likely make too many assumptions about their prior knowledge. While I do take the time to teach many different sentence forms to express thinking and model the attributes of good thinking, I am aware that I need to take more opportunities to explicitly teach the vocabulary that makes these expressions of thought and critical reflection possible. Furthermore, more focus on making our criteria overt by ensuring that the criteria we use to make reasoned judgments and solve problems is clear and well understood for all learners to encourage critical thinking and better support understanding. Building on these areas will also help me in developing better assessment of and for learning, especially for critical thinking, an aspect of my practice that I am continuously trying to improve. Greater awareness and understanding of the tools for critical thinking and how to teach them effectively will hopefully prove to be a good starting point as I soon take on the challenge of meeting a whole new community of thinkers in the upcoming school year.
References:
Case, R., & Balcaen, P. (2008). “Supporting a community of critical thinkers.” In: Case, R. & Clark, P. (Eds.). The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Elementary Educators, Pacific Educational Press, Vancouver.
Case, R., & Daniels, L. (2008). “Teaching the tools to think critically.” In: Case, R. & Clark, P. (Eds.). The Canadian Anthology of Social Studies Volume Two: Issues and Strategies for Secondary Teachers, pp.74-85. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press.
One of my strategies for encouraging a “community of thinkers” described by Case and Balcaen (2008) begins at the start of the year. Rather than laying out my rules and expectations, I have the students tell me what they think they should be and I write them down on poster paper. We discuss why we have these rules and expectations in place, which usually leads to the ideas of creating a good learning environment, respect for each other, and a safe place where we can enjoy ourselves. These ideas become criteria for the next activity in which students work in groups to consider what would be their ideal classroom that supports the criteria we developed. After some brainstorming, students share their ideas and justify their reasoning, no matter how far-fetched. For example, one group this year said that we should move the classroom outside. This caused laughter and led to arguments saying that it wasn’t possible or didn’t meet the criteria. After the laughter stopped, the students justified their reasoning and then, as a class, we discussed a realistic way that this could be possible. We agreed that studying in the classroom every day may be boring at times and may not always be the best way to learn, so we made the promise to, on occasion, move the class outside or to a new environment to keep things fresh. Through this activity, as a class, we make decisions about how to create a classroom community that best supports learning. It gives us lots of ideas about what we need to engage in our learning as a community and demonstrates that ideas, even when they first appear to be far-fetched, should be respected and discussed supportively with reasoning to be reworked and compromised to reach a sound solution. This helps to set the tone for the remainder of the school year, and as long as students keep their word to keep the rules and expectations that they created, I will keep my word to help to make the ideal classroom that they have envisioned.
A strategy that I use to foster habits of mind for critical thinking is by holding student-teacher conferences two or three times a year (or more when necessary). I take the time to meet personally with each student to discuss what is going well or not-so-well. I have students show me some of their work from their portfolios that they are proud of and we discuss what made this particular assignment a success. We also look at some work that they would like to improve upon and discuss what factors would help them. We use this as a time to reflect, provide feedback, and develop self-regulated learning skills and thinking strategies that could help to develop more effective habits of mind and become better critical thinkers.
To invite critical thinking, an approach that I started this year was creating a “Big Questions Wall”. Instead of only posting completed student work on the wall that show the final results of learning, I thought it would be a good idea to devote one of our walls to the process of learning and thinking. As we work through the units of study in all subjects, when students develop a strong question for inquiry, I post it on the wall as a poster and students stick Post-It notes to the wall with ideas and thoughts they have about the “Big Question”. We used yellow notes for thoughts and ideas, pink notes for new evidence (from sources), and blue notes for further questions. The wall quickly became a web of ideas that expanded as we gained more knowledge and understanding of the content and went beyond. One of the “Big Questions” we posted on the wall, which got brought up during our science unit on weather and climate was, “Why was it so hot this summer?” This led to the first thought being posted, “Because of global warming”, which led to the question, “What causes global warming?”, which led to ideas supported by evidence, further questions, more thoughts, and so on. This wall was a hit and created great class discussion as students related their learning to the questions, gained new perspectives of a problem, and thought more deeply about the curriculum content and applied it to the “Big Questions”.
While these strategies cover a few of my strengths for encouraging critical thinking, some areas I need to work on are teaching critical thinking vocabulary and making criteria overt. As my students are English language learners, becoming familiar with critical thinking vocabulary is crucial for success, but is where I likely make too many assumptions about their prior knowledge. While I do take the time to teach many different sentence forms to express thinking and model the attributes of good thinking, I am aware that I need to take more opportunities to explicitly teach the vocabulary that makes these expressions of thought and critical reflection possible. Furthermore, more focus on making our criteria overt by ensuring that the criteria we use to make reasoned judgments and solve problems is clear and well understood for all learners to encourage critical thinking and better support understanding. Building on these areas will also help me in developing better assessment of and for learning, especially for critical thinking, an aspect of my practice that I am continuously trying to improve. Greater awareness and understanding of the tools for critical thinking and how to teach them effectively will hopefully prove to be a good starting point as I soon take on the challenge of meeting a whole new community of thinkers in the upcoming school year.
