1.
Types of Thinking Skills
1. Remembering and Recalling
Retrieving or repeating information or ideas from memory.
This is the first and most basic thinking skill you develop.
2. Understanding
Constructing meaning or explaining material from written, spoken, or graphic sources.
Reading is the most common understanding skill.
3. Applying
Using learned material or implementing material in new situations.
4. Analyzing
Mental actions included in this skill are examining, categorizing, experimenting, and deducing.
5. Evaluating
Assessing, making judgments, and drawing conclusions from ideas, information, or data.
6. Creating
Putting parts together or reorganizing them in a new way, form, or product.
This process is the most difficult mental function.
2. Different Approaches to Creativity
There are two completely different types:
1. Technical Creativity
Where people create new theories, technologies, or ideas.
2. Artistic Creativity
Which is more born of skill, technique, and self-expression.
There are two main strands to technical creativity:
- Programmed Thinking
Relies on logical or structured ways of creating a new product or service.
- Lateral Thinking
Uses more flexible, indirect ways of approaching a problem to generate new ideas.