Thinking skills How well is Your Mind Developed

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Thinking skillsHow well is Your Mind Developed
Stuart Pedley-Smith
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Contents

• Thinking creatively
• Traditional view
• Creative view
• Thinking is a skill
• Interested?

When I examine myself and my methods of thought,
I come to the conclusion that the flight of
fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for
absorbing positive knowledge." Albert Einstein
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Thinking creatively
To pass the TOPCIMA you have to think!!!!!!!!!!
Think creatively Much of the thinking done in
formal education emphasizes the skills of
analysis and logic The traditional view
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How many squares?




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Traditional thinking

• Follow or create a logical argument, figure out
  the answer, eliminate the incorrect paths and
  focus on the correct one.
• Western thinking is determined by What is
• Which is determined by
• Analysis
• Judgement and
• Argument.

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Lateral thinking

• The man in the Elevator
• A man lives on the tenth floor of a building.
  Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the
  ground floor to go to work or to go shopping.
  When he returns he takes the elevator to the
  seventh floor and walks up the stairs to reach
  his apartment on the tenth floor. He hates
  walking so why does he do it?

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The gang of three
The so called gang of three have had a major
effect on traditional thinking styles
Socrates Art of critique Plato Subjective
experience Aristotle Put ideas in boxs
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The creative view

• However, there is another kind of thinking, one
  that focuses on exploring ideas, generating
  possibilities, looking for many right answers
  rather than just one. Designing a way forward.
• Consider what can be?
• Both of these kinds of thinking are vital to a
  successful working life, yet the latter one tends
  to be ignored until after college.

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Theres profit in these
Profiterole
Dont read this
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Thinking is a skill

• If intelligence is the horsepower of the car
  then thinking is the skill of the driver
• The performance of the car does not depend upon
  the horsepower but upon the skill of the driver
• Edward de Bono

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Thinking is a skill

• In an activity like problem solving, both kinds
  of thinking are important to us.
• First, we must
• Analyse the problemGenerate possible
  solutionsChoose and implement the best
  solutionEvaluate the effectiveness of the
  solution

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Thinking is a skill

• As you can see, this process reveals an
  alternation between the two kinds of thinking,
  critical and creative.
• In practice, both kinds of thinking operate
  together much of the time and are not really
  independent of each other

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How many squares now?