References:
Case, R., & Balcaen, P. (2008). “Supporting a community of critical thinkers.” In: Case, R. & Clark, P. (Eds.). The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Elementary Educators, Pacific Educational Press, Vancouver.
Case, R., & Daniels, L. (2008). “Teaching the tools to think critically.” In: Case, R. & Clark, P. (Eds.). The Canadian Anthology of Social Studies Volume Two: Issues and Strategies for Secondary Teachers, pp.74-85. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press.
Teaching for Critical Thinking Project
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Module 4: What is Creativity?
One of my favourite definitions of creativity comes from the author Daniel H. Pink who stated that creativity is “Giving the world something it didn't know it was missing." This definition is certainly inspirational, but at first glance, poses a daunting challenge to one who aspires to be creative. If I used this definition with students when asking them to be creative, it would certainly lead to perplexed looks wondering how to meet such high expectations. Yet, at its root, this definition is beautiful when applied within a specific context. Applying this definition to my work in education allows me to see myself as a creative person as my distinct personality, skills, and teaching approach provides me with the ability to develop lessons and experiences unique to my students’ needs to support their learning, make a difference in their lives, and provide them with something that they didn’t know they were missing. This definition, however, fails to characterize the components of creativity and its complexity, and if we are to truly understand what creativity is and foster creative thinking, a clearer definition is necessary.
Creativity is a word that should be easy to define as we can observe it all around us and usually recognize it easily when we see it, and yet I felt challenged to break down creativity into its components even after reading several articles on the topic. Many conceptions of creativity provided in the readings as well as from my own experiences proved very helpful to craft my working definition:
Creativity is the application of one’s learning (knowledge, skills, and motivation) to develop a novel idea or product that has value within a context to respond to a problem, need for improvement, or desire to communicate a vision of the world
Learning
At its heart, creativity involves learning about and understanding the environment in order to produce ideas that respond to it through the application of what is learned. It is through learning that we recognize problems that need to be solved, discover gaps in knowledge, determine possible solutions, and build a vision of the world to be communicated. Gini-Newman and Case (2015) suggest that creativity involves thinking critically as we deliberate and consider the criteria our creations seek to affect and is aided by collaborative thinking as we learn about different perspectives and build upon the ideas of others. In her metaphor of the creative monkey, Wearing (June 2015) shows that creativity and learning are inextricably linked and happen concurrently as we interact and experiment with the environment and discover that our actions have an impact, which affects our future behaviour through an adaptive response. As we learn independently and interact with the environment, we gain the ability to seek solutions that exist outside the norms and apply the input of our learning to think creatively.
Novelty
Wearing (2015) states that, “[C]reativity is an act of expression: who we are, the result of our genes, our view of the world, our experiences, our learnings, and our culture at a particular moment in time -- a handprint on our world (p.5). As creativity “leaves an imprint of our self on the environment” (Wearing, June 2015, p.5), it is the unique quality of our distinctive ideas as an original product that becomes creative. While creativity is a product of our learning, it is the novelty and originality of the idea that evolves that characterizes it as creative. Creativity is not a reproduction of the work of others or the following of specific instructions that are handed to us to produce something, but builds upon this knowledge to become something new that contains the distinct signature of the creator. Starko (2015) suggests that to be considered creative, the idea can be new to a discipline or culture and change the world in dramatic ways (Creativity with a big ‘C’), but can also be considered creative if the idea is new to the creator (creativity with a little ‘c’). Creativity can be further distinguished into levels in which novel ideas are produced: Fluid (the basic, typical everyday acts), crystallized (for problem solving), mature (addressing complex problems with originality), and eminent (causing a shift in the discipline) (Starko, 2015). When viewed through these levels, we see that creativity can arise independent of one’s age, domain, or level of expertise or intellect.
