I hope you have got a glimpse of the concept of cognitive biases and it's impact that we discussed in our previous session. Let me tell you - A large component of critical thinking is simply avoiding cognitive biases.
A student in sixth grade once asked me a doubt during my Physics class while I was explaining about the topic Universe. The question was why the randomly scattered pieces from a primitive fireball were spherical in shape. Before this question arose, I had explained to the class that all planets were scattered by a fireball that we named the Sun and the scattered parts revolved around the Sun. When the doubt was asked to me, I was first baffled by the sixth-grader's query, but managed to convince the class sooner by my explanation about gravity. I could explain the fact that a planet's gravity pulls equally from all sides. After the class I quickly decided against looking too deeply into that question, probably how could a child arrive at such an imagination. Moreover, I like such questions being asked to me as it helps myself to be updated frequently with more and more information on the subject matter.
Further researches on this thought made me learn more about the many modes of cognition that each person would have and how they varied from one another. Additionally, my studies enabled me to understand the three different processes of thought. Let me tell you about it.
Lateral thinking, convergent thinking, and divergent thinking are those three types.
Joy Paul Guilford, an American psychologist (1897-1987), best known for ‘psychometric study of human intelligence,’ has coined this term critical thinking.
Convergent thinking is a term used to describe the capacity to provide the 'correct' response to common issues that do not call for much creative thought. For example, the majority of standardized MCQs for intelligence are similar. These solutions in this situation don't call for much original thought.
Example, a student determining the correct answer for a multiple choice question for a math test is a convergent thinking. Similarly, a mother determining when her son should take a bath, before school, after they play in the evening, or just before the bedtime, is also a convergent thinking. That means, of the available options, mother can pick the right choice that works better, and in the former example, the student can solve the given equation, compare it with the available options and make the best choice.
Let me elaborate. Convergent thinking is the kind of thinking that concentrates on finding the one, proven solution to an issue.
Consider another example. You ask a degree student how would he raise money to buy a bike. He would probably brainstorm several different ways to raise money. This is divergent thinking. Similarly, how to celebrate your friend's birthday can also be a divergent thinking. In the classroom, if you ask your students a question to elaborate how our present world would have been if the internet was available about two centuries ago, this is also a divergent thinking.
Divergent thinking is a way of thinking that produces original ideas by considering a wide range of alternatives. Divergent thinking involves quickly exploring a wide range of potential answers and making unexpected connections.
Are these two thoughts inter-related? Of course, yes! Keep in mind that after the process of divergent thinking is finished, convergent thinking is used to organize and structure the ideas and information.
Now, let me discuss about the 'Lateral Thinking'.
'Lateral thinking’ is employing logic to solve issues in a creative and indirect way. For example, consider this question: A man and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the scene, but the child is rushed to the hospital. When he arrives the surgeon says, "I can’t operate on this boy, he is my son!” How can this be?
Did you figure out the answer? (The surgeon was his mother). Such types of question involves looking at it through a different angle, different perspective. This is lateral thinking.
My uncle had asked me this question when I was in 7th grade, in 1988. The question, then, intrigued me a lot, and as I see there are many children who are interested to think and answer such types of questions in this 20's era too.
Edward Charles Francis Publius de Bono, a Maltese physician, psychologist, author, inventor, and broadcaster, (1933-2021), coined the term ‘Lateral Thinking’. He produced numerous books on the subject, including Six Thinking Hats, and advocated for the inclusion of thinking instruction in the curriculum.
The capacity to utilize your reasoning to approach an issue from a different angle and develop a fresh solution is known as lateral thinking.
Without people using their lateral thinking talents, businesses today are unable to innovate and develop new goods; instead, they are forced to carry on with business as usual, perhaps more effectively than before, but failing to set the standard. Any business that wishes to stay competitive must hire recent grads with lateral thinking skills.
I'll leave you with this. One employs lateral thinking to go from one established notion to the generation of novel ones.
I hope I now have explained clearly about the three different process of thought-flow in individuals. A well understanding of this concept might help you in knowing a student better in the classroom. If a student shows any sign of lateral thinking process by asking a question to the teacher, would it be wise for the teacher to stun his inquisitive nature, maybe by discouraging questions through creating fear?
What Distinguishes Lateral Thinking from Vertical Thinking?
Vertical thinking is when someone jumps right to the logical and obvious solution. Someone with lateral thinking might come up with a response to a puzzle or situation that calls for you to put facts together to come up with an original solution.
Before I conclude this session,
What are Horizontal and Vertical Thinking?
Researchers in academia frequently utilise the analytical and sequential method known as "vertical thinking" since it solves problems more quickly than horizontal thinking. Additionally, it develops experts in their specialty among researchers.
Contrary to vertical thinking, the goal of horizontal thinking is to look farther rather than closer. Howard Gardner refers to horizontal thinkers as visionaries and vertical thinkers as experts. Others define horizontal thinking using the phrase lateral thinking, which Edward De Bono coined. Lateral thinking often refers to creativity and thinking outside the box.
Every thinking technique has benefits and drawbacks. Therefore, understanding how we think and how differently we think is beneficial.
Vertical thinkers are frequently interested in finding solutions to problems. They frequently are experts on everything. People who think horizontally, on the other hand, are frequently interested in the causes of specific problems. They have some knowledge of anything that is relevant to their subject.
Vertical thinking finds a solution more quickly than horizontal thinking, but the quality of its solution might not be as good.
I read an article in the Deccan Herald on June 27, 2022, that talented learners are frequently taught to think linearly or vertically from the immediate perspective of performance in exams, and that students now need lateral thinking skills, not marks; and today, education is lost in information and a student's memory is mistaken for his or her intelligence or brilliance.
According to Dr. de Bono in the "Journal of Critical Behaviour," education primarily teaches vertical thinking since it has always been hard to teach lateral thinking.
What I feel is, one of the main goals of education is to provide kids the tools they need to think clearly for them and evaluate what their environment throws at them. The capacity to think critically and put ideas into practise, along with topic knowledge, is what makes education comprehensive in the truest sense.
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