MY SELF REFLECTION

CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING

          Before I start, have you ever wondered what is critical? What is creative? What does the relationship between critical and creative? Why some people being critical and creative thinker and some not? Why we must have these skills? Do we need both skills actually? There are many questions, right? I assume that all of you have no ideas about these and also do not know the meaning itself. Let me begin with definition one by one.

The Definition:

• Creative Thinking

          Creative thinking means looking at something in a new way. In other words, it is “thinking outside the box”. Creativity in this sense involves discovery of new ideas or concepts what is called lateral thinking, or the ability to perceive patterns that are not obvious. For example, have you ever heard about the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes? He uses lateral thinking in one famous story when he realizes that a dog not barking is an important clue in a murder case. What’s happen to the dog after that? Google it yourself. (Doyle, 2019)

• Critical Thinking

          Critical thinking means the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. It involves the evaluation of sources, such as data, facts, observable phenomena, and research findings. (Doyle, 2019) This means that if I have critical thinking, I can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information, and discriminate between useful and less useful data for problem solving or decision-making.

          So, have you guys understood what I’m trying to say? No? In a nutshell, there is a correlation between critical and creative. We need both. I need both. You also need both. Here’s the question, are you creative? Yes! I would say that because I always have plan B after plan A. I can think for another alternative solution of any problem except for submitting my assignment earlier. Nah, just kidding. For every situation, if we can find a solution, then we are creative.

• Life Before Entering the University

          Are you guys ready? I’m going to start my fairy tale before and after I enter the university. My life before entering the university have been very complete and satisfying. I don’t need to think about how to get the food, how to manage my time, and when I want to fold my clothes because all these things have been managed by my queen – mother.  I don’t need to use logical thought and even offer the best solution as my mother do the job. Sounds like a lazy bump but I’ve been spoiling enough. Actually, I do develop critical and creative thinking before entering University Technology of Malaysia (UTM). I give you an example, once upon a time, my clothes couldn’t fit anymore in the closet. There were too many clothes and I didn’t know where to put them. My room looked like I’m selling bundle clothes.

          I started to think critically, I hated mess very much so I must find way to make sure the clothes were put neatly. Suddenly, the bulb of idea lighted up. I took some nails and a hammer from my dad. I searched for a long hard pole, then I measured it with my room’s length. After I got the suitable place to put the pole, I started to knock the nails using a hammer. Finally, I can hang my clothes using a hanger. Brilliant! That is how I end up proud of myself. Based on 10 characteristics of creative people, I am proud and modest (Cherry, 2019). This is because I tend to be proud of my own achievements and accomplishments, yet I’m also aware of my place. As you can see that, there are actually a lot of furniture out there that have been designed to hang the clothes but I’m still proud because I’m using my own mind to generate the idea of problem-solving and use my own energy to finish the job.

• Life After Entering the University

          Back to our topic, how I’m using these skills, critical and creative thinking in order to survive in the university? I can’t imagine how my live would be as a university student because this is my first time staying far away from my family. No more mom’s dishes, no more companion when I can’t sleep at night and no more free washing machine. Can you imagine how far is Terengganu and Johor Bahru? It takes about 12 hours for me to reach UTM from Terengganu. At that moment, I only hope that I can survive well.

          Critical thinking is when you can think with “heart” and you can think with rational judgment (Success, 2016) which is means I can differentiate between what are good and bad for me. For example, starting my studies in the university without applying PTPTN at all is really challenging. I need to manage my account well to avoid money problem. The problems slowly occur when my friend asked me out to watch a movie at the cinema – Frozen 2. However, I have to oppose the invitation because I don’t have enough money on that month. I’ve thought about this problem critically and if I follow her, my allowance for that month will be finished. I’ll be in hunger soon. That is why in my opinion, critical thinking does relate with self-instinct. When you feel it is not good for you then don’t do it.

          During lecture session, I have to do a lot of group discussion with my team mates. We were asked to discuss about some topics related to our syllabus and then do the presentation. At the same time, my classmates and I actually are being creative. The reasons are we are being trained to be creative by brainstorming idea from different viewpoints or perspectives and respond to it in a variety of categories. Each person has different opinion and view so we compile them together and think about magnificent solutions for the problems. After that, I also use elaboration strategy in order to make sure my idea is creative. I try to expand the idea to be a little more specific and add some examples to make sure everyone understands it. Besides, I often been trained in class by certain lecturer to do the task using a mind map to capture ideas and creates pictures or drawings on an A3 paper of different key points to show them in different way.

I think that’s all from me for the self-reflection. I hope that my creativity doesn’t stop here in the university and can be polished from time to time for the rest of my life. Thank you.

REFERENCES

Cherry, K. (2019, November 01). 10 Characteristics of Creative People. Retrieved from Verywellmind: https://www.verywellmind.com/characteristics-of-creative-people-2795488

Doyle, A. (2019, October 06). Critical Thinking Definition, Skills and Examples. Retrieved from The Balance Careers: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/critical-thinking-definition-with-examples-2063745

Success, L. C. (2016, February 16). Critical Thinking Skills. Retrieved from Lumen College Success: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/lumencollegesuccessxtraining2/chapter/critical-thinking-skills/