Value
Finally, for an idea or product to be considered creative, it needs to serve some value to the creator or to the greater good within the context of its production. Gini-Newman and Case (2015) acknowledge that, in addition to being unique, creations need to be purposeful and significant as creativity depends on the qualities of the product that emerges, and this novelty must contribute in some way that is useful. Wearing (June 2015) describes the productive element of creativity, the deliberate action, that is the active component of creativity. Wearing goes on to assert that, “The learning inherent in creativity is meaningful interaction with the environment, rather than the random... it is not until the value, or appropriateness, in an interaction is recognized - the moment that learning occurs, that the action becomes creative” (p.13). Starko (2015) supports this point by contending that appropriateness within a cultural context is an important criterion of creativity in which a new product meets some goal in being purposeful in an effort “to make something work, to make something better, more meaningful, or more beautiful” (p.13). The infamous story of the Post-it note clearly illustrates this component of creativity. In a botched attempt to produce a super strong adhesive, a not-so-sticky substance was produced. The moment of creativity was not the inadvertent production of this substance but was in discovering a useful application of the product, which became the main ingredient in the sticky notes we see covering our homes and offices today.
Probably the most foundational act of creativity for me was from my earliest recollection of producing a creative piece in the third grade. I had a problem in that I wanted to attend the Young Authors Conference in my hometown because Robert Munsch would be performing live there, but only three students from our class could be selected based on the quality of the original books they produced for the conference. I knew that my story idea, about a plant that was dying in the woods until it got the love it needed, was probably not imaginative enough, and my artistic skills were lacking to produce the illustrations in my book to compete with the other students. As a result, I took a different approach by writing my story in rhyming verse. The result was a book that surprised myself, my teacher, and my classmates. And did it solve my problem? Well...let’s just say, Robert Munsch was awesome! What made my book creative, according to the components of creativity in my definition above, was that it was a product of my learning through applying my skills, knowledge, and motivation to tell a story in a compelling way that went above and beyond expectations. It was a novel idea, not just to myself as I had never written in this style before, but it was an approach no one else in the class (or at the Young Authors Conference) had taken. Also, it had value in telling a story and communicating my vision in a, may I say, beautiful way that had rhythm and appeal to draw the attention of others to hear the message it conveyed. It gave myself a sense of pride and confidence that drove my creativity in my future pursuits.
References:
Gini-Newman, G. & Case, R. (2015). “Critical, creative, and collaborative dimensions of thinking, pp. 45-60, Creating Thinking Classrooms: Leading Educational Change for a 21st Century World. Vancouver, BC: The Critical Thinking Consortium.
Starko, A. J. (2015). “What is Creativity,” pp. 1-24. Creativity in the classroom: Schools of curious delight (5 ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Wearing, J. M. (June, 2015). Creativity and learning in four metaphors. Paper presented at the International Conference on Thinking, Bilbao, Spain.
Creativity is a word that should be easy to define as we can observe it all around us and usually recognize it easily when we see it, and yet I felt challenged to break down creativity into its components even after reading several articles on the topic. Many conceptions of creativity provided in the readings as well as from my own experiences proved very helpful to craft my working definition:
Creativity is the application of one’s learning (knowledge, skills, and motivation) to develop a novel idea or product that has value within a context to respond to a problem, need for improvement, or desire to communicate a vision of the world
Learning
At its heart, creativity involves learning about and understanding the environment in order to produce ideas that respond to it through the application of what is learned. It is through learning that we recognize problems that need to be solved, discover gaps in knowledge, determine possible solutions, and build a vision of the world to be communicated. Gini-Newman and Case (2015) suggest that creativity involves thinking critically as we deliberate and consider the criteria our creations seek to affect and is aided by collaborative thinking as we learn about different perspectives and build upon the ideas of others. In her metaphor of the creative monkey, Wearing (June 2015) shows that creativity and learning are inextricably linked and happen concurrently as we interact and experiment with the environment and discover that our actions have an impact, which affects our future behaviour through an adaptive response. As we learn independently and interact with the environment, we gain the ability to seek solutions that exist outside the norms and apply the input of our learning to think creatively.
Novelty
Wearing (2015) states that, “[C]reativity is an act of expression: who we are, the result of our genes, our view of the world, our experiences, our learnings, and our culture at a particular moment in time -- a handprint on our world (p.5). As creativity “leaves an imprint of our self on the environment” (Wearing, June 2015, p.5), it is the unique quality of our distinctive ideas as an original product that becomes creative. While creativity is a product of our learning, it is the novelty and originality of the idea that evolves that characterizes it as creative. Creativity is not a reproduction of the work of others or the following of specific instructions that are handed to us to produce something, but builds upon this knowledge to become something new that contains the distinct signature of the creator. Starko (2015) suggests that to be considered creative, the idea can be new to a discipline or culture and change the world in dramatic ways (Creativity with a big ‘C’), but can also be considered creative if the idea is new to the creator (creativity with a little ‘c’). Creativity can be further distinguished into levels in which novel ideas are produced: Fluid (the basic, typical everyday acts), crystallized (for problem solving), mature (addressing complex problems with originality), and eminent (causing a shift in the discipline) (Starko, 2015). When viewed through these levels, we see that creativity can arise independent of one’s age, domain, or level of expertise or intellect.
