OEP 101 Module Topic Four (Four lectures)

OEP-101 Module Topic Four (Four lectures)

Title: Cognitive processes in Learning and Thinking Skills and Problem Solving

Content:

·       Memory     

·       Retrieval

·       Memory strategies for paired associate learning, serial learning and free recall learning

·        Thinking  

·       Creativity

·        Problem solving

·        Developing critical thinking problem solving skills among students

Introduction:

In this lecture we look at a very important human component used in learning. In learning one must receive information from the environment and have mechanism of retaining it. We are talking about memory and learning. Learning involves storing information in the memory; memory is involved in learning. The two are related. Academic performance or competence can only be demonstrated when the retained information or potential is retrieved by the individual. Thinking and the addressing of challenges we face depend on the content we posses. Our lives depend on memory.

The second part of the topic is on thinking processes. You are thinking what you will be learning about thinking. You are asking yourself, “How do I think? What can I do to improve my thinking?” Also you want to know how your students think and what you can do to develop and improve their thinking skills. That we can ask these questions is an indication of having a unique ability that is only found among humans. In our daily experiences we encounter novel situations that pose as problems that need to be solved. We use thinking ability to solve these problems. Solving problems is core to human development. Think of any other creature with the ability of thinking that can do things that humans do.

Objectives:

At the end of this topic the student will be able to:

·        Define and describe sensory register, short-term (working memory) and long-term memory and explain their roles in memory.

·        Describe information processing and identify factors affect the retaining and forgetting of information.

·        Distinguish between episodic, semantic and procedural memory.

·        Define "cognitive teaching" and identify strategies teachers can use to make learning relevant to students' prior experience.

·        Define and describe thinking, reasoning, critical thinking and decision making.

·        Identify characteristics of creativity

·        Outline obstacles and key strategies for problem solving.

·        Illustrate how to teach problem solving and critical thinking.

Body

MEMORY

Memory is that ability we have of encoding, retaining information around us and the experiences we encounter over a period of time and then retrieving that information from our memories. So the first part of memory is on how we store knowledge in the memory (input). There are structures and processes involved in storing information in the memory. Memory structures are part of the functions of the brain. Each structure has its own characteristics in term of its capacity and duration of the stored information. As you can see memory is mostly about sense organs, brain and mental functions. So the structures are not physical chambers in the brain but processes involved in forming memory. The main structures are sensory registers (SR), short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM).

Most of the information we have in the memory has emanated from the environment. It is received through the sensory organs i.e. eyes (vision), ears (audio), skin (warmth, cold, pressure, pain and touch), nose (smell) and tongue (taste). The information from the stimuli has to be encoded i.e. stimulus is converted into the form that can be stored in the brain. Sometimes we encode meaning and imagery. During discussions we process the verbal information and encode its meaning. As an example think of some Swahili sayings. Encoding imagery involves the forming of mental pictures. It is not rare to have in the memory pictures of past events that cannot be easily described in words (for those who love football remember the scoring of a special goal). In classroom teaching the teacher uses pictures to aid students to learn a specific object or event. Echoic memory stores audio sensations like tone of a nice piece of music or voice of your beloved teacher. Iconic memory deals with visual sensations from the environment. Episodic memory concerns events in relation to time and location of that event, for example remember the day you graduated or the day somebody in your family wedded. Semantic memory has a record of facts and concepts we have formed overtime. Tulving (2002) postulates that, semantic information is based on the content of episodic memory. Procedural memory is involved in learning the sequence of motor skills, for example the sequence of writing letters or riding a bicycle).

The most crucial factor in the acquisition part of the memory is attention, i.e. the ability to focus on one aspect of the environment while ignoring others. Attention known as sensory gating enables us to focus on the information entering through one sensory organ while putting a damper on the other sense organs. Selective attention helps us to focus only on one aspect of information among many that are being sensed by one specific organ. In the classroom the student is bombarded by a number of stimuli at any one moment. S/he can ignore all or pay attention to one stimulus, likely on the teacher’s instructions that will then be processed for storing. In classroom learning we use sensory gating when we only use our ears to listen to the teacher while blocking information from entering in the other senses. We use selective attention to attend only to the voice of the teacher while ignoring all other sounds around.

