Effective Thinking Process - Assignment Example

Introduction The paper herein reflects on the thinking process and the systems that enhance effective thinking. There is interconnectivity between success and thinking and people attain it not on the way they work but by their ability to think. The brain is sub-divided into two halves each endowed with different functionalities. These functions contribute differently to the process of creativity, but it is their wholesome working mechanism that completes thought process. People who actively and passionately engage in thinking are better placed members in society to see the world at a broader perspective. They end up understanding the complexities of systems at their disposal and the community at large and develop a response mechanism to achieve under those circumstances. The teaching fraternity has an immense duty to develop thinking skills among young learners and enable them to view the world from a different perspective. This involves promoting the aspect of thinking outside the box and non-compliance to status quo. Learning institutions should adopt learning techniques that encourage thinking rather than mastering formulae and concepts. Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education is an example of a teaching approach that focuses on cognitive development of the learner. That is done by exposing the student to activities that accelerate progress towards higher order thinking skills. Workshop 1 - Story for Web 2012 The desire to improve systems and work practices triggers mind to imagine something new. This is the spirit of adding value to existing designs through manipulation of ideas. The process involves looking at what is available and out of one is able to change, combine or revise the existing ideas to come up with something that others have never thought of. Creativity has been reported by research studies to be rifle at early ages, and becomes seemingly suppressed by education. It is, however, possible for people to remain creative even after education but need to be reawakened. The most important ingredient to creativity is having commitment for it and being able to direct efforts towards it. The process of innovation begins with dissatisfaction of rejection of current system of doing things. In the spirit of promoting efficiency one accepts and gets ready for change and newness. A creative person always believes that there could be a better way of doing something and engages his/her brain towards crafting one. To succeed in creativity one needs to perceive it as being more of fun than a formal undertaking. Many people who have succeeded in mobile application contend that they started their initiatives out of having fun or simply results of time spent on their hobbies. Crafting something new takes a long process involving making gradual but consistent alterations to the existing models, until finally a new design comes into being. More usually than not, the work of creativity do not result from a single stroke of brilliance. It follows therefore, that persistence is key to creativity. One would require perceiving creativity as a long term orientation so as to allow enough time for changes to happen and information to be analyzed in different contexts before a valuable idea comes into being. Workshop 2 - Mind mapping Under mind mapping situations are represented using maps that are either manually or computer generated. They allow for new representation of complex situations. The decision maker or somebody analyzing the situation is better placed to view the situation from a simplified version of the original context. The main points are enhanced while not losing sight of the details. Mind mapping is a development from the traditional narrative style that had a lot of exaggerated details and the reader could easily lose focus and get difficulties getting the main idea. The other traditional systems – list style and outline style suffered the same problem of difficulty in getting the main points. For instance, a judge who wants to understand the interrelationship of extended family members in a succession case would find complicated when the information is presented as a narrative. He/she can simplify his/her work by representing it in a mind map. There are negative attitudes that block creativity. One such way is to deny the existence of a problem. Optimistic creative people view problems as opportunities to test their creative capabilities. A problem could be existing in the mind of a creative person alone; where he sees flaws in current methods of doing something and undertakes to devise an improved version. There other negative notion to creativity is the perception that something cannot be done. This notion kills the zeal to engage brains. Reluctant people like simplifying issues by simply concluding that it is impossible or out of human power to do them. Some generally undermine their capabilities by asserting that, they lack what it takes to do them. Fear of failure also limits creativity. Creativity involves taking calculated risks and taking chances. Too much attention to perfection does not help the process of creativity. Some would simply fail because they declare success too soon or succumb to failure too early. Workshop 3 - The Marshmallow Challenge The concern in this regard is a brain teaser where a tower is to be created out of very weak components. The intention is to exemplify how situations that seem pathetic can be converted into something of value. The tower is to be designed out of twenty stick of spaghetti; sello tape; ball of string and one marshmallow. A reward is placed for the tallest tower created. How well ideas can be combined determines how tall the tower goes. The trick is systematic combination of ideas to generate a solution to a sensitive problem. In a thrilling experience students organized themselves into groups and took the Marshmallow Challenge. Our group lost in finals. Exceptional planning of the winning group was attributed to their success. It was also found to be purely a work of brain rather than hands on practice. Workshop 4 – Mind maps to rich Pictures This involves a concern for developing an individual’s ability to coordinate multiple tasks or make decisions that are influence by numerous forces. The rationale is that decision making and situation analysing are all components of so many variables. When one is confronted with a complex situation, the challenge is usually to serve the needs of various parties who have a stake in the outcome of the situation or are affected by the outcome. These needs are usually contrasting and hence compete for attention. The role of the individual is to strike a balance between the competing needs of the various forces. The ability to effectively handle complex situations is an aspect of design power. This is the capability to align affairs such that the situation is expressed in broader terms while remaining sensitive to the unique requirements of each variable. It is due to this that thinkers came up with the concept of rich pictures. The role of rich pictures is to enable the person who is faced with a complex situation to highlight the important points of the situation. Situations are represented in pictorial form. The rationale is that analysis becomes much simplified when the most important points are enhanced as opposed to when the scenario is expressed in narrative form. Under the former system the main points are distinguishable and it becomes easier to remember them and consequently incorporate them in analyzing the situation. The effectiveness with handling complex situations is dependent on one’s formal operational thinking which is a function of the ability to hold a number of variables in mind at the same time. Workshop 5 - De bonos 6 thinking hats The six thinking hats reflect on the power of brainstorming and group decision making. Thinking process is enhanced by combining ideas and viewing the scenario form different perspectives. Collaboration of efforts enables all aspects of the matter to be incorporated since different minds have different orientation. In other words, an eagle’s eye for detail results whenever a matter is brought to group analysis. The individual members’ competences in decision making and situation analysis is also enhanced through learning how to think in parallel with colleagues. In the final end, creativity is improved. Blue hat is all about design of the thought process. How things would follow one another. It is a concern for the course of action or the road to success. It’s a strategic planner of ideas, events and thoughts and arranging them in a manner to yield meaningful results. White hat focuses on objective evidence that can justify some form of reasoning. The decision making is not made according to anticipated convenience but on reasoned experience. The application of thought would be empty without evidence to back it up. Black hat looks at the negative impacts of an idea. A devil advocate would best play this role by trying to evaluate all barriers that could hamper idea development. Yellow hat works the opposite by looking at the benefits that accrue to an idea. Green hat has a focus on creativity. It’s a concern or generation of many alternatives to suit a certain set of circumstances. It is founded on the reasoning that the best decisions could be realized by coming up with numerous options and selecting the best of them. The group members open their minds to new possibilities and engage in being creative and innovative. References Leo, EL & Galloway, D 1995, ‘Conceptual links between cognitive acceleration through science education and motivational style: a critique of Shayer and Adey,’ International Journal of Science Education, Vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 35–49. Epstein, H.T. 1990. Stages in human mental growth , Journal of educational psychology Vol. 82, pp. 876–880. Appendices Six slides in power point format Read More