Stephen Brookfield - Creative and critical thinking

(Sorry for the late upload, I left this post in the edition mode without knowing. It was mean to be post on August the 16th)

In the video is highly implied that is incredibly relevant to help students to develop or improve their critical and creative thinking skills. All students need this skill to defend their ideas and question others' thoughts. Without this, students and younger people will be conformist with what they are learning and will not stop to think on their own what the topics and new information means to them.

Professor Brookfield  explains that critical thinking is a process in which an individual becomes aware of the assumptions that affect the way they think and then they try to find if what they know is truly viable and accurate. He also mentions that a person that is aware of what he is learning and that thinks creatively  is able to see things different from others, from various and original perspectives and try to avoid using the same reasoning over and over again. What is more, this individual is also capable of express their ideas in original ways, being resourceful and innovative.

Then he talked , making some joke in between about the critically and creatively informed actions and in which things each one is based: 

> Evidence or experience that can be justifiable.

> Assumptions known and checked by experts or facts.

> And lastly the one that stands a chance of achieving its intended consequence viewed from multiple perspectives.

What is more is that Professor Brookfield also talked about the different kind of assumptions human beings create such as the causal in which we explain a sequence of events. Also, the prescriptive that allow us to guess how things will or may happen and finally the paradigmatic that is the one we call common sense or reasoning that let us take things from granted and feel secure about some events in our lives.

To conclude he talked about the four key intellectual traditions: 

> Analytic Philosophy: logical fallacies, argument analysis, deductive, analogical and interferential reasoning.

> Natural Science: Hypothetical/deductive method, a principle of falsifiability. This one was really appealing for me.

> Critical Theory: Uncovering power dynamics and ideological manipulation.

> Pragmatism: an experimental and creative pursuit of beautiful consequences. For example democracy, inclusion, connection. 

At last, I enjoyed the video, I liked the few jokes he made and the examples he propose during his talk. Finally, I think that the Professor Brookfield has so much more to share with us in the future.