Critical and Creative Thinking

Critical and creative thinking are fundamental to human intellectual progress and artifacts thereof (Dewey, Elder, Csikszentmihalyi, Rosenman, & Gero, 2012). Critical and creative thinking are considered higher levels of thought because while it is believed that critical thinker primarily uses the left-brain and a creative thinker primarily uses the right-brain, both types of thinkers tend to think outside the box, but in different ways. There is no direct link between critical and creative thinking, but they each have different dimensions of thought that are used. Critical thinking is convergent thinking, creative thinking is divergent thinking.

Critical thinking is a process used when reflecting and judging ideas and efforts, whether they be our own or others. Critical thinkers generally think outside the given and beyond the obvious in order to look deeper into thoughts and ideas in an effort to better analyze and understand them. Critical thinkers are logical in thought, while at the same time utilize the ability to make strong conclusions. Critical thinking involves examining possibilities carefully, fairly, and constructively—focusing your thoughts and actions by organizing and analyzing possibilities, refining and developing the most promising possibilities, ranking or prioritizing options, and choosing certain options (Treffinger, 2008). Critical thinkers assess, classify, interpret, identify and categorize during their thought process.

Creative thinking is a process is one that is more mental than logical. Creative people make more use of their mental raw material and practice less intellectual regulation (Baumgartner, 2013). In the creative thinking process, there is a lack of seriousness and more playfulness during ...

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...ving in a bigger city.

2. What kind of fun can I have?

3. How does the city I am currently living in differ from the city I am moving to?

In conclusion, critical and creative thinking can be used separately or collaboratively, depending on the situation or decision that is being made. Some people by nature are critical thinkers and rarely use the creative thinking process, while the same applies for creative thinkers in rarely using the critical thinking process. I used both collaboratively in order to make an important decision to move from one state to another, but it these methods of thinking/reasoning can be used in a vast variety of ways and methods. Critical thinking is the skills needed to see parallels, comprehend intersections, identify problems, and develop sustainable solutions… while creative thinking is how ideas are defined (Burgess, 2010).