Chapter 8: Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, & Creative Thinking

It is impossible to live a life that’s free of problems. Besides, problems serve a purpose. They provide opportunities to participate in life. Problems stimulate us and pull us forward. 

Seen from this perspective, our goal becomes not to eliminate problems but to find problems that are worthy of us. Worthy problems are those that challenge us to think, consider our values, and define our goals. Solving the biggest problems offers the greatest potential benefits for others and ourselves. Engaging with big problems changes us for the better. Bigger problems give more meaning to our lives. 

Problems expand to fill whatever space is available. Suppose that your only problem for today is to write a thank-you letter to a job interviewer. You could spend the entire day thinking about what you’re going to say, writing the letter, finding a stamp, going to the post office—and then thinking about all of the things you forgot to say. 

Now suppose that you get a phone call with an urgent message: A close friend has been admitted to the hospital and wants you to come right away. It’s amazing how quickly and easily that letter can get finished when there’s a bigger problem on your plate. 

True, the smaller problems that enter our lives still need to be solved. The goal is simply to solve them in less time and with less energy. 

Bigger problems are easy to find—world hunger, child abuse, environmental pollution, terrorism, human rights violations, drug abuse, street crime, energy shortages, poverty, and wars. These problems await your attention and involvement. 

Tackling a bigger problem does not have to be depressing. In fact, it can be energizing—a reason for getting up in the morning. A huge project can channel your passion and purpose. 

When we take on a bigger problem, we play full out. We do justice to our potentials. We start to love what we do and do what we love. We’re awake, alert, and engaged. Playing full out means living our lives as if our lives depended on it. 

Perhaps a little voice in your mind is saying, “That’s crazy. I can’t do anything about global problems.” In the spirit of critical thinking, put that idea to the test. Get involved in solving a bigger problem. Then notice the difference that you can make. And just as important, notice how your other problems dwindle—or even vanish. 

In this module, you will learn about ways to develop your critical and creative thinking skills, which will help you take on life’s problems with confidence. 

Society depends on persuasion. We are flooded with content from TV, radio, magazines, books, billboards, and the Internet. This leaves us with hundreds of choices about what to buy, where to go, 

and who to be. It’s easy to lose our heads in the cross-current of competing ideas—unless we develop skills in critical thinking. When we think critically, we can make choices with open eyes. 

It has been said that human beings are rational creatures.  

Yet no one is born as an effective thinker. Critical thinking is a learned skill. This is one reason that you study so many subjects in higher education—math, science, history, psychology, literature, and more. A broad base of courses helps you develop as a thinker. You see how people with different viewpoints arrive at conclusions, make decisions, and solve problems. This gives you a foundation for dealing with complex challenges in your career, your relationships, and your community. 

Creative thinking often involves analyzing an idea into parts and then combining those parts in a new way. Another source of creativity is taking several ideas and finding an unexpected connection among them. In either case, you are thinking at a very high level. You are going beyond agreement and disagreement to offer something unique—an original contribution of your own. 

Critical and creative thinking are exciting. The potential rewards are many, and the stakes are high. Your major decisions in life—from choosing a major to choosing a career—depend on your skills at critical and creative thinking. 

Use the suggestions in this module to claim the thinking powers that are your birthright. The critical thinker is one aspect of the successful student who lives inside you. 

Successful students are critical thinkers. But why does that matter? Seeing yourself as a critical thinker offers many benefits.  

Critical thinking frees us from nonsense. Novelist Ernest Hemingway once said that anyone who wants to be a great writer must have a built-in, shockproof “crap” detector (Rees Cheney 1990). That inelegant comment points to a basic truth: As critical thinkers, we are constantly on the lookout for thinking that’s inaccurate, sloppy, or misleading. 

Critical thinking is a skill that will never go out of style. At various times in human history, nonsense has been taken for the truth. For example, people have believed the following: 

• Illness results from an imbalance in the four vital fluids: blood, phlegm, water, and bile. 
• Racial integration of the armed forces will lead to the destruction of soldiers’ morale. 
• Women are incapable of voting intelligently. 
• People will never invent anything smaller than a transistor. (This was before the computer chip.) 

Critical thinkers in history arose to challenge short-sighted ideas such as these listed. These courageous men and women held their peers to higher standards of critical thinking. 

Critical thinking frees us from self-deception. Critical thinking is a path to freedom from halftruths and deception. You have the right to question everything that you see, hear, and read. Acquiring this ability is a major goal of a college education. 

One of the reasons that critical thinking is so challenging—and so rewarding—is that we have a remarkable capacity to fool ourselves. Some of our ill-formed thoughts and half-truths have a source that hits a little close to home. That source is ourselves. 

Successful students are willing to admit the truth when they discover that their thinking is fuzzy, lazy, based on a false assumption, or dishonest. These students value facts. When a solid fact contradicts a cherished belief, they are willing to change the belief. 

Critical thinking is thorough thinking. For some people, the term critical thinking has negative connotations. If you prefer, use thorough thinking instead. Both terms point to the same activities: sorting out conflicting claims, weighing the evidence, letting go of personal biases, and arriving at reasonable conclusions. These activities add up to an ongoing conversation—a constant process, not a final product. 

We live in a culture that values quick answers and certainty. These concepts are often at odds with effective thinking. Thorough thinking is the ability to examine and reexamine ideas that might seem obvious. This kind of thinking takes time and the willingness to say three subversive words: I don’t know.

Thorough thinking is the basis for much of what you do in school—reading, writing, speaking, listening, note taking, test taking, problem solving, and other forms of decision making. Skilled students have strategies for accomplishing all these tasks. They distinguish between opinion and fact. They ask probing questions and make detailed observations. They uncover assumptions and define their terms. They make assertions carefully, basing them on sound logic and solid evidence. Almost everything that we call knowledge is a result of these activities. This means that critical thinking and learning are intimately linked. 

