Creative thinking

Man lives in a world where everything that can exist seems to have been created and developed for him. But civilization continues to develop. The planet, plants, animals, and man himself are not yet fully understood. Tools are still being created to help people get along in this world. And not all the events that take place lend themselves to logic and explanation.

In most cases, a simple person is enough to get knowledge from other people. But it is impossible to move on without learning new things. And besides the usual thinking, which allows us to cognize the world around us, it is necessary and creative, to get new information independently.

The concept and essence of creative thinking

Thinking is the highest cognitive process, consisting in the study and transformation of information. It is not only obtaining information about an object or action, the result is important here. After understanding any data, a person transforms it into his knowledge of reality.

The main difference between creative thinking and ordinary thinking is that the result of the former is not just understanding of information about the object, but the main thing - a completely new solution, idea, action, some discovery or improvement of something old. If, as a result of perception of information, a person comes up with an original, or even just different from the usual variant, it is already creativity.

Creative thinking is also called creative thinking. These are synonyms, just the last name is more often mentioned in foreign sources. Creative thinking in psychology is called divergent, from the word "divergere", to diverge. This concept clearly means the whole essence of such ability - having one knowledge, to find other solutions, often outwardly not having any connection with each other. In common parlance, such thinking is also called non-standard, that is, not corresponding to the generally accepted.

The importance of creative thinking

Formation of creative thinking is necessary not because there are many talented people in the world who love art and know how to create it. Creative thinking is necessary in any profession, and simply in life. The ability to find a way out in a situation when simple methods and skills do not help, the ability to simplify a familiar process, to find an easier way to solve a problem - all these are creative abilities.

Different psychologists give different figures, but it is an established fact that the creative potential in different age categories differs significantly. Among preschoolers high creative abilities are noted in 30-40%, among schoolchildren 7-10%, and among adults creatively active only 2-5%. But this is not because someone is given the gift of creativity and someone is not. The skill of creative thinking is just a skill that can be developed. If a child learns to read letters, sooner or later he will put them into words. The more he reads, the better he will know the Russian language, even on a purely intuitive level, not knowing the theoretical rules, less and less will make mistakes. In the same way it is necessary to develop all other skills.

In this case, it is important to understand the difference between a creative person and creative thinking. It happens that participating in exhibitions needlewomen do not create anything new, acting simply by other people's master classes, repeating other people's products according to schemes and descriptions. And an ordinary manager, who can not create anything with his own hands, constantly comes up with interesting ideas to promote their goods to the customer, constantly increasing sales. Individuality and creative thinking are different things.

Features of creative thinking

The process of creative thinking sometimes passes unnoticed by a person, and sometimes it is purposefully given time. In any case, each of us has to face this ability. We can distinguish some features of creative thinking:

• The ability to transfer old knowledge to new conditions;
• the ability to see novelty in a standard situation or object;
• vision of new features, functions, peculiarities of a familiar object;
• the ability to find an alternative;
• simplification of the problem, finding a more rational solution;
• combining several different techniques, methods, objects into one whole.
• All these techniques of creative thinking is used by every person, but in their own capabilities and quantities.

Development of creative thinking

Many people believe that talent is a God-given gift that is not available to everyone. Someone has it developed strongly, and someone is not even capable of thinking creatively, not to mention creating something. But it is worth paying attention to the fact that creative people usually have the same kind of children. All this is only because they are accustomed from childhood to look at the world differently, they are surrounded by subjects related to creativity, they consider it a norm that in addition to learning knowledge must be able to apply them, not necessarily in the "right" way.

Therefore, the development of creative thinking and imagination should start from childhood. It does not matter whether a person is given perfect hearing, or a good clear voice, the ability to draw, or the talent to create new ones out of ordinary materials - the nature of creative thinking is such that its development does not depend on the data given by nature or genes of parents. This property is developed if you give it enough time.

Creative thinking in children

One of the most urgent tasks of pedagogy is the development of creative thinking of the student. The ability to find different solutions is valued in math, algebra, geometry and physics. For Fine Arts and Technology, these opportunities become the main ones. Composition in Russian and retellings in literature are all indicators of what levels of creative thinking children have developed. And how they will affect their lives as adults.

An important stage in the development of creative thinking of younger children (preschoolers) become almost any action. These can be:

• observations of the surrounding world;
• motor skills;
• drawing;
• a variety of games, both mobile and board games;
• composing non-existent stories, fairy tales, etc.