We only store information that we pay attention to. The messages we ignore or we are not aware of cannot enter the memory and thus cannot be processed. Encoding process can either be automatic or effortful. In automatic processing we unconsciously process the information. You processed much of what happened on your graduation day or when you got a very dreadful experience (e.g. an accident) without even deciding to do so. Sometimes it is very difficult not to process some of the stimuli. In effortful processing we deliberately make a conscious effort to store some information or messages. You remember that you were reciting multiplication tables several times (some of us for days) when you were in primary school. What we have to bear in mind is that effortful processing is necessary and effective, and students should be encouraged to practise it.

Sensory registers (SR) is the first structure of the memory that holds raw information from the environment for about one to three seconds, just long enough to decide whether to process it or not. Sensory registers have a capacity of storing very few items. Normally we receive more information than we can process. As mentioned above, due to sensory characteristics a student has to recognize and pay attention to the incoming information for further processing. Recognition involves determining the information as important and needing to be stored in the memory. Information not processed decays and fades away from the memory. The information we pay attention to is selected for processing to short-term memory.

Short-term memory has a limited capacity of holding between five and nine chunks of information (Miller, 1956). A chunk is information grouped in a meaningful way that can be stored in the memory. It is difficult to hold 0123876954 in STM. However it becomes easier if you chunk it into 0123-876-954. So instead of memorizing nine numbers (items) now you have four chunks, thus increasing the storing capacity. Think of chunking in relation to money in circulation and a wallet. It is impossible to put one million shillings of one hundred shilling coins in a wallet but it is quite easy if the same amount is put in the wallet in ten thousand shilling notes. So, to have more information in the memory the student and you should practice chunking.

STM is also limited in duration. Without rehearsal information can last for only about 20 seconds. I think you have experienced someone telling you his/her name only to find out you cannot remember it shortly afterwards! This is a result of engaging in conversation before processing the name into the next stage. To store new knowledge you need to rehearse i.e. repeat the name several times until it is established in the memory. So the amount of time spent on learning new material has an influence on forming memories. Processing in STM determines what information has to go onto LTM and the rest is forgotten through decay.

Short-term memory is also known as a working-memory because we consciously process raw information from the sensory registers and we give it a meaning. What you are currently thinking about is taking place in the STM. It is in STM that we form connections between different sensations that we receive from one object. We form association between a picture of a radio (vision) and the sound from the radio (audio). It is involved in many cognitive functions such as problem-solving and planning. It coordinates the information to pay attention to or needed when reasoning or making decision. STM also helps us to do two different tasks at the same time as long they do not involve the same sense organ. You can speak and see at the same time for example I can see a teacher speaking and watching his/her class at the same time. However, it is not possible to watch two events at the same time or taste two things at the same time.

Long-term memory is vast and more durable than the STM. Once information has been processed into LTM it is catalogued like new books in the library for future retrieval when needed. LTM capacity is unlimited. In normal circumstances once information enters the LTM it can remain there forever. I think you can still recall the taste of food you liked when you were a child, or names of your primary school friends.

LTM is significant in our lives since it holds all that we have learned and experienced. Information in LTM includes emotions, opinions, attitude and expectations that influence our behaviour. Just think of relearning about everything each day due to lack of memory!

LTM connects previous experiences and new information, thus making us able to adapt to new challenges. Due to LTM students are able to accommodate new learning to the previous knowledge. We always prepare our lessons fully aware that all that is in a topic cannot be covered in one lesson, so we know that the content of the new lesson will be connected to the information of the previous lesson.

There are several models of how the memory functions. Remember that memory is a construct and thus the models are abstract representations. The model below was made by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968).

                             Attention                                           Transfer

Sensory memory--------------→ short-term memory------------------→long-term memory

                                                   Rehearsal                   Retrieval

The above model is not very definitive since the memory system is obviously more complex with more process involved in storing and retrieving information.