The highest levels of critical thinking call for the highest investments of time and energy. Also, moving from a lower level of thinking to a higher level often requires courage and an ability to tolerate discomfort. Give yourself permission to experiment, practice, and learn from mistakes. 

The following suggestions identify things to look for to deepen your critical thinking skills:  

Look for different perspectives. Imagine Donald Trump, Cesar Chavez, and Barack Obama assembled in one room to debate the most desirable way to reshape our government. Picture Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and Mark Zuckerberg leading a workshop on how to plan your career.  

When seeking out alternative points of view, let scenes like these unfold in your mind. 

Dozens of viewpoints exist on every important issue—reducing crime, ending world hunger, preventing war, and educating children, to name a few. But few problems have any single, permanent solution. Each generation produces its own answers to critical questions on the basis of current conditions. Our search for answers is a conversation that spans centuries. On each question, many voices are waiting to be heard. 

You can take advantage of this diversity by seeking out alternative views with an open mind. When talking to another person, be willing to walk away with a new point of view—even if it’s the one you brought to the table—when faced or presented with new evidence. 

Look for assertions. Speakers and writers present their key terms in a larger context called an assertion. An assertion is a complete sentence that directly answers a key question. For example, consider this sentence from an earlier lesson: “Mastery means attaining a level of skill that goes beyond technique.” This sentence is an assertion that answers an important question, How do we recognize mastery? 

Look for multiple solutions. When asking questions, let go of the temptation to settle for just a single answer. Once you have come up with an answer, say to yourself, “Yes, that is one answer. Now what’s another?” Using this approach can sustain honest inquiry, fuel creativity, and lead to conceptual breakthroughs. Be prepared. The world is complicated, and critical thinking is a complex business. Some of your answers might contradict others. Resist the temptation to have all of your ideas in a neat, orderly bundle. 

Look for logic and evidence. Uncritical thinkers shield themselves from new information and ideas. As an alternative, you can follow the example of scientists, who constantly search for evidence that contradicts their theories. The following suggestions can help you do so. 

The aim of using logic is to make statements that are clear, consistent, and coherent. As you examine a speaker’s or writer’s assertions, you might find errors in logic—assertions that contradict each other or assumptions that are unfounded. 

Also assess the evidence used to support points of view. Evidence comes in several forms, including facts, expert testimony, and examples. To think critically about evidence, ask questions such as the following: 

• Are all or most of the relevant facts presented? 
• Are the facts consistent with one another? 
• Are facts presented accurately or in a misleading way? 
• Are opinions mistakenly being presented as facts? 
• Are enough examples included to make a solid case for the viewpoint? 
• Do the examples truly support the viewpoint? 
• Are the examples typical? Could the author or speaker support the assertion with other similar examples? 
• Is the expert credible—truly knowledgeable about the topic? 
• Does this evidence affirm or contradict something that I already know? 

In addition to knowing what to look for, critical thinkers understand that there are many different perspectives and they have to consider all points of view.  

Consider controversial topics. Many people have mental hot spots—topics that provoke strong opinions and feelings. Examples are abortion, homosexuality, gun control, and the death penalty. To become more skilled at examining various points of view, notice your own particular hot spots.  Make a clear intention to accept your feelings about these topics and to continue using critical thinking techniques in relation to them. 

One way to cool down our hot spots is to remember that we can change or even give up our current opinions without giving up ourselves. That’s a key message behind the power processes: “Ideas are tools” and “Detach.” These articles remind us that human beings are much more than the sum of their current opinions. 

Consider alternatives. One path to critical thinking is tolerance for a wide range of opinions. Taking a position on important issues is natural. When we stop having an opinion on things, we’ve probably stopped breathing. 

Problems occur when we become so attached to our current viewpoints that we refuse to consider alternatives. Likewise, it can be disastrous when we blindly follow everything any person or group 

believes without questioning its validity. Many ideas that are widely accepted in Western cultures— for example, civil liberties for people of color and the right of women to vote—were once considered dangerous. Viewpoints that seem outlandish today might become widely accepted a century, a decade, or even a year from now. Remembering this idea can help us practice tolerance for differing beliefs and, in doing so, make room for new ideas that might alter our lives. 

Consider the source. A critical thinker takes into consideration the source of the information being reviewed. For example, you may have an article on the problems of manufacturing cars powered by natural gas. It might have been written by an executive from an oil company. Check out the expert who disputes the connection between smoking and lung cancer. That “expert” might be the president of a tobacco company. 

This is not to say that we should dismiss the ideas of people who have a vested interest in stating their opinions. Rather, we should take their self-interest into account as we consider their ideas.

Critical thinkers take specific actions to continue to build their critical thinking skills, as described in the following suggestions: 

Define terms. Imagine two people arguing about whether an employer should limit health care benefits to members of a family. To one person, the word family means a mother, father, and children; to the other person, the word family applies to any individuals who live together in a longterm, supportive relationship. Chances are the debate will go nowhere until these two people realize that they’re defining the same word in different ways. 

Conflicts of opinion can often be resolved—or at least clarified—when we define our key terms up front. This is especially true with abstract, emotion-laden terms such as freedom, peace, progress, or justice. Blood has been shed over the meaning of those words. Define terms with care. 

Understand before criticizing. Polished debaters are good at summing up their opponents’ viewpoints—often better than the people who support those viewpoints themselves. Likewise, critical thinkers take the time to understand a statement of opinion before agreeing or disagreeing with it. 

Effective understanding calls for listening without judgment. Enter another person’s world by expressing her viewpoint in your own words. If you’re conversing with that person, keep revising your summary until she agrees that you’ve stated her position accurately. If you’re reading an article, write a short summary of it. Then scan the article again, checking to see whether your synopsis is on target. 

Be willing to be uncertain. Some of the most profound thinkers have practiced the art of thinking by using a magic sentence: “I’m not sure yet.” 

