RESEARCH PAPER Sunil P.

Gaikwad

Importance of Creative thinking at Secondary Level

Abstract :

Twenty-first centuries need students to be more creative, innovative and more

confident and they should use critical thinking purposely. In order to engage learners in
critical thinking, teachers played a role of facilitator and learners should be allowed to
debate and discuss communicative skill activities in the classroom. It helps students to
learn appropriate responses to thinking skill activities.

New curriculum has been introduced at Secondary level to enable the students for
creativity and prepare them to think critically to solve textual activities. Thinking skill,
questioning, comparing, personal responses, discussions and puzzles are the activities to
develop critical thinking skills and understandings of the learners. The primary purpose of
the education is to impart of content-knowledge and to develop thinking skill that helped
students to take a decision in a critical situation.

Our education failed to produce critical thinkers, as we dont prepare our students
to express their experiences, views and ideas through their writing skills. Traditional
education emphasized on collecting information to pass the written examination and such
education didnt allow learners to think independently and create new ideas.

This paper deals with the importance of critical thinking in problem solving
activities

Key words - Critical thinking

Critical Thinking:

The term of critical thinking has been defined in articles as follows,

Critical thinking comprises the mental process, strategies, and

representations people use to solve problems, make decisions
and learn new concepts.
[Sternberg, 1986:3]
Critical thinking consists of seeing both sides of an issue, being
open to new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning
dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence,
deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving
problems and so forth.
[Willingham, 2007:8]
Critical thinking is a process of reasoning to detect the truth. It is
that mode of thinking- about any subject, content or problem, in
which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by
skillfully analyzing, assessing and reconstructing it. Critical thinking
is self directed, self-corrective thinking.
[www.robinwood.com]
Critical thinking is the mental process to be used to make decisions and learn new
concepts. It demanded evidence from the available facts to solve problems. It is also
helpful to detect the truth and it is a way of thinking about the topics, content and
problems which improves the quality of thinking by analyzing and evaluating.
It is expected that learners should be taught to make better judgments, think logically and
critically through the textual activities.
Importance of Critical thinking :
Critical thinking is a term that is given much discussion without much action. It is
not focused because learners wanted more score on assessments. But it is the most
significant part of the curriculum. The importance of the Critical thinking has been
described by Joe Y.F.Lau, in An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity: Think
More, Think Better, as follows;
The idea that we should think critically might seem downright
boring, and yet we should not underestimate the power of critical
 thinking. It requires having the discipline to reflect on the reasons
for our actions, and this is very important if we want to improve
ourselves and become more successful.
[2011:7]
Purpose of Critical Thinking:
The main purpose of critical thinking is to reach at the truth that is an ideal. We
often lose track of ideals, as they are crowded out by other things. We also need to be
aware of our own paradigms. Most of us live in a comfort zone of mind in which we used
to think and the way, we used to behave. Students should examine every thing, they do and
think and figure out why do they do certain things and think it. It is said that we should
keep our brain with us all the times and we should have courage to confess that we have
been wrong, if we want to be right. People respond quickly when crises arise in their
personal life.
Educational tradition of Critical Thinking :
Educational theories of Bloom (1965), Gagne (1965), Perkins (1981) and Renzulli
(1976) related to the skills needed by learners in the classroom for problem solving,
conceptual learning and decision making. It is the great advantage of these educational
theories of being closely tied to classroom experiences and observations.
New Curriculum and Critical Thinking:
Activity-based syllabus has been introduced through new curriculum which is
based upon the principle that each learner constructs his or her own knowledge on the
basis of his own meaning as per his own experiences. It says that knowledge is
constructed; it cannot be delivered or given to others by thinking power. Constructivism
theory believed that every learner build his own knowledge by his own experiences. It
can be said that students learn by seeing and doing activities. They should be given
opportunities to express themselves. Unless learners have critical thinking ability, they
wont be able to perform textual activities.

It is not possible for all the students to participate in the classroom activities, as
they lack the skill of critical thinking. They could not share their own ideas, as they dont
think themselves on any particular topic. Each text begins with thinking skill activities
and it is expected that learners should respond them with the help of their experiences.
Actually these activities need more time, but students are not given enough time to think.
Teachers have to either skipped these activities or solved without the help learners, as
they dont get proper responses. Critical thinking skills are not developed through
activities at secondary level because each time teacher prompts in the thinking skill
activities.

Is it really necessary to teach critical thinking to students? The researcher doesnt

think it necessary, as it is a skill like a bicycle riding and other skills. Once it is learnt, it
can be applied in any situation. The process of thinking is related with the content of
thoughts and it can be possible only when the students observe any issue from multiple
perspectives. Without the background knowledge and practice, it is not possible to teach
them how they should think.

Traditional education couldnt produce effective thinkers from high schools and
colleges because it depended on the memorization of students. There is no space for rote
memory in constructivist approach.

Critical thinking ability depends on proper knowledge of the content, so, it cannot
be developed with little knowing of the topics, and problem solving activities cant be
solved with it. Written skill activities evaluated thinking power of the learners. It is
expected that students should use proper themes and conversation using their own
experiences to prepare a composition. As the learners are learning with new approach,
they share their own ideas in the group or with a friend in a pair work. Lack of thinking
power makes them incompetent in using their experiences in written composition as well
oral communication. They are unable to formulate thoughts properly, so they skip textual
activities like dialogue wiring, role play and imagination activities.

The main goal of the critical thinking is to regulate the thinking process of learners
and they should be encouraged to look at both sides of the topics. Proficiency of
language cannot be achieved by teaching content only, but it depends on the skills of a
teachers.

There is no better example of knowledge in driving critical thinking than Sherlock

Holmes. His first encounter with Dr. Watson has been introduced in the text. He was
astonished by the thinking power of Holmes. On replying the question of Dr. Watson, on
his critical thinking power in Dr. Watson with Sherlock Holmes, Holmes said,
Quite so, he answered, throwing himself down into an
 armchair. You see, but you do not observe. The distinction
is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps lead
up from the hall to his room. You have not observed. And yet
you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there
are seventeen steps because I have both seen and observed.
[2007:111]
He explained his thought process in the extract and told Dr. Watson that it is very
simple to deduce with thinking power. Without deep observation, it is not possible to
develop critical thinking power of learners. Students can be taught it by giving them
opportunities to do classroom activities and teaching them to ask questions. Textual
concepts should be introduced by drawing the experiences of students regarding to the
topic.
Conclusion :
There is no set of critical thinking which can be acquired like other skills. The
ability to think critically depends on the knowledge of concerned subject or topic. The
situation is not hopeful, but its not easy to teach students to think critically. Only critical
thinkers can manage difficult situation in the future and it will also make our education
enjoyable.
REFERENCES

1. Lau, Joe,Y.F., An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity : Think More, Think
Better, New Jersey, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication, 2011.

2. Irani, Samannaz, Dr. Lalita Vartak and others (eds.), My English Book, Eight, Pune,
Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum and Research,
2007.

3. Sternberg, R.J., Critical thinking: Its Nature, Measurement and Improvement,

National Institute of Education, retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/PDF/ED272882.pdf

4. Willingham D.T., Critical thinking: Why is it so hard to teach? American Educator, 8-

9, 2007
5. http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/our-concept-and-definition-of-critical- thinking/
411,pg-1, acc. on 7th Dec.2016.