Value
Finally, for an idea or product to be considered creative, it needs to serve some value to the creator or to the greater good within the context of its production. Gini-Newman and Case (2015) acknowledge that, in addition to being unique, creations need to be purposeful and significant as creativity depends on the qualities of the product that emerges, and this novelty must contribute in some way that is useful. Wearing (June 2015) describes the productive element of creativity, the deliberate action, that is the active component of creativity. Wearing goes on to assert that, “The learning inherent in creativity is meaningful interaction with the environment, rather than the random... it is not until the value, or appropriateness, in an interaction is recognized - the moment that learning occurs, that the action becomes creative” (p.13). Starko (2015) supports this point by contending that appropriateness within a cultural context is an important criterion of creativity in which a new product meets some goal in being purposeful in an effort “to make something work, to make something better, more meaningful, or more beautiful” (p.13). The infamous story of the Post-it note clearly illustrates this component of creativity. In a botched attempt to produce a super strong adhesive, a not-so-sticky substance was produced. The moment of creativity was not the inadvertent production of this substance but was in discovering a useful application of the product, which became the main ingredient in the sticky notes we see covering our homes and offices today.
Probably the most foundational act of creativity for me was from my earliest recollection of producing a creative piece in the third grade. I had a problem in that I wanted to attend the Young Authors Conference in my hometown because Robert Munsch would be performing live there, but only three students from our class could be selected based on the quality of the original books they produced for the conference. I knew that my story idea, about a plant that was dying in the woods until it got the love it needed, was probably not imaginative enough, and my artistic skills were lacking to produce the illustrations in my book to compete with the other students. As a result, I took a different approach by writing my story in rhyming verse. The result was a book that surprised myself, my teacher, and my classmates. And did it solve my problem? Well...let’s just say, Robert Munsch was awesome! What made my book creative, according to the components of creativity in my definition above, was that it was a product of my learning through applying my skills, knowledge, and motivation to tell a story in a compelling way that went above and beyond expectations. It was a novel idea, not just to myself as I had never written in this style before, but it was an approach no one else in the class (or at the Young Authors Conference) had taken. Also, it had value in telling a story and communicating my vision in a, may I say, beautiful way that had rhythm and appeal to draw the attention of others to hear the message it conveyed. It gave myself a sense of pride and confidence that drove my creativity in my future pursuits.
References:
Gini-Newman, G. & Case, R. (2015). “Critical, creative, and collaborative dimensions of thinking, pp. 45-60, Creating Thinking Classrooms: Leading Educational Change for a 21st Century World. Vancouver, BC: The Critical Thinking Consortium.
Starko, A. J. (2015). “What is Creativity,” pp. 1-24. Creativity in the classroom: Schools of curious delight (5 ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Wearing, J. M. (June, 2015). Creativity and learning in four metaphors. Paper presented at the International Conference on Thinking, Bilbao, Spain.
Module 5: Pedagogy for Creative Thinking - The Bigger Picture
Make something creative...ready...go!
I find these words intimidating, especially when no clear context is provided for the expected creation. When I first read the instructions for this assignment, to try a creative activity, the seemingly limitless number of possibilities applied a fair bit of pressure. To ease the burden, I looked to where I find the most inspiration: family. My wife has been working on a scrapbooking project to document the first 2 years of our son’s life. She has been working with countless photos in this age of smartphones when every event, regardless of its significance, is captured on film...or on microchip. The number of amazing videos we have collected over the past 2 years are difficult to work with for an old-fashioned scrapbook idea, so this is where my creative idea evolved. Maybe I could use some of our favourite videos of our son to produce a music video. Here it is:
While a music video is hardly a unique idea, I figured I could put some of my musical abilities to use by learning a meaningful song, recording it, and using it to put over top of the videos of our son to personalize it and make it unique. I would have liked to write my own song as an even more creative endeavour, however, the due date for this assignment rendered that level of creation an impossible feat (for me at least). The result is the music video for my cover of Beautiful Boy by John Lennon with some of our favourite videos of our beautiful boy, Liam. This is the first installment of what I plan to turn into a larger project that will hopefully feature some of my own musical compositions yet to come.
So, does this creative activity fit into my definition of creativity? The main components of creativity from my definition are applied learning, novelty, and value within context. Let’s break it down:
Learning
This project certainly applied my learning. After choosing what I thought was the best song for the task, I had to learn the song using guitar tabs in addition to memorizing the lyrics. Then I had to practice the song until it felt right and hit home at a personal level. After practicing, I rehearsed for my wife, my ultimate collaborator, and when I saw that it put tears in her eyes, I knew that I had chosen the right song and that my version was good enough to record. My wife helped me to put together the best collection of videos to match the mood of the song. To improve production value from previous slide shows I have made in the past, I had to choose and learn how to use a new video editing software, Animoto.