Those are words that many people do not like to hear. Our society rewards quick answers and quotable sound bites. We’re under considerable pressure to utter the truth in 10 seconds or less. 

In such a society, it is courageous and unusual to take the time to pause, look, examine, be thoughtful, consider many points of view, and be unsure. When a society adopts half-truths in a blind rush for certainty, a willingness to embrace uncertainty can move us forward. 

Write about it. Thoughts can move at blinding speed. Writing slows down that process. Gaps in logic that slip by us in thought or speech are often exposed when we commit the same ideas to 

paper. Writing down our thoughts allows us to compare, contrast, and combine points of view more clearly—and therefore to think more thoroughly. 

Notice your changing perspectives. Researcher William Perry found that students in higher education move through stages of intellectual development (Rees Cheney 1990). In earlier stages, students tend to think there is only one correct viewpoint on each issue, and they look to their instructors to reveal that truth. Later, students acknowledge a variety of opinions on issues and construct their own viewpoints. 

Remember that the process of becoming a critical thinker will take you through a variety of stages. Give yourself time, and celebrate your growing mastery of critical thinking.

Now that you have learned the characteristics and behaviors of critical thinkers, you can think about how you might start developing your critical thinking skills.  

Successful students have the ability to ask questions that lead to deeper learning. Your mind is an obedient servant. It will deliver answers at the same level as your questions. Becoming a critical thinker means being flexible and asking a wide range of questions. 

In addition, successful students can think logically. Whether presenting or hearing arguments, successful students are able to examine the arguments and determine if they are based on sound logic or flawed logic.  

Finally, successful students know how to find, evaluate, and use the information they find. An important part of critical thinking is examining information and determining when it is appropriate or not appropriate to use.  

In this module, you will learn about asking the right questions, thinking logically, and practicing information literacy. These skills will not only help you develop your critical thinking skills but also lead you on the path to becoming a more successful student.

Thinking is a path to intellectual adventure. Although there are dozens of possible approaches to thinking well, the process boils down to asking and answering questions. 

A psychologist named Benjamin Bloom named six levels of thinking. (He called them educational objectives, or goals for learning). Each level of thinking calls for asking and answering different kinds of questions. 

Level 1: Remembering—recalling an idea. At this level of thinking, the key question is, Can I recall the key terms, facts, or events? To prompt level 1 thinking, an instructor might ask you to do the following: 

• List the ways to become a more critical thinker. 
• State the primary features of a mind map. 
• Name Bloom’s six levels of thinking. 

To study for a test with level 1 questions, you could create flash cards to review ideas from your readings and class notes. You could also read a book with a set of questions in mind and underline the answers to those questions in the text. Or, you could memorize a list of definitions so that you can recite them exactly. These are just a few examples. 

Although remembering is important, it is a relatively low level kind of learning. No critical or creative thinking is involved. You simply recognize or recall something that you’ve observed in the past. 

Level 2: Understanding—explaining an idea in your own words and giving examples from your own experience. At this level, the main question is, Can I explain this idea in my own words? Often, this means giving examples of an idea on the basis of your own experience.

Suppose that your instructor asks you to do the following: 

• Explain the main point of Lesson 1. 
• Summarize the steps involved in creating a concept map. 
• Compare mind mapping with concept mapping, stating how they’re alike and how they’re different. 

Other key words in level 2 questions are discuss, estimate, and restate. All of these are cues to go one step beyond remembering and to show that you truly comprehend an idea. 

Level 3: Applying—using an idea to produce a desired result. Learning at level 3 means asking, Can I use this idea to produce a desired result? That result might include completing a task, meeting a goal, making a decision, or solving a problem. 

Some examples of level 3 thinking are as follows: 

• Write an affirmation about succeeding in school on the basis of the guidelines in this course. 
• Write an effective goal statement. 
• Choose a mnemonic to remember the names of the Great Lakes. 

Some key words in level 3 questions include apply, solve, construct, plan, predict, and produce. 

Lower levels of thinking are sometimes about finding the “right” answer to a question. At levels 4, 5, and 6, you might discover several valid answers or create several workable solutions. As you review the following higher-level thinking questions, notice that the lower levels of thinking (1 to 3) give you fewer options than the higher levels (4 to 6) do. 

Level 4: Analyzing—dividing an idea into parts or steps. Questions at this level boil down to this, Can I divide this idea into parts or steps?  

For example, you could do the following: 

• Divide the levels of thinking into two major levels. 
• Take a list of key events in the Vietnam War, for example, and arrange them in chronological order. • Organize the memory techniques from this course into different categories. 

Other key words in level 4 questions are classify, separate, distinguish, and outline. 

Level 5: Evaluating—rating the truth, usefulness, or quality of an idea—and giving reasons for your rating. Learning at level 5 means asking, Can I rate the truth, usefulness, or quality of this idea—and give reasons for my rating?  

This is the level of thinking you would use to do the following: 

• Judge the effectiveness of an intention statement. 
• Recommend a method for taking lecture notes when an instructor talks fast. 
• Rank your financial priorities from most important to least important to you. 

Level 5 involves genuine critical thinking. At this level, you agree with an idea, disagree with it, or suspend judgment about it until you get more information. In addition, you give reasons for your opinion and offer supporting evidence. 

Some key words in level 5 questions are critique, defend, and comment. 

Level 6: Creating—inventing something new on the basis of an idea. To think at this level, ask, Can I invent something new based on this idea?  

For instance, you might do the following: 

• Invent your own format for taking lecture notes. 
• Prepare a list of topics that you would cover if you were teaching a student success course. 
• Imagine that you now have enough money to retire and then write goals you would like to accomplish with your extra time. 
• Create a PowerPoint presentation on the basis of ideas found in this lesson. Put the material in your own words, and use visual elements to enhance your points. 