Retrieval

The memory system is not only on storing information but also on the mechanism of retrieving the information in the memory when it is needed. When conscious we are constantly in the process of retrieving information, messages and skills in the memory. Think of any situation when you will not need the use your memory. Retrieval is a process just like encoding i.e. processing input and processing output. This process involves sorting out and transferring information from LTM to STM for use. Sometimes it is so instant that it seems like automatic for example recalling your name or that of your country. Other times we deliberately search for the information in the memory and it may require a lot of effort and time to retrieve it. We all know that there are occasions when we are able to retrieve the information (remember) and in other occasions we are unable to retrieve it even when we are sure that it is in the memory (forget). This becomes really bad when attempting an examination or introducing someone we know.  Think of your memory as a big box containing many things that you have put yourself there. Remembering is like sorting out and finding a specific object in the box; while forgetting is searching for an object in the box without success.

Let us first focus on remembering. There are several ways of getting information out of the memory. Recall occurs when we retrieve information learned earlier in the absence of clear clues. A good example is when you retrieve names, not faces, of your secondary school classmates or the content of a History course. Also in answering most essays test and fill in the blank questions, we use recall. Recognition refers to the ability to compare the incoming information with the one already in the memory. If the two match then you have recognised that you have seen/heard them before. Normally recognition is easier than recall. Quite often you people say I remember this guy but I can’t retrieve his/her name. Police depend on recognition when the offended person identifies the culprit in a lineup. This is easier than describing the person to the police i.e. recall the person. Recognition is used when selecting possible correct answers in the multiple choice tests or matching items. Relearning is a form of retrieving information that seemed to have been forgotten. We spend less amount of time on learning the same information compared to time used when we learned it for the first time. One bit of information retrieves other related information.

Now let us see why we forget i.e. unable to retrieve information in the memory. A student cannot forget something s/he has not learned. Forgetting involves information in the memory but due to some reasons it is inaccessible to the individual. We learn a lot in the course but forget some of the information when doing tests and consequently get a lower score. After the examination we retrieve the information (when it is not helpful), thus proving that we have more information in our LTM than we can retrieve. Most of the forgetting happens just after actively stopping the learning of the respective material (Elliot et al, 2000).

As noted earlier most of the information entering SM and some in STM is forgotten since it fades away due to lack of attention. This is a natural phenomenon that takes place even in LTM in the form of decay whereby we forget unused information in the memory. Note that you may forget information you encoded a long time back but at the same token remember information encoded at the same time that has been used regularly. Now this is between you and me. “There are tests which I scored very highly when I was in college, but if given the same test today I will perform miserably!” Why is this so? It is because I have never revisited the material since last preparing for the test. So, information encoded in the LTM long time ago and not constantly used will naturally decay.

Sometimes we forget because of interference when learning. A number of studies have shown that new learning interferes with previous learning i.e. new learning impairs the retrieval of the material of the other learning. In proactive interference prior learning inhibits the retrieval of new information while in retroactive interference new knowledge inhibits the retrieval of the previous knowledge. This usually occurs when the materials in both situations are somewhat similar. If one is given list “A” to memorize and then immediately given list “B” to memorize, the chances of memory interference increase. Learning of list “A” will make one to forget some items in list “B” i.e. proactive interference. Learning of list “B” will lead to forgetting some items in list “A” i.e. retroactive interference. Forgetting would have been minimal if one had not followed the other or the interval between the two learnings had been greater. 

According to psychoanalysis perspective we use repression to block painful information from being retrieved. The aim is to avoid anxiety caused by the information in the memory and also to defend self-concept. In case you have done something that is very embarrassing every time you remember it you become very uncomfortable and you deliberately try to get this information out of the STM and return it to the LTM. So, we can say that sometimes we are motivated to forget! 

I think you can recall about extinction whereby the response is forgotten due to the lack of reinforcement. This type of forgetting depends on schedules of reinforcement used on maintaining the response. You also are aware that spontaneous recovery is similar to relearning.

Position of the material in a list has some influence on memory based on phenomenon known as the serial position effect. If you read items in a list you are more likely to remember items at the beginning and at the end of the list, and more likely to forget items in the middle of the list. I think you have heard young pupils learning to count saying the numbers at the beginning for example one, two, three and then jumping the middle numbers to say the last ones, nine, ten.