Novelty
While I have made video slideshows in the past using photos, using videos to make a music video was new to me. Furthermore, I have never used a song that I have personally recorded to set the content to. In fact, I have never recorded myself playing music as I still consider myself a beginner-intermediate, so that was a first as well. While my creation hardly presents something that has never been done before, it is a product of firsts for me that I am quite content with and will put me on the path for future creative developments for this music video project.
Value
I think that the value of the product speaks for itself. Putting together some of the most precious moments of our son’s life took on a whole new meaning by adding my own heartfelt performance of a song that sums up a lot of my feelings towards being a new father. The meaningfulness of my approach certainly intrinsically motivated me to do some of my best work within a short window of time. My wife loves the final product, who again had tears in her eyes while watching it, and our son was delighted to see himself on the TV wanting to watch it over and over. My attempt at being creative had a purpose, and that purpose has been fulfilled with some room for growth.
Ultimately, this creative experience was enlightening in thinking about nurturing creativity in others. It shows that the best circumstances for creative ideas arise from the greatest circumstances for finding inspiration. These opportunities for inspiration are generated when learning is personalized (Robinson, 2011). If we want to foster creative thinking, we need to provide learning content and activities that will allow others to find inspiration and personalization within. Conditions that support intrinsic motivation allow creativity to thrive to develop ideas and products that have value within the context (Baghetto, 2010; Hennessey & Amabile, 2010; Upitis, 2014). To nurture creative thinking, experiences need to be meaningful and have purpose while encouraging habits of mind necessary for creativity: being inquisitive, persistent, imaginative, collaborative, and disciplined (Upitis, 2014). These experiences also must take into account the resource of time as a limiting factor. Creative ideas require time to incubate, to learn and apply learning, and to collaborate to build upon ideas and receive support and feedback for ideas to flourish. While time constraints are always present in education and work environments, I think that it is important to be flexible concerning time to allow for the best and most creative results.
So, does this creative activity fit into my definition of creativity? The main components of creativity from my definition are applied learning, novelty, and value within context. Let’s break it down:
Learning
This project certainly applied my learning. After choosing what I thought was the best song for the task, I had to learn the song using guitar tabs in addition to memorizing the lyrics. Then I had to practice the song until it felt right and hit home at a personal level. After practicing, I rehearsed for my wife, my ultimate collaborator, and when I saw that it put tears in her eyes, I knew that I had chosen the right song and that my version was good enough to record. My wife helped me to put together the best collection of videos to match the mood of the song. To improve production value from previous slide shows I have made in the past, I had to choose and learn how to use a new video editing software, Animoto.
Novelty
While I have made video slideshows in the past using photos, using videos to make a music video was new to me. Furthermore, I have never used a song that I have personally recorded to set the content to. In fact, I have never recorded myself playing music as I still consider myself a beginner-intermediate, so that was a first as well. While my creation hardly presents something that has never been done before, it is a product of firsts for me that I am quite content with and will put me on the path for future creative developments for this music video project.
Value
I think that the value of the product speaks for itself. Putting together some of the most precious moments of our son’s life took on a whole new meaning by adding my own heartfelt performance of a song that sums up a lot of my feelings towards being a new father. The meaningfulness of my approach certainly intrinsically motivated me to do some of my best work within a short window of time. My wife loves the final product, who again had tears in her eyes while watching it, and our son was delighted to see himself on the TV wanting to watch it over and over. My attempt at being creative had a purpose, and that purpose has been fulfilled with some room for growth.
Ultimately, this creative experience was enlightening in thinking about nurturing creativity in others. It shows that the best circumstances for creative ideas arise from the greatest circumstances for finding inspiration. These opportunities for inspiration are generated when learning is personalized (Robinson, 2011). If we want to foster creative thinking, we need to provide learning content and activities that will allow others to find inspiration and personalization within. Conditions that support intrinsic motivation allow creativity to thrive to develop ideas and products that have value within the context (Baghetto, 2010; Hennessey & Amabile, 2010; Upitis, 2014). To nurture creative thinking, experiences need to be meaningful and have purpose while encouraging habits of mind necessary for creativity: being inquisitive, persistent, imaginative, collaborative, and disciplined (Upitis, 2014). These experiences also must take into account the resource of time as a limiting factor. Creative ideas require time to incubate, to learn and apply learning, and to collaborate to build upon ideas and receive support and feedback for ideas to flourish. While time constraints are always present in education and work environments, I think that it is important to be flexible concerning time to allow for the best and most creative results.