Questions for creative thinking often start with words such as adapt, change, collaborate, compose, create, design, and develop. You might also notice phrases such as the following: 

• What changes would you make…?  
• How could you improve…?  
• Can you think of another way to…?  
• What would happen if…?

Notice that the six levels in Bloom’s taxonomy build on each other. Before you agree or disagree with an idea, make sure that you remember it accurately and truly understand it. Your understanding will go deeper if you can apply and analyze the idea as well. Successful students stay aware of their current level of thinking. They can also move to other levels with a clear intention. 

In addition to asking the right questions, to become a more successful student, you want to develop your logical thinking skills. Logic is a branch of philosophy that seeks to distinguish between effective and ineffective reasoning. This is not just an idle pastime for unemployed philosophers. Learning to think logically offers many benefits (Seligman 2002):  

• You take your reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills to a higher level.  
• You avoid costly mistakes in decision making.  
• You can join discussions and debates with more confidence, cast your election votes with a clear head, and become a better-informed citizen.  
• You can improve your mental health by learning to dispute illogical beliefs.  

Over the last 2,500 years, specialists have listed some classic land mines in the field of logic— common mistakes in thinking that are called fallacies. The study of fallacies could fill a yearlong course.  

Following are some examples to get you started. Knowing about them before you string together a bunch of assertions can help you avoid getting fooled. 

Jumping to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions is the only exercise that some lazy thinkers get. This fallacy involves drawing conclusions without sufficient evidence. Take the bank officer who hears about one student failing to pay back a student loan. After that, the officer turns down all loan applications from all students. This person has formed a rigid opinion on the basis of hearsay. Jumping to conclusions—also called hasty generalization—is at work here. 

Attacking the person. The mistake of attacking the person is common at election time. An example is the candidate who claims that her opponent has failed to attend church regularly during the campaign. People who indulge in personal attacks are attempting an intellectual sleight of hand to divert attention away from the truly relevant issues. 

Pointing to a false cause. The fact that one event follows another does not necessarily mean that the two events have a cause-and-effect relationship. All we can actually say is that the events might be correlated. For example, as children’s vocabularies improve, they can get more cavities. This does not mean that cavities are the result of an improved vocabulary. Instead, the increase in cavities is due to other factors, such as physical maturation and changes in diet or personal care

The following are additional fallacies to avoid as you are working to improve your logical thinking skills.  

Thinking in all-or-nothing terms. Consider these statements: Doctors are greedy. You can’t trust politicians. Students these days are in school just to get high-paying jobs; they lack idealism. Homeless people don’t want to work.

These opinions imply the word all. They gloss over individual differences, claiming that all members of a group are exactly alike. They also ignore key facts—for instance, that some doctors volunteer their time at free medical clinics and that many homeless people are children who are too young to work. 

All-or-nothing thinking is one of the most common errors in logic. To avoid this fallacy, watch out for words such as all, everyone, no one, none, always, and never. Statements that include these words often make sweeping claims that require a lot of evidence. See whether words such as usually, some, many, few, and sometimes lead to more accurate statements. Sometimes, the words are implied. For example, the implication in the claim “Doctors are greedy” is that all doctors are greedy. 

Basing arguments on emotion. The politician who ends every campaign speech with flag waving and slides of his mother eating apple pie is staking his future on appeals to emotion. So is the candidate who paints a grim scenario of the disaster and ruination that will transpire unless she is elected. Get past the fluff to see whether you can uncover any worthwhile ideas. 

The bottom line—finding fallacies before they bite you. Consider this statement: “My mother and father have a happy marriage. After all, they’re still together after 35 years.” Behind this statement is this big assumption: Happy marriages are those that last a long time. And there’s a possible fallacy here: You might know of married couples who’ve stayed together for decades even though they confess to be unhappy in the relationship. 

Uncovering assumptions and looking for exceptions can help you detect many errors in logic. This is a tool you can pull out any time you want to experience the benefits of critical thinking. 

Sources of information on the Internet range from the reputable (such as the Library of Congress) to the flamboyant (such as the National Enquirer). People are free to post anything on the Internet, including outdated facts as well as intentional misinformation. 

Newspaper, magazine, and book publishers often employ fact-checkers, editors, and lawyers to screen out errors and scrutinize questionable material before publication. Creators of independent, user-generated, or low-traffic websites might not have these resources or choose to use them. 

Taking a few simple precautions when you surf the Internet can keep you from crashing onto the rocky shore of misinformation. 

Distinguish between ideas and information. To think more powerfully about what you find on the Internet, remember the difference between information and ideas.  

For example, consider the following sentence: Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa in 1994. That statement provides information about South Africa. In contrast, the following sentence states an idea: Nelson Mandela’s presidency means that Apartheid has no future in South Africa. 

Information refers to facts that can be verified by independent observers. Ideas are interpretations or opinions based on facts. These include statements of opinion and value judgments. Several people with the same information might adopt different ideas on the basis of that information.

Don’t assume that an idea is more current, reasonable, or accurate just because you find it on the Internet. Apply your critical thinking skills to all published material—print and online. 

Look for overall quality. Examine the features of a website in general. Notice the effectiveness of the text, layout, and visuals as a whole. Also note how well the site is organized and whether you can navigate its features with ease. Look for the date that crucial information was posted, and determine how often the site is updated. 

Next, get an overview of the site’s content. Examine several of its web pages for consistency of facts, quality of information, and grammar and spelling errors.  

Are the links easy to find? Do they take you to the intended pages or sites? Click on a few links to the sites of reputable organizations. If the links lead you to dead-ends, it might indicate that the site is not updated often—a clue that it’s not a reliable source for late-breaking information.

In addition to distinguishing between ideas and information and looking for overall quality, to think more critically about information on the Internet, you should also consider the following: 

Look at the source. Find a clear description of the person or organization responsible for the website. Many sites include this information in the About web page. 