One’s state of emotion during the retrieving process may lead to forgetting. In an examination situation, if a student is preoccupied with fear of failure s/he will not be able to concentrate on retrieving the information in the memory. Also, if the student has developed learned helplessness s/he will not be motivated to retrieve information since failure is expected. 

We normally pay less attention to information deemed to be of no significance or meaningless to us. Information gained in such a situation will not be rehearsed and consequently will fade away. A student expecting to be a lawyer in the future will not pay much attention to physics or chemistry.

Note that in this lecture we cannot exhaust the list of all factors that lead to forgetting. Each student has some unique reason(s) for not retrieving knowledge in the memory.

Improving Memory

Now let’s turn to how you can improve your memory and that of your students. Remember that all of us have memory and use it every time. Also, one cannot increase the capacity of memory in each structure. However, we have previously noted that the LTM cannot be filled with knowledge. We also know that we can develop skills and strategies of efficiently storing and retrieving information in our memories.  Furthermore, as teachers we can facilitate students to improve their memories.

I know that you want to get a very high score in your coming examination. Kendra Cherry (retrieved 2011) has, based on cognitive psychology literature, suggested the following ways to improve memory; enhance recall and increase the retention of information:

       i.            Focus your attention on the materials to be learned. Attention is the key to processing information in SM to STM and then to LTM. Avoid any situation that distracts attention.

     ii.            Avoid cramming by establishing regular study sessions. Cramming is a method used to store information in LTM intensively in a short period of time. Space your sessions; do not wait until a few days before the examination date to memorize the content of the subject.

  iii.            Structure and organize the information you are studying. You can make your memory as a well organized library or it can be a mess of lots of books. In an organized library it is quite easy to locate a book. But it is difficult to find a book in a room where books have not been arranged in good order. Organize information in the memory by grouping similar terms and concepts together.

  iv.            Utilize mnemonic devices together.

     v.            Elaborate and rehearse the information you are studying. Remember rehearsing is important in encoding information in the LTM. Elaborate rehearsing involves reading several times for details of the concept from different sources.

  vi.            Relate information to things you already know. Take time to think about the relationship of the new information and what is in your memory and then make connection of the two. The key word here is deliberately making (thinking) the connections.

vii.            Visualize concepts to improve memory and recall. Pay close attention to diagrams, charts and photographs in your textbooks. If they are not available try to construct your own when making personal notes. In some cases you can highlight some parts to draw attention to their importance or in organize the material into related groups.

viii.            Teach another person new concepts. Most of us want to gain more information from other persons. However, in improving memory it is better to teach another person the knowledge you have just encoded. This approach involves practicing recalling the information and thus it enhancing your understanding of the new material. If you can teach another person definitely you can easily retrieve the material in the future.

  ix.            Pay extra attention to difficult information. Yes, there are relatively easy parts and difficult parts in the material you study. It is also true that the position of information has some effect on retrieving information in the memory; remember serial position effect. Spend more time and energy by rehearsing and memorizing difficult parts.

     x.            Vary your study routine. One way of improving recall is to occasionally change your normal routine in terms of time of study, location and duration. You can review your study at different time of the study e.g. if you are accustomed to study in the evening try to make review in the morning. 

Put the above suggestions into practice. There is a difference between knowing about something and the actual skills involved. Also in addition be relaxed when studying and retrieving from the memory. Anxiety and stress block access to memory; develop techniques for relaxation. Above all look for more information from other sources on how to improve your memory. How about learning metamemory i.e. knowledge on your storage and retrieval process. It will help you know about your abilities and the approaches you use to retrieve information from the memory.

 As a teacher you should help your students to enhance their memories. What is the point of teaching if the material presented is forgotten by your students? Bear in mind that all students can be trained to improve their memories. The word “improve” implies that students use their memories at all times, what you do is to make them use it more effectively and efficiently. Remember that encoding, retention and retrieval processes are equally significant in student’s academic performance. Studying should all be about deliberately processing memory into LTM and retrieving it when needed.

