Creative Thinking and Self Directed Learning

Creative Thinking

          In our contemporary world, creative thinking has become very critical for success in life and workplace. The dream of every teacher is to produce creative thinkers who can function effectively in society and become problem solvers. Cennamo, (2009) describes creative thinkers as confident and possess ability to move forward even in the face of ambiguity. Creative thinking is the process of complex higher order thinking whose outcomes are not predictable; it involves the ability to do things differently using various ideas or a combination of ideas to accomplish a set goal. Using Cennamo’s words, it involves knowledge, generating ideas, self-regulation, reflective judgment and ability to see connection among different ideas.  Creative thinking is not a kind of single way process of information but rather involves variety of skills that people exhibit. (Cennamo, et, al, 2009) identified various forms of creative thinking such as divergent thinking which moves from simple to complex, convergent thinking from general to specific, innovative thinking which is about generating several ideas and possibilities, critical thinking which is a kind of analyzing and synthesizing, inductive thinking considers relationship of part to the whole, while deductive thinking compares and contrasts between or among objects.

 Creative thinkers are by their very nature self-directed learners, they try to feed their curiosity at every opportunity by taking what Gibbons, (2002) described as “taking the first step and assuming responsibility for the outcome”.

Dr. Cennamo quoting Gibbons (2002) defines self-directed learning as “any increase in knowledge, skills, accomplishment, or personal development that an individual selects and brings about by his or her own efforts in any circumstances at any time” (Cennamo, et, al, 2009, p, 2.)  In the 21^st century, we are faced with different types of problems and difficulties, these problems call for critical and creative thinkers who can think outside the box, those who do not follow guidelines all the time but are ready to take risks and brake down the old molds and make things happen. These are the times where we operate as teachers and destiny puts this on our shoulders to educate the 21^st century scholars who will take civilization to the next level, we therefore owe it a duty to teach these students how to learn and meet the challenges before them. The ubiquitous of technology is a blessing for teaching profession, there are variety of technology tools that can help us to develop and execute authentic, challenging, and activity packed instructions based on real life issues or scenarios that will ensure learner autonomy, active experiential learning that will help them to develop the 21^st century skills they need to gain competitive advantage.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program thirteen. Technology:
Instructional tool vs. learning tool [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and  technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010a). Program 1: Promoting self-directed learning with technology [DVD]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author

  Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010b). Program 2: Promoting creative thinking with  technology [DVD]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: AuthoTeaching SDL - Self Directed Learning. (n.d.). Self-Directed Learning - Teaching, Education, Learning. Retrieved September 5, 2011, from http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com