The domain in the uniform resource locator (URL or the web address) for a site gives you clues about sources of information and possible bias. For example, distinguish among information from a for-profit commercial enterprise (URL ending in ".com"); a nonprofit organization (".org"); a government agency (".gov"); and a school, college, or university (".edu"). 

If the site asks you to subscribe or become a member, then find out what it does with the personal information that you provide. Look for a way to contact the site’s publisher with questions and comments. 

Look for documentation. When you encounter an assertion on a website, note the types and quality of the evidence offered. Look for credible examples, quotations from authorities in the field, documented statistics, or summaries of scientific studies. 

Remember that wikis (peer-edited or user-generated sites) such as Wikipedia do not employ editors to screen out errors or scrutinize questionable material before publication. Do not rely on these sites when researching a paper or presentation. Also, be cautious about citing blogs, which often are not reviewed for accuracy. Such sources may, however, provide you with key words and concepts that help lead you to scholarly research on your topic. 

Set an example. In the midst of the Internet’s chaotic growth, you can light a path of rationality. Whether you’re sending a short e-mail message or building a massive website, bring your own critical thinking skills into play. Every word and image that you send down the wires and on to the Internet can display the hallmarks of critical thinking—sound logic, credible evidence, and respect for your audience. 

An important quality of successful students is curiosity. And to satisfy their curiosity, successful students ask questions. To answer questions, these students find information from appropriate sources, evaluate the information, organize it, and use it to achieve a purpose.  

The ability to do this in a world where data are literally at your fingertips is called information literacy. 

You should begin by discovering the questions you want to answer. Start with a main question. This is the thing that sparked your curiosity in the first place. Answering it is your purpose for doing research. 

Your main question will raise a number of smaller, related questions. These are supporting questions. They also call for answers. 

Suppose that your main question is this: “During the mortgage credit crisis of 2007 to 2010, what led banks to lend money to people with poor credit history?” Your list of supporting questions might include the following: 

• What banks were involved in the mortgage credit crisis? 
• How do banks discover a person’s credit history? 
• What are the signs of a poor credit history? 

Once you have a solid set of main questions and supporting questions, you can now think about gathering your information.  

Consider the variety of information sources available to you: billions of websites, books, magazines, newspapers, and audio and video recordings. You can reduce this vast range of materials to a few manageable categories. Start with the distinction between primary and secondary sources. 

Primary sources. These can lead to information treasures. Primary sources are firsthand materials—personal journals, letters, speeches, government documents, scientific experiments, field observations, interviews with recognized experts, archeological digs, artifacts, and original works of art. 

Making direct contact with people can offer a welcome relief from hours of solitary research time and give you valuable hands-on involvement. Your initial research will uncover the names of experts on your chosen topic. Consider doing an interview with one of these people—in person, over the phone, or via e-mail. 

Primary sources can also include scholarly publications such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and similar publications. One clue that you’re dealing with a primary source is the title. If it includes the word journal, then you’re probably reading a primary source. 

Following are some signs of scholarly articles: 

• Names of authors with their credentials and academic affiliations 
• A brief abstract (summary) of the article, along with a section on research methods (how the authors tested their ideas and reached their conclusions) 
• Lengthy articles with detailed treatment of the main topic and definitions of key terms 
• Conclusions based on an extensive review of relevant publications, survey research, data collected in a laboratory experiment, or a combination of these 
• Extensive bibliographies and references to the work of other scholars in the form of footnotes (at the bottom of each page) or endnotes (at the end of the article) 

If you pick up a magazine with pages of full-color advertisements and photos of celebrities, you’re not reading a scholarly journal. Some scholarly articles run just a few pages, but many run to 10, 20, or even more pages. Although that’s a lot to read, you get more information to use for your assignment or to answer your questions. Secondary sources. These sources summarize, explain, and comment on primary sources: 

• Popular magazines such as Time and Newsweek 
• Magazines—such as The Atlantic and Scientific American—with wide circulation and long articles 
• Nationally circulated newspapers such as the Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times 
• General reference works such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Oxford Companion to English Literature

Secondary sources are useful places to start your research. Use them to get an overview of your topic. Depending on the assignment, these may be all you need for informal research. 

Remember that many published materials are available in print as well as online. For a full range of sources, head to your campus or local community library. 

One reason for a trip to the library is to find a reference librarian. Tell this person about the questions you want answered, and ask for good sources of information. Remember that a librarian can help you apply the suggestions in this lesson, including those that relate to using technology. 

One crucial skill for information literacy is using key words. Key words are the main terms in your main and supporting questions. These are the words that you enter into a search box. Your choice of key words determines the quality of results that you get from Internet search engines, such as Google or Bing, and from library catalogs. For better search results, you may do the following: 

• Use specific key words. Entering Firefox or Safari will give you more focused results than entering web browser. Reading strategies or note-taking strategies will get more specific results than just study strategies. Do not type in your whole research question as a sentence. The search engine will look for each word and give you a lot of useless results. 
• Use unique key words. Whenever possible, use proper names. Enter Beatles or Radiohead rather than British rock bands. If you’re looking for nearby restaurants, enter restaurant and your zip code rather than the name of your city. 
• Use quotation marks if you’re looking for specific words in a certain order. “Audacity of hope” will return a list of pages with that exact phrase. 
• Search within a site. If you’re looking only for articles about college tuition from the New York Times, then add New York Times to the search box. 
• Think of synonyms. For example, hypertension is often called high blood pressure. 
• Add a wild card character when you’re not sure of a key word. In most search engines, that character is the asterisk (*). If you’re looking for the title of a film directed by Clint Eastwood and just can’t remember the name, enter Clint Eastwood directed*. 
• Look for more search options. Many search engines also offer advanced search features and explain how to use them. Click on the word advanced or more on the site’s home page. 