Below are some recommendations for enhancing a student’s memory from different sources:

       i.            Help students to develop intrinsic motivation towards your lesson. Remember that there are two ways of processing memory i.e. automatic processing and effortful processing. Intrinsic motivation is both significant in these two processes. From the beginning the student will be relaxed and motivated to process the subject material.

     ii.            Students should learn to focus on the material being presented. You already know that attention is critical in processing information to the LTM. Where there is no attention, there is no memory. Sometimes it is not easy to focus on the material being presented since there are many variables that distract attention i.e. paying attention to other things rather than the material presented! As a teacher you can be of help by making your lessons interesting and not boring, meaningless or too difficult to the students.

  iii.            Help students to be relaxed when encoding and retrieving information. Stress and anxiety are among the factors that adversely affect attention. As a teacher make learning in your class stress free and help students to develop techniques of dealing with anxiety. You can get these techniques in the Guidance and Counseling Course.

  iv.            Students should minimize the effects of interference. Remember about proactive and retroactive interferences. A student should avoid learning material that is similar but different in close succession. Such materials should be studied at different times or the interval between the studying of the subject should be long. This will reduce interference by giving time for the old material to solidify and increasing chances of easily encoding the new material.

     v.            Help students to make the material meaningful to themselves. Once a student realizes that the material is significant to his/her life s/he will strive to understand it, thus relating it to his/her life and consequently retrieving it relatively easily.

  vi.            Students should be encouraged to take some time to relate the new information with material already in their memory. This will lead to the good organization of the material in the memory easy to retrieve. The essence here is that enough time is required for a student to deliberately connect the new knowledge with the previous one.

vii.            Encourage students to use as many senses as possible when encoding the material. Material stored in different forms is not easily forgotten. Also they should be encouraged to develop elaboration strategies whereby a student personally adds more information on what s/he is learning. Remember that elaboration cannot be done by anybody else besides the respective student.

viii.            Urge your students to use imagery. Encourage students to form their own pictures of the material being presented. For example, in learning geography encourage them to form pictures of location or activity; in history give them a chance to form pictures of the sequence and settings of the event.  Imagery can be used in all the subjects and concepts.

  ix.            Encourage your students to verbally describe concepts they have been learning. In study groups each student should be encouraged to teach. The student should be made aware that s/he is teaching others for improving his/her memory processes. In short, it is one way of making a student active in his/her own learning. Cajoling incorrect descriptions or the use of punishment should not be entertained when a student is teaching.

     x.            Encourage your students to over-learn material. Students should know that learning once or twice is not enough to solidify material in the LTM. Remember that we earlier said that most of the forgetting takes place just after learning the material for the first time. Rehearsing the material many times until one can reproduce it perfectly several times is necessary for easy retrieval. To minimize fading and decaying regular revision of the material should strongly be emphasized.

  xi.            Encourage students to develop their own cues and mnemonics. Cues used when encoding are very important in retrieving learned material. Cues developed should be those that can easily be present when retrieving the material. Sometimes one is forced to form mnemonics when memorizing related material. It may take time but it is worth doing it. Chunking should be encouraged since it increases memory capacity and makes it easier to retrieve a large amount of information. Developing cues, mnemonics and chunking make a student active rather than passive in his/her learning.

xii.            Students should practise retrieving information. Retrieving involves some deliberate effort to search material in the LTM and transfer it to the STM, the working memory. A student should be encouraged to construct questions and then practise answering them. This practice will make student realize whether s/he has learned and has the ability to retrieve it. Regular class tests should be used by students as a mechanism for learning to retrieve material and as well as a tool to determine academic performance. 

xiii.            From Santrock (2004) we advise teachers to: be aware of individual differences in student’s attention skills. As we will see latter there are some exceptional children with problems on paying attention. I think you are aware of students who are always restless. You need to devise means of helping them to focus on learning tasks so that they can encode information and skills.

xiv.            Motivate students to remember material by understanding rather than by rotely memorizing it. Memorization is good in rehearsing material for STM but not efficient in retrieving information in the LTM.

THINKING AND REASONING

To most psychologists thinking is the ability to manipulate and transform mental representations. By this definition we see that thinking is a cognitive process that involves information in the memory.  Mental representations are in various forms including:

Ø Mental images. These are visual images in the mind representing objects or events. When asked about your worst teacher you “see” his/her image and sometimes his/her actions. “See” is in quotation marks because you do not need eyes to access and/or retrieve the images in the memory. What we have in the brain are encoded visual sensations. Students use mental images when drawing maps or performing science experiments. When planning a study tour you use visual images in making some of the decisions.