At this age, you can not blindly limit the child in his imagination. Blue sun and green elephants - this is also the process of formation of fantasy, imagination, and therefore figurative creative thinking.

Creative thinking of junior school students lays the foundation for the child in terms of the ability to think in new ways, to bring interesting ideas into their lives, to be able to find the unusual in the simple. It is the elementary school age that is considered the most important among all stages of learning. Even if we take the fact that there are people who did not study at school at all, and engaged in their education and self-education in adulthood, conscious age, it is clear to everyone that if at this stage the child was engaged, the learning process would have gone in a completely different direction.

Therefore, many adults missed the opportunity to obtain knowledge and skills according to age, easily and unobtrusively. At the stage of junior high school parents and teachers should create all conditions for the child to realize himself at ease, without effort, enjoying it.

Creative thinking of middle and high school students should be aimed at generating new ideas and solutions. The development of creative thinking of schoolchildren is not only one of the stages of personality formation, but also experience in solving future problems, overcoming criticism and the ability to cope with failures.

Methods of creative thinking development

Teaching creative thinking can be done at home, and at school, and in special classes. There are several modern methods, the most common among psychologists and teachers.

Mental maps. It is possible to work both in a group and individually with each person. In the center is the main object or idea, from it come arrows or lines on which it is necessary to decompose the initial concept into points, associations, etc. Further, a network also diverges from each concept. Such an exercise helps to go through several options for the development of events, which activates the work of thinking, allowing you to find answers to the tasks at hand. The technique is used from preschool age, as simple images without words are acceptable. At school and adult age, words and situations can be parsed into parts and components.

Art therapy. Technology for creative thinking, which allows to reflect doubts, thoughts, just feelings of an adult or a child with the help of pictorial techniques. Ideal for persons who are unable or unwilling to work in teams.

Master Classes. In most cases, master classes are conducted using special techniques, but even in this case, the child's or adult's desire to use their own colors, tools or materials, if possible in relation to the object being created, should not be discarded. Here they develop not only the basics of creative thinking, but also practical skills. This includes drawing, sewing, molding, felting, melting, soldering and so on.

In this case, it should be understood that although creative abilities and creative thinking interact here, they can become a problem if the teacher (master) perceives them incorrectly. A person who reproduces perfectly the master's requirements and does not bring anything new, but has created an ideal thing, has not applied creative thinking skills. And another participant, who made a kitty instead of a whale because he does not know how to use his hands, does not know how to mold or felts, has applied creative thinking. Remember the famous phrase "I'm an artist, I see it that way"? It is the one who has created something that is not standard, not required, but completely "their own" that has become a creative person.

Brainstorming. Teamwork between several people. A task is given out, to which it is necessary to offer as many variants of the solution as possible. And allowed any, even the most ridiculous. Record any, even strange answers, common efforts to develop a unified solution. The exercise helps to loosen up, remove restrictions and templates, relieves tension.

The "Six Hats" method. Allows to analyze one object from different points of view. Assumes teamwork.

White Hat. Scientific approach. Information is analyzed, gaps are identified, and the result is given. Knowledge becomes the main thing here, and creative thinking is not applied.

Red hat. Intuitive approach. An object or situation is evaluated without knowledge, at the level of emotions - like, dislike, beautiful, not beautiful, strange, I am delighted, I hate, etc. The student does not need to explain his/her emotions. It is not necessary to explain one's emotions, only guesses and assumptions are important.

Black hat. Critical approach. Assessment of a situation or object from the point of view of possible mistakes, disadvantages, shortcomings and risks. Creative and critical thinking are intertwined here because it is impossible to draw conclusions without making assumptions.

Yellow Hat. Optimal approach. Only the pluses, merits, and benefits of an object or situation are evaluated. The hat is the complete opposite of the black hat.

Green hat. Creative approach. Any fantasy, imaginative solutions are proposed. Suggestions are not discussed. They are simply proposed, brought out and written down.

Blue hat. Managerial Approach. All previous suggestions are collected, the person or group in charge makes a single judgment by combining all the options into a single chain.

The Six Hats method is popular in large companies in many countries. It did not come to Russia so long ago. But from the point of view of psychologists, it is quite progressive and helps to understand the majority of participants, their condition, and the possibility of further development and training.

Creative thinking is a person's ability to perceive information and process it into something new. The result is always a discovery or improvement of something. This ability helps not only people of creative professions, but as an opportunity to solve everyday tasks, generate ideas for work and for life.