Google also has a number of helpful shortcuts that will focus your search. Here are some examples:

"Improve Your Web Searches With Google Search Commands and Shortcuts." Authored by Tim Fisher, (2019, June 24). Retrieved from https://www.lifewire.com/advanced-google-search-3482174

Once you have finished gathering your information, you want to evaluate it. Some students assume that anything that’s published in print or online is true.  

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Some sources of information are more reliable than others, and some published information is misleading or mistaken.

Before evaluating any source of information, make sure that you understand what it says. Think critically about the information. Here are some essential things to look for:

• Currency. Notice the published date of your source material. If your topic is time sensitive, then set some guidelines about how current you want your sources to be—for example, published during the past five years. 
• Credibility. Scan the source for biographical information about the author. Look for educational degrees, training, and work experience that qualify this person to publish on the topic of your research. 
• Bias. Determine what the website or other source is “selling”—the product, service, or point of view it promotes. Political affiliations or funding sources might color the author’s point of view. For instance, you can predict that a pamphlet on gun-control policies that’s printed through funding from the National Rifle Association will promote certain points of view. Round out your research with other sources on the topic. 

Once you have gathered and evaluated your information, you are ready to figure out how to use it. Many students use information to write a paper or create a presentation. Remember to keep a list of all your sources of information, and avoid plagiarism. Be prepared to cite your sources in footnotes or endnotes and include a bibliography. 

Make time to digest all of the information you gather. Return to the important step of asking questions: 

• Do I have answers to my main question? 
• Do I have answers to my supporting questions? 
• What are the main ideas from my sources? 
• Do I have personal experiences that can help me answer these questions? 
• If a TV talk show host asked me these questions, how would I answer? 
• On what points do my sources agree? 
• On what points do my sources disagree? 
• Do I have statistics and other facts that I can use to support my ideas? 
• What new questions do I have? 

The beauty of these questions is that they stimulate your thinking. Discover the pleasures of emerging insights and sudden inspiration. You just might get hooked on the adventure of information literacy. 

In previous lessons, you learned about characteristics of critical thinkers and information literacy. In this module, you will learn how to put those skills into action through the important processes of decision making and problem solving.  

As with the process of developing information literacy, asking questions is an important part of decision making and problem solving. Thinking is born of questions. Questions wake us up. Questions alert us to hidden assumptions. Questions promote curiosity and create new distinctions. Questions open up options that otherwise go unexplored. Besides, teachers love questions. 

We make decisions all the time, whether we realize it or not. Even avoiding decisions is a form of decision making. The student who puts off studying for a test until the last minute, for example, might really be saying, “I’ve decided this course is not important” or “I’ve decided not to give this course much time.” 

Decisions are specific and lead to focused action. When we decide, we narrow down. We give up actions that are inconsistent with our decision. 

In addition to decision making, critical thinking skills are important to solving problems. We encounter problems every single day, and having a solid process in place is important to solving them.  

At the end of the lesson, you will learn how to put your critical thinking skills to use by reviewing an example of how critical thinking skills can help with making those everyday decisions. 

Questions have practical power. Asking for directions can shave hours off a trip. Asking a librarian for help can save hours of research time. Asking how to address an instructor—by first name or formal title—can change your relationship with that person. Asking your academic

advisor a question can alter your entire education. Asking people about their career plans can alter your career plans. 

You can use the following strategies to develop questions for problem solving and decision making: 

Ask questions that create possibilities. At any moment, you can ask a question that opens up a new possibility for someone.  

• Suppose a friend walks up to you and says, “People just never listen to me.” You listen carefully. Then you say, “Let me make sure I understand. Who, specifically, doesn’t listen to you? And how do you know they’re not listening?” 
• Another friend tells you, “I just lost my job to someone who has less experience. That should never happen.” You respond, “Wow, that’s hard. I’m sorry you lost your job. Who can help you find another job?” 
• A relative seeks your advice. “My mother-in-law makes me mad,” she says. “You’re having a hard time with this person,” you say. “What does she say and do when you feel mad at her? And are there times when you don’t get mad at her?” 

These kinds of questions—asked with compassion and a sense of timing—can help people move from complaining about problems to solving them. 

Discover new questions. Students sometimes say, “I don’t know what questions to ask.”  

Consider the following ways to create questions about any subject you want to study or about any area of your life that you want to change: 

• Let your pen start moving. Sometimes you can access a deeper level of knowledge by taking out your pen, putting it on a piece of paper, and writing down questions—even before you know what to write. Don’t think. Just watch the pen move across the paper. Notice what appears. The results might be surprising. 
• Ask about what’s missing. Another way to invent useful questions is to notice what’s missing from your life and then ask how to supply it. For example, if you want to take better notes, you can write, “What’s missing is skill in note taking. How can I gain more skill in taking notes?” If you always feel rushed, you can write, “What’s missing is time. How do I create enough time in my day to actually do the things that I say I want to do?” 
• Pretend to be someone else. Another way to invent questions is first to think of someone you greatly respect. Then pretend you’re that person. Ask the questions you think she would ask. 
• Begin with a general question, and then brainstorm the endings. By starting with a general question and then brainstorming a long list of endings, you can invent a question that you’ve never asked before. For example: 
  • What can I do when … an instructor calls on me in class and I have no idea what to say? When a teacher doesn’t show up for class on time? When I feel overwhelmed with assignments? 
  • How can I … take the kind of courses that I want? Expand my career options? Become much more effective as a student, starting today? 
  • o When do I … decide on a major? Transfer to another school? Meet with an instructor to discuss an upcoming term paper? 
  • What else do I want to know about … my academic plan? My career plan? My options for job hunting? My friends? My relatives? My spouse? o Who can I ask about … my career options? My major? My love life? My values and purpose in life? 

Many times you can quickly generate questions by simply asking yourself, “What else do I want to know?” Ask this question immediately after you read a paragraph in a book or listen to someone speak. 