Ø Concepts are basic units of semantic memory organized in categories that share common characteristics. The units can be in the form of objects, events or people. Concepts enable us to organize complex information into a simpler form; classify new objects into existing concepts; and to adapt behaviours to new different situations.

We manipulate these representations to analyse our experiences, to think critically and creatively, to solve problems and to fantasize. Thinking encompasses concrete aspects like kicking the ball or abstract ideas like defining democracy; it involves reflecting on the past experiences and the future ones (how did I perform in the last psychology test and what will the final examination be like). 

Reasoning

Reasoning is a logical thinking of processing information with the aim of reaching a conclusion. Reasoning helps us to make decisions, acquire new knowledge and solve problems. Logic i.e. the science or method of reasoning enables us to develop solutions to the problems we face without having to rely on trial and error method which is time consuming and inefficient in complex situations. If one wants to build a house one will first reason on the type of house one wants to build, what materials to use and where the house will be built before building it. In solving a mathematical problem a student has to have stages of solving the problem before starting to write.  Just imaging making decisions without first forming possible solutions to the problem! Sometimes it will be very dangerous and time consuming too.  

Most of the reasoning in reaching a decision is done by two approaches namely deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning.  In deductive reasoning we reason from general or universal principles to a conclusion regarding a specific case. The general principles are assumed to be universally true based on human experiences; and then they are used to determine their implications on a specific situation. In solving mathematics deductive reasoning is the one mostly applied. The best example is the proposition that if X then Y i.e. if x occurs then it implies y. If all females are human beings and Bahati is a female, therefore Bahati is a human being. Thick clouds are followed by rain, and water makes dry clothes wet. I can see dark clouds, so it is going to rain soon and I have to collect my clothes hung outside into the house. 

In inductive reasoning one starts with several specific facts and from them one develops a general principle. Induction is used to develop theories and laws in the scientific fields. Remember that B. F. Skinner made several observations in the “Skinner Box” to come up with the operant conditioning learning theory; and Sir. Isaac Newton’s law of gravity is based on observation that all objects fall to the ground. Both these scientist made specific conclusions based on a number of observations.

In our daily life we use both inductive and deductive reasoning to make decisions and solve problems. Which one is best for reaching a conclusion depends on the situations. However, it is worth noting that results based on deductive reasoning are more accurate than those based on inductive reasoning. That is the reason why in psychology most of conclusions based on observations are taken with caution when making generalizations. One is liable to find one specific situation that does not fit the conclusion.

I have heard many teachers encouraging students to respond by saying “think hard”. The implication is that teachers also want their students to use thinking skills when learning; they should not just transfer information into the LTM.  Now let us look at the strategies used in thinking. Remember that students and you use these skills in our daily encounters. The aim is to be aware of them with the intention of improving them.

The Bloom Taxonomy

“Taxonomy” as used by Benjamin Bloom et al. (1956) refers to a classification system in a hierarchy. The aim of taxonomy is to provide educational objectives as related to the level of thinking involved.  The objectives are in three main sections, namely cognitive domain (cognitive functions); affective domain (emotional response); and psychomotor domains (motor activity that may require coordination of different parts of the body). Education objectives as expressed in the curriculum include the three domains e.g. students developing thinking skills (cognitive), participating in sports (motor) and love of their country and cultural values (affective domain).

In this part we focus on cognitive domain and we will focus on the other domains latter in the course. Cognitive domain is divided into six major classes, starting with the simplest form of thinking and progressing to relatively more complex ones.