Module 6: Teaching and Learning Strategies for Creativity
The teaching and learning strategies for creativity introduced in this module, especially those depicted by Michalko (2001), I thought were fantastic for providing some ideas for future lessons, and also to think about problems I face in my own life. I appreciated the strategy of viewing problems from multiple perspectives as a means to open up new possibilities for approaching a problem instead of looking at it from one stabilized viewpoint (Michalko, 2001). The strategy of finding the appropriate level of abstraction of a problem, both specifically and globally, resonated with me to approach problems from different levels, and while fishbone diagrams are hardly new to me as a way to visually represent and examine an issue (Michalko, 2011), I can see greater value in this method after examining its potential to broaden perspective by breaking apart the causes of a problem. I will have to use some of these thinking strategies when I start the new school year next week, and I will consider how I can apply these strategies myself to examine my own challenges... like saving money.
I decided to apply a few of the strategies presented in this module with a class I teach that consists of two university students that are learning general English conversation skills and business English. Last week, we did a lesson on advertising and learned some vocabulary and concepts by learning about effective advertising strategies. This week we continued on this topic with the objective for the students to produce their own advertising campaign for a product of their choice. To begin class, I introduced a failed marketing campaign from the 80’s for Coke II, however, I didn’t tell them that it was unsuccessful. Then I introduced the 6 Thinking Hats to promote some lateral thinking (Labelle, 2005, May 7) and we applied this strategy to examine the Coke II advertising campaign and decide whether it was a good idea or to find more effective alternatives. Here is a basic summary of the discussion using the different hats: Wearing the white hat (objective facts), we discussed how Coca-Cola is the top-selling soft drink in the world; is a Coke II really necessary? Wearing the yellow hat (optimism) we looked into how this campaign could bring a new spin on an old product that could attract a younger generation that drinks more energy drinks. Wearing the black hat (judgment) we argued that a new recipe for the product would incite anger among Coca-Cola drinkers who like the product’s classic appeal. Wearing the red hat (feelings) we talked about how this new product didn’t really spur excitement as it lacked innovativeness. Putting on the green hat (creativity) allowed us to explore better alternatives, such as a cola flavoured energy drink that would attract people who don’t drink Coca-Cola. Finally, putting on the blue hat (manage the thinking process), we reviewed our thinking thus far and challenged and revised thoughts while wearing the other hats. Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that Coke II would not be an effective marketing campaign. Then I presented the facts that this was indeed a failed advertising campaign that led to the company receiving over 400,000 letters of complaint about changing the original recipe. Using the six thinking hats, the students arrived at a conclusion that reflected the actual results of the campaign and, upon reflection, decided that Coca-Cola could have benefitted by using the thinking hats strategy as it made a strong case against the campaign and led to better alternatives.
Next, I introduced their project to choose a product that they think needs a better advertising strategy and to design a new advertising campaign for the product. While I was intending on this being a collaborative project, the students decided to work on the campaign independently since their schedules wouldn’t allow them to meet outside of class to work on the project together. One student chose Red Bull stating that the product struggles against local competitors in Korea. The other student chose to advertise a Korean brand of green tea arguing that its current advertising was boring and unattractive. To apply some thinking strategies, we first decided to write a problem statement as a question: What would be an effective advertising campaign for this product? The students then did some mind-mapping to look for ideas, although somewhat unsuccessfully. Since the ideas didn’t seem to be flowing we tried to rephrase the problem to try to examine it in a different way. Interestingly, the students decided to rephrase the problem as “What would not be an effective advertising campaign for this product?”. I was surprised by the success of this approach as Michalko (2001) stated, “Negatives make us pause and slow down our thinking” (p. 38), however, my students told me that by thinking about the negative side of the problem and thinking about ineffective advertising strategies it helped to spark new ideas when they returned to their mind map. For example, the student who was advertising Red Bull said that an ineffective advertisement would be to show that the product was unhealthy as many parents tell their children not to drink Red Bull because it is not good for them. This in turn led to her thinking that instead she could focus on how Red Bull can give young people energy to study better, which then gave her direction in which to steer her advertising campaign ideas.
I was planning to use the 6 thinking hats strategy again for this task (hence using it earlier), although as the students chose to work independently rather than collaboratively, I didn’t think that this would be the best strategy, so I taught them the “fishbone diagram” technique as a means to separate the parts from the whole (Michalko, 2001). Using the concepts we had learned in the previous lesson, we broke down the challenge into the parts of an effective advertising campaign that raises brand awareness, reaches a target audience, and improves the brand’s image. These criteria became the ribs of the diagram and I let the students work away. While we didn’t have the time in class to complete the diagrams, what was completed definitely showed that the students were on the right track with some great ideas to complete their presentations for their advertising campaigns. The diagram for Red Bull was aiming at reaching a target audience by promoting the product in high schools at exam time as “the original energy drink” that could boost their study skills. Meanwhile, the student advertising green tea came up with the idea of promoting green tea as a national symbol in Korea that would give people pride in the product and improve the brand’s image.
