How to promote divergent thinking?

Divergent thinking is mostly found among people who are curious, willing to take risks and persistent.

Divergent thinking can be cultivated through training alone and these attitudes linger for several weeks after the training is completed.

The most used divergent thinking norms are those of brainstorming: quantity of ideas is wanted, defer evaluation or judgment of ideas till after the session, wild ideas are welcome, combination and improvement of ideas is sought.

Scenario writing also can promote divergent thinking: it can be taught to use the person imaginations to picture some other person going about achieving the chosen goal.

Other values that promote divergent thinking are those that are frequently quoted as values that promote creativity.

With regard to creativity training, two types of materials stood out: lecture and case-based materials. Both of these techniques were effective for promoting general creativity but also for divergent thinking, problem-solving, performance and attitudes towards creativity.
How to promote divergent thinking?

Productive thinking

Productive thinking involves creative transformation or reorganization of a situation that is confused, opaque and incomprehensible into one which makes structural sense and that demonstrate understanding of and insight into the crucial features of the problem situation.

Productive thinking is very often supported by dispositions or habits of mind which take time to develop.

Like other kinds of thinking, productive thinking may become so well practiced as to be taken for granted but when energized by feelings and determination.

Einstein was considered a genius because he believed that problems are not solved by using the same way of thinking and doing that which create the problem in the first place.

He used productive thinking to find new ways to look at old information. This implies asking new kinds of questions instead of looking for answers from old information.
Productive thinking

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is a cognitive activity, associated with using the mind. It is thinking clearly and rationally. Learning to think in critically analytical and evaluate ways means using mental processes such as attention, categorization, selection and judgment.

Wade and Travis in 2008 define critical thinking as the ability to assess claims and make objective judgment on the basis of well supported reasons and evidence rather than emotion and anecdote. Critical thinkers are able to look for flaws in argument and resists claims that have no support.

It involves thinking precisely and systematically, and following the rules of logic and scientific reasoning, among other things. The reasoner requires assisting structures. Eight elements of reasoning define are:
*Purpose of thinking
*Points of view
*Implications & consequences
*Question at issue
*Assumptions
*Evidence
*Concepts
*Inferences & interpretations

The focus of critical thinking is often referred to as the ‘argument’. The argument can be thought of as message that is being conveyed, whether through speech, writing, performance or other media.

Good critical thinking is a cognitive skill. In general, developing a skill requires three conditions – learning the theory, deliberate practice and adopting the right attitudes.
What is critical thinking?

Divergent thinking

Divergent thinking is a process of thinking in which many different ideas or solution are generated from a single idea or problem. This may take a number of directions and also it consists of generation of multiple responses.

It is involves thinking widely; like the light bouncing off a convex mirror bulging outwards, the person thinking spreads out into the universe in all directions.

In divergent thinking there is no single correct response, the value of responses depends upon it suitability, usefulness and meaningfulness.

The search to uncover the root cause problem is considered a divergent thinking process because it requires the application of creativity first to separate symptoms from root problems and then to adequately define the problem in a way that leads to a resolution.

One important characteristics of divergent thinking is that it is closely related to creative behavior and some authors use it in place of creative thinking. Divergent thinking is the central unit in the creative process. Divergent thinking test are often used, though of course they really just estimate the potential for creative thought.
Divergent thinking

Definition of creative thinking

Thinking most generally, any covert cognitive or mental manipulation of ideas, images, symbols, words, propositions, memories, concepts, precepts, beliefs or intentions. Creative thinking is imaginative thinking directed toward innovation. It is based on questions that ask ‘what if’, ‘why’ and ‘why not’; how and how else.

It is the multi-dimensional set of components that lead an individual or a group to the generation of new ideas that have values. It should be noted that the elements of uniqueness of solution and value of results are incorporated into the definition.

Creative thinking is grounded in the consideration of alternatives, possibilities, other ways of imagination and doing things. The key to creative thinking is imagination.

Creative thinking is associated with imagination, innovation, originality, lateral thinking, and divergent thinking.

For a person with some natural creative thinking skills, it naturally occurs even if he or she is not well aware of it.
Definition of creative thinking

Creativity

Creativity
Creativity may be more important than IQ in allowing a Michelangelo or a Mozart to break new ground.

But what is creativity and what do we know about creativity over the life span?

Defining creativity had provoked as much contr0versy as defining intelligence.

However, creativity is often defined as the ability to produce more responses or works.

Moreover, it is enough for these products to be outlandish; they must in some way be appropriate in context or valued by others.

In structure of intellect-model, the expert captured the idea of creativity by proposing that it involves divergent thinking.

Divergent thinking requires coming up with variety of ideas or solutions to a problem when there is no one right answer.

Indeed, the most common measure of creativity, at least in children, is what is called ideational fluency – the sheer number of different, including novel, ideas that one can generate when asked.
Creativity