Biehler and Snowman (1982) described the classes as follows:

       i.            Knowledge of specifics. In this level the students process information for recalling purposes. I believe you still remember the definition of recall. Thinking is expressed in: Definition of terms (symbols and terms one needs to know) and of specific facts (facts like names and important dates). Knowledge of ways and means of dealing with specifics (e.g. rules used to solve a specific problem, knowledge of a sequence); knowledge of classifications and categories (e.g. different types of an object); knowledge of criteria (factors needed to make a judgment); and knowledge of methodology namely ways of solving a problem.

     ii.            Comprehension. This class includes the ability to make translation namely to communicate in another form rather than the way it was received e.g. describing a situation in one’s own words; interpretation (ability to reorganize an idea) and extrapolation (to go beyond the given data). The main focus in this level is the ability to remember information.

  iii.            Application. The ability to apply principles in actual situation or to solve problems for example boiling water to avoid infectious diseases; using mathematical principles in making a sketch of a house.

  iv.            Analysis. The ability to break down complex ideas into simpler parts, to see how they are related or organized (discussing Arusha Declaration, Universal Human Rights).

     v.            Synthesis. The ability to rearrange the parts of ideas or objects into a new whole. Sometimes existing ideas are combined to form a new idea like using parts of Arusha Declaration and Human Rights to make a New Constitution.

  vi.            Evaluation. Ability to make a correct judgment or decision based on internal evidence or external criteria (make a review of an article, detect contradiction in a speech by a politician).

The above illustration indicate that information received can be processed at different levels; and mastering of skills of the lower levels is a prerequisite for gaining thinking skills of the upper levels of thinking. Based on discussions with teachers I have noted the confusion between application and knowledge of methodology. These two are quite different. Most people in Tanzania know what to do to avoid cholera. If asked what needs to be done to avoid getting cholera they will answer “by boiling and drinking boiled water” (knowledge of methodology). The answer does not constitute application of knowledge since some of these same people will not boil their drinking water and as a result will get cholera. Application in this situation involves the actual boiling of drinking water.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking includes thinking reflectively, and productively, and evaluating the evidence (Santrock, 2004). In critical thinking one does not accept a proposed idea or make a judgment without first deliberately doubting the proposition by thinking about the context and methods used to reach it (i.e. preposition). Critical thinking occurs when one decides what to believe in, what course of action to take, reflection on deciding what is credible or not, and evaluating between what is false (or irrelevant) or based on true premises. So, according to Scriven and Paul  (1996) critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

Critical thinking by students is characterized by questioning the information received, even from the teacher. However, in many learning/teaching experiences in our schools, such as in setting and marking of examinations; teachers’ mental setup of not accepting alternative responses to their questions and punishing incorrect responses (sometimes the responses are correct but labeled incorrect by teachers); and curriculum demands, students are forced to give only one acceptable response. Many textbooks in our schools, especially those geared at preparing students for national examination have no component of engaging the reader into reflective thinking. This leads to students being encouraged to memorize instead of being taught to develop critical thinking.

 Developing students’ critical thinking

Teaching critical thinking skills should be a component in students’ learning processes since they will use them in making personal decisions in their lives and in addressing challenges facing the society. The teacher is the most appropriate person to make students develop critical thinking.

Santrock (2004) in citing Perkins and Tishman (1997) suggested that teachers should include the following skills in their teaching in order to develop critical thinking among students:

Ø Open-mindedness. Encourage students to avoid narrow thinking by searching for different opinions.

Ø Intellectual curiosity. This refers to tasks that require cognitive processes. Students should be encouraged to wonder, probe, question, and inquire. This involves students deliberately thinking about different aspects of the lesson and examining facts rather than just being passive. There is nothing wrong with students discovering inconsistencies in the material being presented and recognizing unstated assumptions.

Ø Planning and strategy. In some lessons involve students in developing plans, setting goals, finding directions and in seeking solutions. They have to recognize problems/challenges, be in the position to address them by gathering relevant information and organizing it to draw conclusions and make generalizations.

Ø Intellectual carefulness. There is a tendency of students to leave the checking of their class work on teachers. They believe they lack the ability to evaluate their work and think it is only the teacher who can make the correct decisions on their performance. This state of mind can be rectified by teachers encouraging students to check for inaccuracies and errors in their intellectual work e.g. essays and responses. One has to evaluate conclusions and generalizations that one has reached against relevant criteria and standards. 

