Wynalda Teaching and Learning Institute

Wynalda Teaching and Learning Institute

“Creative Problem Solving and

Critical Thinking in the Classroom”

Facilitated by:Daniel Rundhaug

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Thinking Free

Thinking Gray

Thinking Gray: “Don’t form an opinion about an important matter until you’ve heard all the relevant facts and arguments, or until circumstances force you to form an opinion without recourse to all the facts (which happens occasionally, but much less frequently than one might imagine)” (Sample, 2002, pp. 7-8).

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Thinking Gray: “Don’t form an opinion about an important matter until you’ve heard all the relevant facts and arguments, or until circumstances force you to form an opinion without recourse to all the facts (which happens occasionally, but much less frequently than one might imagine)” (Sample, 2002, pp. 7-8).

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Form opinions too early and closes our mind to facts and

arguments that may be made later

Flip-Flopping

People tend to believe what they sense is

strongly believed by others

Skeptical ThinkingPlaces everything in the “not true” box

Implied willingness to transfer to “true” box if evidence warrants

Cynicism toward a “skeptic”

Inspiration by a “Doubting Thomas” is unlikely

Gray ThinkingPlaces things in neither the “true”

nor “not true” box

Enthusiastically willing to embrace a new idea as to reject it

Ability to compliment a subordinate for a new idea without indicating the leader believes it to be good or true

or useful

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Thinking Free: “Allow your mind to contemplate really outrageous ideas and only subsequently apply the constraints of practicality, practicability, legality, cost, time and ethics” (Sample, 2002, pp. 12-13).

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“A leader brings a group of people together who share a common goal (e.g. keeping their company afloat in a brutally competitive market), but who have widely varying opinions as to how the goal might best be achieved. The leader asks each person in turn to propose an off-the-wall idea for achieving the goal, with the proviso that every other person in the group must respond with at least two reasons why the idea will work” (Sample, 2002, p. 13).

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Congenital naysayers are among the greatest stumbling blocks to thinking free. Rather than imagining how a new idea might possibly work, they instinctively think of all the reasons why it won’t. What they really do is undermine the creativity that can be harvested from thinking free ” (Sample, 2002, p. 13).

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Qualities of _____Decision Makers

Systematic analysis Knows limitations of decision

making process Seeks true opinion Evaluates risk Happy to change position Not emotional Explores options that may not be

promising initially

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Focuses more on symptoms than facts

Does not learn from experience Does not put his decision into

context Hasty and impatient Decides before analyzing Treats pros and cons equally

17Qualities of _____Decision Makers

Organizing Thoughts… Lists

Key words are obscuredVisually boringDifficult to rememberDifficult to searchRe-reading is time consumingDifficult to make associationsLose concentration

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Organizing Thoughts… Mind Map

Tony Buzan – 1970s

Invented to exploit the extensive visual power of the brain via the large visual cortex

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Basic Ordering

Ideas

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Basic Ordering

Ideas

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Five-Whys

Background:This technique was first popularized by Toyota production systems in the 70s. The technique was developed to find the root of the problems rather than wasting time over examining the symptoms. This type of questioning is closely related to the ‘Ishikawa Diagram’ which aims to find contributing root factors when investigating a problem. This is how it works: When you want to find about a problem, ask 5 questions starting with ‘why’. Based on each answer, probe deeper into the real cause of the problem to learn more.

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Gradients of Agreement 28

What We’ve Covered

Creativity and InnovationThinking Gray / Thinking FreeMind MappingPaired Comparison AnalysisForce Field AnalysisFive-WhysGradients of Agreement

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Wynalda Teaching and Learning Institute

Documents

Transcript of Wynalda Teaching and Learning Institute