Creative thinking different types

Creativity means the ability to develop a new object or a new idea. It is always studied in many educational centres and involves the use of science, technology, and psychology. Creativity is regarded as a vital tool in the invention and discovery of new ideas as well as objects.

Five Types of Creative Thinking  

Much of the management research and general literature combines these five types into one type, simply called 'creative thinking'. This is based on old bi-polar concepts such as right vs. left-brain thinking or rational vs. intuitive thinking.So that's why we often hear that a person is either a right-brain or a left-brain thinker, or have either a creative or a logical personality.

 1. Divergent thinking

The work of art is the exaggeration of the idea.– André Gide

The American psychologist J.P. Guilford was the first who proposed that an element of divergence is involved in the creative process. He made a distinction between convergent and divergent production, which he also called convergent and divergent thinking.

Divergent thinking is the process of thought where a person uses flexibility, fluency and originality to explore as many solutions or options to a problem or issue as possible. It is the opposite of convergent thinking, which has the characteristic to focus on only one idea or single solution.

Brainstorming is a typical example of divergent thinking, where "downloading" or emptying the brain of a certain topic takes place. This technique is however limited in that it builds on releasing the ideas that are already stored in a person's brain, and not to generate any new ideas.

Other tools for divergent thinking are for instance to assume that something known for certain is false, or to explore ideas that cause discomfort.

 2. Lateral thinking

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.– Edward De Bono

Creativity researcher Edward De Bono came up with the term "lateral thinking" in 1967 to "distinguish between artistic creativity and idea creativity". The term was invented as an alternative to step-by-step thinking, so-called vertical thinking, which is justified with sequential steps based on logic.

Lateral thinking can be used for generation of new ideas and problem solving as it by definition leaves the already-used behind and looks for completely new options. This type of thinking is based on avoiding the intrinsic limitations in the brain, which rapidly sees patterns and handles information in a distinctive way, where long thought sequences are not broken up once formed.

Instead, lateral thinking tools and techniques can be used to restructure and escape such "clichéd" patterns and think "outside the box".

Lateral thinking is related to divergent thinking, as discussed in the previous blog post. Both have the purpose to break out of habitual ways of thinking. Both falls "outside the box", but divergent thinking is still sequential in that it follows on an earlier thought, while lateral thinking has no direct connection to an earlier thought.

If rational or vertical thinking is described as following the most likely paths; divergent thinking is following an extreme path, while lateral thinking is following the least likely path.

3. Aesthetic thinking

It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
- Pablo Picasso

The philosophy of aesthetics concerns the creation and appreciation of art and beauty. Taste is also a key concept here and the study of for instance form, colour and shape can augment a person's aesthetic thinking. This type of thinking involves producing or discovering things, which are pleasant, harmonious and beautiful to our senses. It is an ancient form of thinking within us humans, and can be learned by anyone.

Some of the types of aesthetic thinking are visual and spatial, where knowledge of structure, composition, colour schemes and shapes can be used to make things aesthetically pleasing. Many architects, designers, painters and other aesthetic thinkers through the ages have been fascinated with mathematical characteristics of aesthetics, and how patterns, ratios and proportions found in nature can be represented by numbers and also in creative pursuits.

Music, drama and other forms of culture can also be considered aesthetic thinking, where tempo, dramaturgy, rhythm, melody and other structural elements are applied to make output beautiful and harmonious. Scientific formulas themselves can also be considered beautiful, and many chemists, physicists and mathematicians consider their work elegant and aesthetic.

Many aspects of storytelling can also be included in this category, as this "art" is based on dramaturgic elements, pace, a well-crafted dialogue, etc. It is however important to emphasize that this type of creative thinking might be enough to build a story, but in order to create a great work of art, other types of creative thinking are needed too. The same goes for all work, which is built on aesthetic thinking. A person will not become a great artist only by going to art school.

4. Systems thinking

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.

– Steve Jobs

Systems thinking can be described as the ability to see how things are interrelated and form a larger "whole". Some people seem to be able to perceive such links more easily than others, to "connect the dots" and understand that if one thing is changed, the whole system will change.

There are a number of different principles for a 'systems thinking approach'; some of which are interdependence of objects, holism (emergent properties not possible to detect by analysis but possible to define by a holistic approach) and hierarchy (complex wholes are made up of smaller subsystems).

A foundational aspect of systems thinking is the synthesis of several elements into one, which transcends the significance of the sum of the two independent elements.

Systems thinking are closely related to aesthetic thinking, as mentioned above, in that synthesis and making things "whole" and perfect somehow is related to elegance and beauty. It is also closely related to the next type of thinking - inspirational thinking.