Start from the assumption that you are brilliant. Then ask questions to unlock your brilliance.  

As you develop your critical thinking skills, you can apply them as you make decisions. The following suggestions can help in your decision-making process:  

Recognize decisions. Decisions are more than wishes or desires. There’s a world of difference between “I wish I could be a better student” and “I will take more powerful notes, read with greater retention, and review my class notes daily.” Deciding to eat fruit for dessert instead of ice cream rules out the next trip to the ice cream store. 

Establish priorities. Some decisions are trivial. No matter what the outcome, your life is not affected much. Other decisions can shape your circumstances for years. Devote more time and energy to the decisions with big outcomes. 

Base decisions on a life plan. The benefit of having long-term goals for our lives is that they provide a basis for many of our daily decisions. Being certain about what we want to accomplish this year and this month makes today’s choices more clear. 

Balance learning styles in decision making. To make decisions more effectively, use all four modes of learning explained in a previous lesson. The key is to balance reflection with action, and thinking with experience. First, take the time to think creatively, and generate many options. Then think critically about the possible consequences of each option before choosing one. Remember, however, that thinking is no substitute for experience. Act on your chosen option, and notice what happens. If you’re not getting the results you want, then quickly return to creative thinking to invent new options. 

Choose an overall strategy. Every time you make a decision, you choose a strategy—even when you’re not aware of it. Effective decision makers can articulate and choose from among several strategies. For example: 

• Find all of the available options, and choose one deliberately. Save this strategy for times when you have a relatively small number of options, each of which leads to noticeably different results. 
• Find all of the available options, and choose one randomly. This strategy can be risky. Save it for times when your options are basically similar and fairness is the main issue. 
• Limit the options, and then choose. When deciding which search engine to use, visit many search sites and then narrow the list down to two or three from which to choose. 

Use time as an ally. Sometimes we face dilemmas—situations in which any course of action leads to undesirable consequences. In such cases, consider putting a decision on hold. Wait it out. Do nothing until the circumstances change, making one alternative clearly preferable to another. 

Use intuition. Some decisions seem to make themselves. A solution pops into your mind, and you gain newfound clarity. Using intuition is not the same as forgetting about the decision or refusing to make it. Intuitive decisions usually arrive after we’ve gathered the relevant facts and faced a problem for some time. 

Evaluate your decision. Hindsight is a source of insight. After you act on a decision, observe the consequences over time. Reflect on how well your decision worked and what you might have done differently. 

Think of choices. This final suggestion involves some creative thinking. Consider that the word decide derives from the same roots as suicide and homicide. In the spirit of those words, a decision forever “kills” all other options. That’s kind of heavy. Instead, use the word choice, and see whether it frees up your thinking. When you choose, you express a preference for one option over others. However, those options remain live possibilities for the future. Choose for today, knowing that as you gain more wisdom and experience, you can choose again. 

Think of problem solving as a process with four P's: Define the problem, generate possibilities, create a plan, and perform your plan. 

Step 1: Define the problem. To define a problem effectively, understand what a problem is—a mismatch between what you want and what you have. Problem solving is all about reducing the gap between these two factors. 

Tell the truth about what’s present in your life right now, without shame or blame. For example: “I often get sleepy while reading my physics assignments, and after closing the book I cannot remember what I just read.” 

Next, describe in detail what you want. Go for specifics: “I want to remain alert as I read about physics. I also want to accurately summarize each chapter I read.” 

Remember that when we define a problem in limiting ways, our solutions merely generate new problems. As Albert Einstein said, “The world we have made is a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far. We cannot solve problems at the same level at which we created them” (Calaprice 2000). 

This idea has many applications for success in school. An example is the student who struggles with note taking. The problem, she thinks, is that her notes are too sketchy. The logical solution, she decides, is to take more notes; her new goal is to write down almost everything her instructors say. No matter how fast and furiously she writes, she cannot capture all of the instructors’ comments. 

Consider what happens when this student defines the problem in a new way. After more thought, she decides that her dilemma is not the quantity of her notes but their quality. She adopts a new format for taking notes, dividing her notepaper into two columns. In the right-hand column, she writes down only the main points of each lecture. In the left-hand column, she notes two or three supporting details for each point. 

Over time, this student makes the joyous discovery that there are usually just three or four core ideas to remember from each lecture. She originally thought the solution was to take more notes. What really worked was taking notes in a new way. 

Step 2: Generate possibilities. Now put on your creative thinking hat. Open up. Brainstorm as many possible solutions to the problem as you can. At this stage, quantity counts. As you generate possibilities, gather relevant facts. For example, when you’re faced with a dilemma about what courses to take next semester, get information on class times, locations, and instructors. If you haven’t decided which summer job offer to accept, gather information on salary, benefits, and working conditions. 

Step 3: Create a plan. After rereading your problem definition and list of possible solutions, choose the solution that seems most workable. Think about specific actions that will reduce the gap between what you have and what you want. Visualize the steps you will take to make this solution a reality, and arrange them in chronological order. To make your plan even more powerful, put it in writing. 

Step 4: Perform your plan. This step gets you off your chair and out into the world. Now you actually do what you have planned. 

Ultimately, your skill in solving problems lies in how well you perform your plan. Through the quality of your actions, you become the architect of your own success. 

When facing problems, experiment with these four P's, and remember that the order of steps is not absolute. Also remember that any solution has the potential to create new problems. If that happens, cycle through the four P's of problem solving again. 

SUCCESSFUL INTELLIGENCE

While the model of strategic learning focuses on the interaction between individual knowledge, abilities, and environment, other theories place greater emphasis on rounding out one’s cognitive abilities to be able to approach and solve problems in different ways. In his theory of successful intelligence, for example, Robert Sternberg proposes that to be successfully intelligent is to think well in three different ways: analytically, creatively, and practically. Typically, only analytical intelligence is valued on tests and in the classroom. Yet the style of intelligence that schools most readily recognize may well be less useful to many students in their adult lives than creative and practical intelligence. 