The students will present their projects in class next weekend, and I look forward to seeing the results. Using these strategies for creative thinking definitely helped the students to approach the problem from different directions and develop interesting ideas to complete the challenge. We had done other creative tasks before, such as designing phone apps to solve a problem, but using the strategies together in class absolutely led to improved results for generating creative ideas and kept the students more engaged in finding a possible solution to the problem.
References:
Labelle, S. (2005, May 7). Six Thinking Hats. Retrieved March 2, 2019, from http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Techniques/sixhats.htm
Michalko, M. (2001). Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius. pp. 19-49. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.
I decided to apply a few of the strategies presented in this module with a class I teach that consists of two university students that are learning general English conversation skills and business English. Last week, we did a lesson on advertising and learned some vocabulary and concepts by learning about effective advertising strategies. This week we continued on this topic with the objective for the students to produce their own advertising campaign for a product of their choice. To begin class, I introduced a failed marketing campaign from the 80’s for Coke II, however, I didn’t tell them that it was unsuccessful. Then I introduced the 6 Thinking Hats to promote some lateral thinking (Labelle, 2005, May 7) and we applied this strategy to examine the Coke II advertising campaign and decide whether it was a good idea or to find more effective alternatives. Here is a basic summary of the discussion using the different hats: Wearing the white hat (objective facts), we discussed how Coca-Cola is the top-selling soft drink in the world; is a Coke II really necessary? Wearing the yellow hat (optimism) we looked into how this campaign could bring a new spin on an old product that could attract a younger generation that drinks more energy drinks. Wearing the black hat (judgment) we argued that a new recipe for the product would incite anger among Coca-Cola drinkers who like the product’s classic appeal. Wearing the red hat (feelings) we talked about how this new product didn’t really spur excitement as it lacked innovativeness. Putting on the green hat (creativity) allowed us to explore better alternatives, such as a cola flavoured energy drink that would attract people who don’t drink Coca-Cola. Finally, putting on the blue hat (manage the thinking process), we reviewed our thinking thus far and challenged and revised thoughts while wearing the other hats. Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that Coke II would not be an effective marketing campaign. Then I presented the facts that this was indeed a failed advertising campaign that led to the company receiving over 400,000 letters of complaint about changing the original recipe. Using the six thinking hats, the students arrived at a conclusion that reflected the actual results of the campaign and, upon reflection, decided that Coca-Cola could have benefitted by using the thinking hats strategy as it made a strong case against the campaign and led to better alternatives.
Next, I introduced their project to choose a product that they think needs a better advertising strategy and to design a new advertising campaign for the product. While I was intending on this being a collaborative project, the students decided to work on the campaign independently since their schedules wouldn’t allow them to meet outside of class to work on the project together. One student chose Red Bull stating that the product struggles against local competitors in Korea. The other student chose to advertise a Korean brand of green tea arguing that its current advertising was boring and unattractive. To apply some thinking strategies, we first decided to write a problem statement as a question: What would be an effective advertising campaign for this product? The students then did some mind-mapping to look for ideas, although somewhat unsuccessfully. Since the ideas didn’t seem to be flowing we tried to rephrase the problem to try to examine it in a different way. Interestingly, the students decided to rephrase the problem as “What would not be an effective advertising campaign for this product?”. I was surprised by the success of this approach as Michalko (2001) stated, “Negatives make us pause and slow down our thinking” (p. 38), however, my students told me that by thinking about the negative side of the problem and thinking about ineffective advertising strategies it helped to spark new ideas when they returned to their mind map. For example, the student who was advertising Red Bull said that an ineffective advertisement would be to show that the product was unhealthy as many parents tell their children not to drink Red Bull because it is not good for them. This in turn led to her thinking that instead she could focus on how Red Bull can give young people energy to study better, which then gave her direction in which to steer her advertising campaign ideas.
I was planning to use the 6 thinking hats strategy again for this task (hence using it earlier), although as the students chose to work independently rather than collaboratively, I didn’t think that this would be the best strategy, so I taught them the “fishbone diagram” technique as a means to separate the parts from the whole (Michalko, 2001). Using the concepts we had learned in the previous lesson, we broke down the challenge into the parts of an effective advertising campaign that raises brand awareness, reaches a target audience, and improves the brand’s image. These criteria became the ribs of the diagram and I let the students work away. While we didn’t have the time in class to complete the diagrams, what was completed definitely showed that the students were on the right track with some great ideas to complete their presentations for their advertising campaigns. The diagram for Red Bull was aiming at reaching a target audience by promoting the product in high schools at exam time as “the original energy drink” that could boost their study skills. Meanwhile, the student advertising green tea came up with the idea of promoting green tea as a national symbol in Korea that would give people pride in the product and improve the brand’s image.