5. Inspirational thinking

I was living in a little flat at the top of a house and I had a piano by my bed. I woke up one morning with a tune in my head and I thought, 'Hey, I don't know this tune - or do I?' It was like a jazz melody. My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes; I thought maybe I'd just remembered it from the past. I went to the piano and found the chords to it, made sure I remembered it and then hawked it round to all my friends, asking what it was: 'Do you know this? It's a good little tune, but I couldn't have written it because I dreamt it.
 – Paul McCartney recounting how he wrote the song "Yesterday" in early 1964

This type of creative thinking concerns the perception of receiving insights from somewhere or someone else. It often happens in dreams or other states, but sometimes in extremely powerful, rapid bursts of clarity and focus, known as light-bulb moments or peak experiences. Some researchers call these breakthrough insights "higher creativity".

Compared to normal creative outputs, these seem to take a quantum leap beyond what can be achieved with other types of thinking. These extraordinary experiences, when everything seems to make sense in one instant moment have been called poetic imagination, revelation and sometimes channeling. The last word indicates the belief that someone else is involved and the person with the breakthrough insight is simply a medium for the collective unconscious or a higher spirit.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF THINKING

Thinking is behaviour which is often implicit and hidden and which symbols (images, ideas and concepts) is ordinarily employed-Garrett in 1965.

Thinking is a cognitive process. Thinking may be defined as a pattern of behavior in which we make use of internal representations.

Knowing how to think in any given situation - which type of thinking to employ - is an interesting matter. The start point understands that there are many different ways to think; that how we think should be a matter of conscious choice.

 DIFFERENT TYPES OF THINKING

1. Critical thinking – It is the mental process of objectively analyzing a situation by gathering information from all possible sources, and then evaluating both the tangible and intangible aspects, as well as the implications of any course of action. This is convergent thinking. It assesses the worth and validity of something existent. It involves precise, persistent, objective analysis. When teachers try to get several learners to think convergent, they try to help them develop common understanding.

2. Creative thinking or Divergent thinking – It is a general term for the ability to develop fresh perspectives and new ideas. This is divergent thinking. It generates something new or different. It involves having a different idea that works as well or better than previous ideas.  This type thinking starts from a common point and moves outward into a variety of perspectives. The thinking of scientists and inventors is an example for divergent thinking.

3. Convergent thinking - This type of thinking is cognitive processing of information around a common point, an attempt to bring thoughts from different directions into a union or common conclusion. Once ideas have been generated, they need to be assessed and developed into workable proposals. This process is often referred to as convergent thinking.

4. Inductive thinking and deductive thinking –It is commonly using in organizing teaching learning situations in classrooms. This type involves two types of elements-rules or principles and examples or illustrations. This is the process of reasoning from parts to the whole, from examples to generalizations.

5. Logical thinking –It is the highest form of thinking. In this type, person employs mental usages and various concepts with a definite objective and links them together in a logical order. It relates to future plans. The future oriented thinking by involving logic and mental images is called logical or imaginative thinking.  It is probably the dominant thinking process in western society and many others too.

6. Parallel thinking - this is the process of avoiding group conflict by all adopting the same mode of thinking at the same time.

7. Positive thinking - although often referred to as an attitude rather than a distinct thinking process.

8. Strategic thinking - a widely used term and therefore one that is used in many different ways. Typically it is used to refer to the sort of thinking required by organizations to set direction rather than individual tactics to deliver results.

9. Associative thinking - The process of linking one thought or idea to another. Associative thinking can be used for creative thinking purposes and has a key role in most memory techniques. It is essentially directed thinking which pertains to reasoning and problem solving procedures aimed at meeting specific goals.

10. Radiant thinking - this is a specific form of associative thinking where the thinking radiates out from a central idea. Mind Mapping is a good example of radiant thinking. 

11. Reflective thinking: This is somewhat higher form of thinking It can be distinguished from simple thinking in the following ways, It aims at solving the complex thinking rather than simple problems. It requires reorganization of all the relevant experience and the finding of new ways of reacting to a situation or removing an obstacle instead of a simple association of experiences or ideas. Mental activity in reflective thinking does not involve the mechanical trial and error type of efforts. There is insightful cognitive approach in reflective thinking. It takes all relevant facts arranged in a logical order in account to arrive at a solution of the problem in hand.

HOW LEARNING STYLES AFFECTS USE OF MNEMONICS

The way in which people learn affects the sort of mnemonics they should consider using to store information. The three main learning styles are:

• visual
• auditory
• kinesthetic

No-one uses one of the styles exclusively, and there is usually significant overlap in learning styles.

Visual Learners

Visual learners relate most effectively to written information, notes, diagrams and pictures. Typically they will be unhappy with a presentation where they are unable to take detailed notes - to an extent information does not exist for a visual learner unless it has been seen written down. This is why some visual learners will take notes even when they have printed course notes on the desk in front of them. Visual learners will tend to be most effective in written communication, symbol manipulation etc. Visual learners make up around 65% of the population.