• Analytical thinking encompasses the ability to think abstractly and process information effectively. People high on this dimension are able to think critically and analytically. Analytical thinking emphasizes effectiveness in information processing and is characterized by high test scores and high I.Q. scores. 
• Creative thinking includes the ability to formulate new ideas, to combine seemingly unrelated facts or information. It emphasizes insight and the ability to invent new solutions and is overlooked by test scores. 
• Practical thinking covers the ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to shape the environment so as to maximize one’s strengths and compensate for one’s weaknesses. It emphasizes intelligence in a practical sense. People high on this dimension quickly recognize what factors influence success on various tasks and are adept at both adapting to and shaping their environment so that they can accomplish various goals. Practical intelligence is not reflected in test scores. 

Successful intelligence is most effective when it balances all three of its analytical, creative, and practical aspects. It is more important to know when and how to use these aspects of successful intelligence than just to have them. Successfully intelligent people don’t just have abilities, they reflect on when and how to use these abilities effectively. Earlier in this chapter there was a closer look at analytical, or critical, thinking; right now, we’ll take a closer look at creative thinking.

CREATIVE THINKING

Creative thinking is an invaluable skill for college students because it helps you look at problems and situations from a fresh perspective. Creating thinking is a way to develop novel or unorthodox solutions that do not depend wholly on past or current solutions. It’s a way of employing strategies to clear your mind so that your thoughts and ideas can transcend what appear to be the limitations of a problem. Creative thinking is a way of moving beyond barriers and it can be understood as a skill— as opposed to an inborn talent or natural “gift”—that can be taught as well as learned. As a creative thinker, you are curious, optimistic, and imaginative. You see problems as interesting opportunities, and you challenge assumptions and suspend judgment. You don’t give up easily. You work hard.[10] Is this you? Even if you don’t yet see yourself as a competent creative thinker or problem-solver yet, you can learn solid skills and techniques to help you become one.

Creative Thinking in Education 

Now that you have taken the creative problem-solving self-assessment test, do you have a better sense of which creative thinking skills and attitudes you have, and which ones you might want to improve upon? College is a great ground for enhancing creative thinking skills. The following are some examples of college activities that can stimulate creative thinking. Are any familiar to you? What are some aspects of your own college experience that require you to think creatively? 

• Design sample exam questions to test your knowledge as you study for a final. 
• Devise a social media strategy for a club on campus. 
• Propose an education plan for a major you are designing for yourself. 
• Prepare a speech that you will give in a debate in your course. 
• Arrange audience seats in your classroom to maximize attention during your presentation. 
• Participate in a brainstorming session with your classmates on how you will collaborate on a group project. 
• Draft a script for a video production that will be shown to several college administrators. 
• Compose a set of requests and recommendations for a campus office to improve its services for students. • Develop a marketing pitch for a mock business you are developing. 
• Develop a plan to reduce energy consumption in your home, apartment, or dorm 

How to Stimulate Creative Thinking 

There are six strategies to stimulate your creative thinking. 

1. Sleep on it. Over the years, researchers have found that the REM sleep cycle boosts our creativity and problem-solving abilities, providing us with innovative ideas or answers to vexing dilemmas when we awaken. Keep a pen and paper by the bed so you can write down your nocturnal insights if they wake you up. 
2. Go for a run or hit the gym. Studies indicate that exercise stimulates creative thinking, and the brainpower boost lasts for a few hours. 
3. Allow your mind to wander a few times every day. Far from being a waste of time, daydreaming has been found to be an essential part of generating new ideas. If you’re stuck on a problem or creatively blocked, think about something else for a while. 
4. Keep learning. Studying something far removed from your area of expertise is especially effective in helping you think in new ways. 
5. Put yourself in nerve-racking situations once in a while to fire up your brain. Fear and frustration can trigger innovative thinking.
6. Keep a notebook with you, or create a file for ideas on your smartphone or laptop, so you always have a place to record fleeting thoughts. They’re sometimes the best ideas of all. 

Problem-Solving with Creative Thinking

Creative problem-solving is a type of problem-solving that involves searching for new and novel solutions to problems. It’s a way to think “outside of the box.” Unlike critical thinking, which scrutinizes assumptions and uses reasoning, creative thinking is about generating alternative ideas— practices and solutions that are unique and effective. It’s about facing sometimes muddy and unclear problems and seeing how things can be done differently. 

As you continue to develop your creative thinking skills, be alert to perceptions about creative thinking that could slow down progress. Remember that creative thinking and problem-solving are ways to transcend the limitations of a problem and see past barriers

SOURCES

•  “Theories of Learning” from Effective Learning Strategies at Austin Community College. Authored byLaura Lucas. Provided by: Austin Community College. Available at: https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/8434. License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• OpenNow College Success. Authored by Cengage Learning. Provided by: CEngage. Available at: https://oercommons.s3.amazonaws.com/media/editor/179572/CengageOpenNow_CollegeSuccessNarrative.pdf License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
• Three Aspects of Successful Intelligence. Authored by: Mary Frangie. Provided by: Critical and Creative Thinking Graduate Program, University of Massachusetts Boston. Located at: http://cct.wikispaces.umb.edu/Three+Aspects+of+Successful+Intelligence. License: CC BY: Attribution, available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Patterns of Thought. Authored by: Lumen Learning. Provided by: Lumen. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccesslumen/chapter/patterns-of-thought/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike, available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• The Learning Process. Authored by: Lumen Learning. Provided by: Lumen. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccesslumen/chapter/the-learning-process/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike, available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Creative Thinking Skills. Authored by: Lumen Learning. Provided by: Lumen. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccesslumen/chapter/creative-thinking-skills process/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike, available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/