The students will present their projects in class next weekend, and I look forward to seeing the results. Using these strategies for creative thinking definitely helped the students to approach the problem from different directions and develop interesting ideas to complete the challenge. We had done other creative tasks before, such as designing phone apps to solve a problem, but using the strategies together in class absolutely led to improved results for generating creative ideas and kept the students more engaged in finding a possible solution to the problem.
References:
Labelle, S. (2005, May 7). Six Thinking Hats. Retrieved March 2, 2019, from http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Techniques/sixhats.htm
Michalko, M. (2001). Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius. pp. 19-49. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.
Teaching for Creativity Project
Link to Creative Teaching Scenario Presentation
teaching_for_creativity_lesson_plan_-_robert_nemcko.pdf | |
File Size: | 107 kb |
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Critical and Creative Thinking Reflection
On Christmas Eve, 1968, the Apollo 8 crew completed the first manned journey to the dark side of the Moon and returned from the unknown to encounter this vision of the infamous Earthrise. The crew was struck by this new perspective of the Earth creeping up over the moon’s horizon, which created a moment of awe, wonder, and raw emotion that no training program could have prepared them for. This has become my new metaphor for critical and creative thinking. Critical and creative thinking takes everything we know, challenges it, adds layers of complexity and uncertainty, and takes us out the other side with a new sense of clarity and perspective, often unexpected, that engages us with improved understanding and allows us to view the world in a new light.
At the beginning of this course, I wrote about the synergy between critical and creative thinking. My learning throughout this course has helped me to dig deeper into the processes of thinking and has reinforced my ideas on this synergistic relationship, but with a reconstructed mindset on the complexity of the process. While creative and critical thinking are processes that we all gain naturally through our experiences and learning, the opportunities to build upon and support these crucial skills and develop the habits of mind necessary for these processes empowers us to advance our capacity and make greater connections to our world. This speaks to the importance of collaboration. There is a reason why humans are conditioned to live, learn, and work together socially, academically, professionally, and personally, within a community, as it is through collaboration that we build upon our knowledge and ideas, seek multiple perspectives, and communicate and share ideas to renew our understanding and create. Through collaborative learning in this course, I have been provided with a bigger picture and new insights that realize the complexity of the thinking process allowing me to make connections and begin to understand the integral parts to apply in my practice.
Recognizing the bigger picture and understanding the habits of mind and tools essential for thinking has given me the opportunity for a more reflective practice. It has developed a greater sense of awareness and purpose in how I approach and implement strategies to nurture critical and creative thinking and cultivate the conditions necessary for a community of thinkers. With this renewed awareness and purpose, I, myself, have gained as a critical and creative thinker with a greater appreciation for the joy of taking risks and creating an environment that encourages a need to explore, wonder, discover, and reflect; to journey to the dark side of the moon and back with new perspectives, understanding, and ideas.
At the beginning of this course, I wrote about the synergy between critical and creative thinking. My learning throughout this course has helped me to dig deeper into the processes of thinking and has reinforced my ideas on this synergistic relationship, but with a reconstructed mindset on the complexity of the process. While creative and critical thinking are processes that we all gain naturally through our experiences and learning, the opportunities to build upon and support these crucial skills and develop the habits of mind necessary for these processes empowers us to advance our capacity and make greater connections to our world. This speaks to the importance of collaboration. There is a reason why humans are conditioned to live, learn, and work together socially, academically, professionally, and personally, within a community, as it is through collaboration that we build upon our knowledge and ideas, seek multiple perspectives, and communicate and share ideas to renew our understanding and create. Through collaborative learning in this course, I have been provided with a bigger picture and new insights that realize the complexity of the thinking process allowing me to make connections and begin to understand the integral parts to apply in my practice.
Recognizing the bigger picture and understanding the habits of mind and tools essential for thinking has given me the opportunity for a more reflective practice. It has developed a greater sense of awareness and purpose in how I approach and implement strategies to nurture critical and creative thinking and cultivate the conditions necessary for a community of thinkers. With this renewed awareness and purpose, I, myself, have gained as a critical and creative thinker with a greater appreciation for the joy of taking risks and creating an environment that encourages a need to explore, wonder, discover, and reflect; to journey to the dark side of the moon and back with new perspectives, understanding, and ideas.