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners relate most effectively to the spoken word. They will tend to listen to a lecture, and then take notes afterwards, or rely on printed notes. Often information written down will have little meaning until it has been heard - it may help auditory learners to read written information out loud. Auditory learners may be sophisticated speakers, and may specialize effectively in subjects like law or politics. Auditory learners make up about 30% of the population.

Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic Learners learn effectively through touch and movement and space, and learn skills by imitation and practice. Predominantly kinesthetic learners can appear slow, in that information is normally not presented in a style that suits their learning methods. Kinesthetic learners make up around 5% of the population.

Memory Implications of Learning Styles

Most literature on mnemonics assumes the visual approach to learning styles - mnemonics are recommended to be as visually appealing and memorable as possible. If you are an auditory or kinesthetic learner you may find that this emphasis on imagery leads to ineffective recall. In this case, try adjusting the mnemonics to suit your learning style. For an auditory learner, use auditory cues to create your mnemonics. For a kinesthetic learner, imagine performing actions or using tools as the basis of memory techniques.

Using Mnemonics to Learn More Effectively

When we create a mnemonic, e.g. an image or story to remember a telephone number, the following things can be used to make the mnemonic more memorable:

• Use positive, pleasant images. The brain often blocks out unpleasant ones.
• Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image
• Usually humour, Funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than normal ones.
• Similarly rude or sexual rhymes are very difficult to forget.
• Symbols (e.g. red traffic lights, pointing fingers, etc.) can be used in mnemonics.
• Vivid, colourful images are easier to remember than drab ones.
• Use all the senses to code information or dress up an image. Remember that your mnemonic can contain sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements and feelings as well as pictures.
• Bringing three dimensions and movement to an image makes it more vivid. Movement can be used either to maintain the flow of association, or can help to remember actions.
• Locate similar mnemonics in different places with backgrounds of those places. This will help to keep similar images distinct and unconfused.

The important thing is that the mnemonic should clearly relate to the thing being remembered and that it should be vivid enough to be clearly remembered whenever you think about it.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRITICAL THINKING AND CREATIVE THINKING CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following:

• understand the logical connections between ideas
• identify, construct and evaluate arguments
• detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning
• solve problems systematically
• identify the relevance and importance of ideas
• reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values

Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A critical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how to make use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform himself.

Critical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can use critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social institutions.

Some people believe that critical thinking hinders creativity because it requires following the rules of logic and rationality, but creativity might require breaking rules. This is a misconception. Critical thinking is quite compatible with thinking "out-of-the-box", challenging consensus and pursuing less popular approaches. If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas.

CREATIVE THINKING:

This is the most uncommon type of thinking. Every person does not think about the objects around him. This term is also used in science. Divergent says that which travel form one point towards different directions. Different person think differently about one object. It is their original thinking. That is why, it is called creative thinking

It looks for new relationship and associations to describe and interpret the nature of things, events and situations. It is not restarted by any pre established rules. The individual himself usually formulated the problems and is also free to collect the evidence and to fashion the tools for its solutions. The thinking of scientists or inventors is an example of creative thinking.

Creativity means the ability to develop a new object or a new idea. It is always studied in many educational centres and involves the use of science, technology, and psychology. Creativity is regarded as a vital tool in the invention and discovery of new ideas as well as objects.

CREATIVE THINKING VS CRITICAL THINKING 

Creative thinking and Critical thinking are two expressions that show difference between them when it comes to their inner meanings. Creative thinking is generative in purpose. On the other hand, critical thinking is analytical in purpose. This is one of the main differences between creative thinking and critical thinking.

Creative thinking is non-judgmental and expansive too. There is no end for creative thinking. In fact, it can be said that sky is the limit for creative thinking. On the other hand, critical thinking is not so expansive like creative thinking. In fact, it can be said that critical thinking is judgmental in nature.

It is interesting to note that critical thinking is selective too. On the other hand, creative thinking is not selective. It is quite free by nature. The mind is free to think anything creative in the case of creative thinking. On the contrary, the mind is limited to think in the case of critical thinking.

It is important to know that when you are thinking critically you are bound to make some choices. These kinds of choices are not made in the case of creative thinking. In fact, creative thinking aims at generating new and thought provoking ideas.

Creative thinking is employed in areas such as poetry, novel writing, short story writing and fiction writing. On the other hand, critical thinking is employed in organizations, business areas and the like.

Critical thinking is aimed at improving the quality of products produced by a company, customer care service, and the like. It analyses the factors governing the process of running a company.

