Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
CAROLINA P. SANTILLANA, Ed.D.
The Nature of Thinking
THINKING – the most complex of human activities
Primary Concern: What can be done to help students think
more clearly and solve problems more efficiently?
Thinking may be considered as mental activity that is essential
to learning most outcomes. Although learning evolves from
thinking, thinking itself is as complex as learning.
REFLECTIVE THINKING
Dewey (1933) identified 5 phases or aspects of
reflective thinking:
2. Suggestions, in which the mind leaps forward to
possible solution;
3. An intellectualization of the difficulty or perplexity
that has been felt into a problem to be solved, a
question for which the answer must be sought;
Reflective Thinking (cont’d.)
1. The use of one suggestion after another as a
leading idea, or hypothesis, to initiate and guide
observation and other operations in the collection
of factual materials;
2. The mental elaboration of the idea or supposition;
and
3. Testing the hypothesis by overt or imaginative
action.
PRODUCTIVE THINKING
Wertheimer (1945) summarized his ideas about productive
thinking:
… in the desire to get a real understanding, requestioning and
investigation start. A certain region in the field becomes
crucial, is focused; but does not become isolated.
A new, deeper structural view of the situation develops,
involving changes in the functional meaning, the grouping
etc., of the items.
Productive Thinking (cont’d.)
Directed by what is required by the structure of a
situation for a crucial region, one is led to a
reasonable prediction, which – like the other parts
of the structure – calls for verification, direct or
indirect.
CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT
THINKING
Although Dewey and Wertheimer treated thinking
as processes and did not specify the content of
thought, Guilford (1959) differentiated among
contents, products, and operations. He proposed
five intellectual operations, including convergent
and divergent production.
Convergent and Divergent Thinking
(cont’d.)
Guilford wrote:
Cognition means discovery or rediscovery or recognition.
Memory means retention of what is cognized. Two kinds of
productive thinking operations generate new information
from known information and remembered information. In
divergent thinking operations we think in different
directions, sometimes searching, sometimes seeking
variety.
Convergent and Divergent Thinking
(cont’d.)
In convergent thinking the information leads to one
right answer or to a recognized best or conventional
answer. In evaluation we reach decisions as to
goodness, correctness, suitability or adequacy of
what we know, what we remember, and what we
produce in productive thinking.
CRITICAL THINKING
Conceived as “the correct assessing of statements”. (R.H. Ennis,
1962)
A critical thinker is characterized by proficiency in judging whether:
3. A statement follows from the premises.
4. Something is an assumption.
5. An observation statement is reliable.
6. A simple generalization is warranted.
7. A hypothesis is warranted.
8. A theory is warranted.
9. An argument depends on an ambiguity.
10. A statement is overvague or overspecific.
11. An alleged authority is reliable.
Critical Thinking (cont’d.)
Lipman (1984) distinguishes between ordinary
thinking and critical thinking. Ordinary thinking is
simple and lacks standards; critical thinking is more
complex and is based on standards of objectivity,
utility, or consistency.
Critical Thinking (cont’d.)
Lipman wants teachers to help students change from:
Guessing to estimating
Preferring to evaluating
Grouping to classifying
Believing to assuming
Inferring to inferring logically
Associating concepts to grasping principles
Noting relationships to noting relationships among relationships
Supposing to hypothesizing
Offering opinions without reasons to offering opinions with reasons
From making judgments without criteria to making judgments with criteria.
Critical Thinking (cont’d.)
Sternberg (1984) points to three categories of components
of critical thinking:
2. Metacomponents – high order mental processes used to
plan, monitor, and evaluate what the individual is doing,
3. Performance components – the actual steps the
individual takes, and
4. Knowledgeacquisition components – processes used to
relate old material to new material and to apply new
material.
Critical Thinkers
Ennis (1985) identifies 13 attributes to critical thinkers:
open minded
seek information
take a position (or change a position) when the evidence calls for it
take into account the entire situation
seek precision in information
deal in an orderly manner with parts of a complex whole
look for options
search for reasons
seek a clear statement of the issue
keep the original problem in mind
use credible sources
remain relevant to the point
sensitive to the feelings and knowledge level for others
CREATIVE THINKING
Creativity (Mackinnon, 1962) is a process
extended in time and characterized by:
originality,
adaptiveness, and
realization.
Creative Thinking (cont’d.)
Steinberg (1986) identified 6 attributes associated with
creativity:
2. Lack of conventionality
3. Intellectuality
4. Esthetic taste and imagination
5. Decisionmaking skills and flexibility
6. Perspicacity (in questioning social norms), and
7. Drive for accomplishment and recognition
Creative Thinking (cont’d.)
Erich Fromm (1959) defines the creative attitude
as the willingness to be puzzled (to orient oneself to
something without frustration), the ability to
concentrate, the ability to experience oneself as a
true originator of one’s acts, and the willingness to
accept the conflict and tension caused by the lack
of tolerance for creative ideas.
LEVELS OF THINKING
Taba (1965) proposed the following levels of thinking:
Concept Formation – In its simplest form,
concept development may be described as
consisting of three processes or operations:
differentiation of the properties or characteristics of
objects and events, grouping, and categorizing and
labeling.
Levels of Thinking (cont’d.)
Interpretation of Data and Inference – This
cognitive task consists of evolving generalizations and
principles from analysis of concrete data.
The first subprocess and the simplest is that of identifying
specific points in the data.
The second process is that of explaining specific items or
events.
The third operation is that of forming inferences which go
beyond that which is directly given.
Levels of Thinking (cont’d.)
Application of Principles – A third cognitive task is
that of applying known principles and facts to explain new
phenomena or to predict consequences from known
conditions. This cognitive task requires essentially two
different operations:
2. Predicting and hypothesizing
3. Developing informational or logical parameters which
constitute the causal links between the conditions and the
prediction