CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING

            Many people assume as creative and critical thinking are the same but these are different things. Based on what I have learned, creative thinking is an ability to create something fresh and new. Creative thinking also can be defined as “thinking outside the box” in which the people can look at something in a different view from other people. They also can come up with attractive thinking with spontaneous. Many people think as people with creative thinking is more to artistic tasks such as painting, writing novel and many else. Actually, not all people with creative thinking just able to do artistic tasks but also every kind of task.

Furthermore, I learned that people with creative thinking have their characteristics and personality. They tend to curious about everything around them and always ask questions such as what if? Why not? They can come up with many kinds of interesting ideas in different kind of perspective. They also are open-minded about everything. Moreover, creative thinker has a playful attitude and also very focused. For example, they tend to focused thinking on things that hold their interest. From what I learned, creative thinkers also either introvert or extrovert. They stand quietly but think a lot and have many interesting ideas or plans.

            Creative people do not have to have a high IQ because IQ is not correlated with creative thinking. Some people naturally have high of creativity in thinking but I learned that creative thinking can be developed by practice. When I furthered my study in form 6 which was near my house, I took ICT subject and art. At first, I was not confident in taking art subjects because I do not know how to paint and also I am not a creative thinker to come up with interesting ideas. Time to time, with more practice and support from my art teachers, I successfully finished and get an A for my art project. Then I realized that creative thinking can be developed with an effort to practice. I still train myself to be a creative thinker until I get into the university.

After l learned creative thinking topics, I realized that other than critical thinking, creative thinking also important in the education of university life. For example, there are group assignments that require me and my group members to create a video related to the topic given. Creative thinking is needed to produce new ideas in order to make the video interesting and to deliver the information successfully. Other than that, creativity is also needed to make interesting slides for presentation to attract the audiences. Notes like mind maps also used creativity to make it interesting to read. As we know, students do not like to read if the note if boring and full of words. Even I like to make interesting and colorful notes.

In university, creative thinking is important in problem-solving. The problem will be looked at in different perspective and naturally develop solutions. According to research stated about the three components of creative problem-solving which are understanding problems, generating ideas and planning for action in problem-solving. All these components require university students to use creative thinking especially generating ideas where students develop many ideas and alternative methods in problem solving (Fan Ray Kuo, 2013). Moreover, creative problem-solving strategies have been proved to be effective in learning performance.

Other than creative thinking, critical thinking is also important. What is critical thinking? Based on what I have learned, critical thinking is the ability to analyze information and make a reasoned decision or judgment. Most of our everyday activities required us to use basic skills of critical thinking such as deciding whether to believe or not about something. Critical thinking including the process of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. People who are critical thinkers always open-minded and always observe their surroundings. They also tend to think about what, why, when and how about something that holds their interest.

In my opinion, critical thinking also can be developed by practice. We must be able to think critically about the information that we get especially as university students. I realize the importance of critical thinking in education and I teach myself to be a critical thinker since high school and till now in university. As a university student, I teach myself to always think seriously when I get a piece of information and also to make decisions or judgment. For instance, I teach myself to search from much sources in order to get many information. By doing that, I become more understanding of the information that I learned in class. It sure helps me a lot in my study and my thinking ability.

Moreover, as a university student, we must be able to think critically to success. Critical thinking in university can be related to student education. Students who critical thinkers can easily interpret data, evaluate information and be able to make an argument. Critical thinking also allows students to apply in life about what they have learned instead of only remembering and later forgetting them.  For example, students can observe and explain the concept easily with their understanding. The students who just remembering what they learned without applying it in life have tendency to experience memory failures including decay, interference and also cue-dependent forgetting (Feldman, 2020). This shows that critical thinking is a very important key to achieve success.

University students also required to use their critical thinking when writing their assignments. Students with bad attitudes like to plagiarism from many sources such as the internet and even from their friends. Plagiarism is a wrong action which is cannot be followed by students in university. Furthermore, note-taking is also required students to use critical thinking. For instance, students who critical thinkers can take and make good notes for themselves according to their understanding. This example shows critical thinking has a strong relation to university life.

In conclusion, there is much information about creative and critical thinking that I can use in my life in order to be a successful person. Creative and critical thinking can be developed by our effort by practicing. It is necessary in university life for learning, note-making, presentation, problem-solving and many else. So, creative and critical thinking is not only important for university life but it also important in our daily life especially when we start working in the future.

References

Fan Ray Kuo, N. S. (2013). A creative thinking approach to enhancing the web-based problem solving performance of university student. Computers and Education, 220-230.

Feldman, R. S. (2020). Thinking: Memory, Cognition, and Language. In R. S. Feldman, Psychology and Your Life (p. 223). New York: Mc Graw Hill Education.