On the other hand, creative thinking is all about imagination and imagery. Hence, it is best suited to creative arts like poetry and painting. These are the important differences between creative thinking and critical thinking.

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Dr. Howard Gardner, a Psychologist and professor of Neuroscience from Harvard University, developed the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) in 1983. The theory challenged traditional beliefs in the fields of education and cognitive science. MI reconsiders our educational practice of the last century and demands the new technologies in Teaching – learning fields for the maximum drawing of the best in child.

According to Howard Gardner, human beings have nine different kinds of intelligence that reflect different ways of interacting with the world. Each person has a unique combination or profile. Although we each have all nine intelligences, no two individuals have them in the same exact configuration, similar to our fingerprints. According to Gardner, intelligence is much more than IQ because a high IQ in the absence of productivity does not equate to intelligence. In his definition, "Intelligence is a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture." Consequently, instead of intelligence being a single entity described psychometrically with an IQ score, Gardner's definition, views it as many things. For Gardner, intelligence is:

• the ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in a culture;
• a set of skills that make it possible for a person to solve problems in life;
• the potential for finding or creating solutions for problems, which involves gathering new knowledge.

Dr. Gardner proposes nine different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are:

• Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")
• Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
• Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
• Musical intelligence ("music smart")
• Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
• Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
• Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
•  Existential Intelligence:

HOWARD GARDNER'S NINE MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES:

1. Linguistic Intelligence:  It is the capacity to use language to express what's on your mind and to understand other people. Any kind of writer, orator, speaker, lawyer, or other person for whom language is an important stock in trade has great linguistic intelligence.

2. Logical/Mathematical Intelligence: It is the capacity to understand the underlying principles of some kind of causal system, the way a scientist or a logician does; or to manipulate numbers, quantities, and operations, the way a mathematician does.

3. Musical Rhythmic Intelligence: It is the capacity to think in music; to be able to hear patterns, recognize them, and perhaps manipulate them. People who have strong musical intelligence don't just remember music easily, they can't get it out of their minds,it's so omnipresent.

4. Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence: It is the capacity to use the whole body or parts of your body to solve a problem, make something, or put on some kind of production. The most evident examples are people in athletics or the performing arts, particularly dancing or acting.

5. Spatial Intelligence: It is the ability to represent the spatial world internally in your mind -- the way a sailor or airplane pilot navigates the large spatial world, or the way a chess player or sculptor represents a more circumscribed spatial world. Spatial intelligence can be used in the arts or in the sciences.

6. Naturalist Intelligence: It is the ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) and sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations). This ability was clearly of value in our evolutionary past as hunters, gatherers, and farmers; it continues to be central in such roles as botanist or chef.

7. Intrapersonal Intelligence: This intelligence helps to understand himself; knowing who you are, what you can do, what you want to do, how you react to things, which things to avoid, and which things to gravitate toward. We are drawn to people who have a good understanding of themselves. They tend to know what they can and can't do, and to know where to go if they need help.

8. Interpersonal Intelligence: the ability to understand other people. It's an ability we all need, but is especially important for teachers, clinicians, salespersons, or politicians -- anybody who deals with other people.

9. Existential Intelligence: the ability and proclivity to pose (and ponder) questions about life, death, and ultimate realities.

The key to implementing MI successfully is to design your classroom and the particular lesson so that students are able to participate in learning and understand the material in a variety of ways. Keep the following in mind:

APPLICATIONS OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE IN CLASSROOMS

1. Teaching with MI often necessitates that students work together in groups or on projects that employ many materials. For example, if the lesson plan asks students to work with computers and you do not have enough in your classroom, try to schedule time in the computer lab in advance. If the lesson plan involves drawing or acting, be sure to arrange your classroom so that there is sufficient space and materials.

2. Be prepared not only to encourage collaboration and "thinking outside the box," but also to maintain some control by setting specific boundaries for students. For example, if the assignment calls for the students to work together to develop a presentation, be sure to define exactly how they should work together (perhaps by encouraging them to assign different roles within the group) and what to do if they have trouble cooperating.

3. One "answer" or outcome is not the only acceptable measure of a child's understanding. For example, if your objective is for students to understand the literary elements of a story or novel (e.g., rising action, conflict, climax, etc.), different learners might grasp the concept in different ways. One student might illustrate them through drawing, another might be able to re-create the elements through acting, and yet another might better be able to summarize them in writing.

4. Students need to have a clear understanding of how their work will be evaluated. Be sure to lay out the exact objectives and expectations of your lesson before beginning. Because MI allows for many different means of learning and expression, children need to understand that there may be many different forms of evaluation and that one style of work is not necessarily more demanding or time consuming than another. For example, if a project gives participants a choice between writing and illustrating, the outcomes will obviously be very different, but they may be given the same grade for meeting the same objective.