Furthermore Adsit, Ed. (1997) based on special issue of Teaching of Psychology 1995 Volume 22 on critical thinking identified the following strategies of teaching critical thinking:

Ø Stressing the use of ongoing classroom assessment techniques. To give students tasks that will facilitate and monitor students’ critical thinking.

Ø Cooperative learning strategies. Put students in learning groups to foster critical thinking when students actively participate in learning. In groups students develop the ability to communicate effectively with others in discussing and finding solutions to complex problems (Some teachers give a group of students a joint project). Students also get feedback from group mates.

Ø Case study/Discussion Method. Provide students with cases without conclusions for discussion. This will allow students to form their own conclusions.

Ø Using Questions. Teachers should require students to construct questions on the lesson. In groups students should ask questions to each other.

PROBLEM SOLVING

One of the functions of thinking is to solve problems and address challenges that we encounter. Encountering problems is part of human life. Some of the problems are quite simple while others are very complex. Note that we all, teachers and students included, solve some of the problems correctly but sometimes we fail. The point is that in this section you are only being made aware of the processes involved in problem solving with the belief that we can develop and improve strategies of solving problems. Problem solving means finding the best way or strategy for reaching a goal; for example finding a cure for AIDS, raising people’s awareness of the effects of corruption or  teaching students the best strategies of solving a problem. Problem solving is the crucial component of humans’ development.

As we saw above, sometimes we systematically use deductive or inductive reasoning in solving some of the problems. Most psychologists believe that the following steps are engaged in problem solving:

       i.            Finding and defining the problem. Before one can embark on problem solving one must recognize the problem. A student (or a teacher) who always comes to school late and does not recognize this as a problem will not even start thinking about addressing it. After recognition follows the understanding of the problem by defining it. Sometimes teachers and students can recognize the problem but fail to understand it. To solve the problem correctly one needs to understand the nature and the specific facts of the problem including its causes. According to Feldman (1999) there are three kinds of problems, namely arrangement problems requiring group of elements reorganized or rearranged to meet a certain criteria; problems of inducing structure whereby one is needed to identify relationships among existing elements with the goal of establishing new relationships; and transformation problems which consist of changing the original state into the new goal state. Only after understanding the problem then one can move on to the next stage.

     ii.            Problem presentation. This stage refers to the way we represent the problem to ourselves by making it meaningful to ourselves. Problem solving is a personal internal process and working for the solution depends on problem presentation. Presentation and organizing the problem depends on the nature of the problem, some are complex while others are simple. Also presentation can be in the form of various ways. One analyses the problem learning about it, tries to see it in different perspectives, and goes beyond the surface of it. In some cases one might use different sources for correct presentation. Students seek clarification on the questions from the teacher.

  iii.            Formulating possible solutions. In this stage one generates possible solutions to the problem. One thinks of as many solutions as possible. Creativity plays a great role formulating solutions. In other incidences one has to consider similar previous problems and recall how they were solved i.e. what is required is retrieving the solution from the LTM. Algorithms are strategies based on using established formulas and instructions as means of solutions. Automatically they generate correct solutions when used properly.  Trial and error is one of the possible solutions but as said earlier it is inefficient. Subgoaling involve dividing the problem into intermediate stages, with the aim of solving the stages sequentially until the final goal is achieved i.e. the solution to a problem. The main determining factor here is appropriately identifying the stages in correct sequence since stages can, in some cases, be stumbling block in problem solving. In rare case an insight can be a possible solution. Insight refers to a sudden awareness of the solution to a problem. However insight depends on the previous experience with the elements involved in the problem (Feldman, 1999). In rational thinking problem solving method one sets the ideal situations; identifies current situation; makes a comparison of ideal situations and current situation to identify the problem situation; breaks down the problem to its causes; conceives the solution alternatives to the causes; and lastly before implementation evaluate and choose the reasonable solution alternatives (Shibata, 1998).

  iv.            Evaluation of the solutions. This stage involves two steps. The first is to ensure that all important factors are in the plan and each has the essence of the problem. It also evaluates all the possible solutions by considering all the advantages and disadvantages of each solution before the implementation of the plan. Sometimes modification is required. The final step is to make evaluation if the strategies used were effective in achieving the goal. Feedback from others or consequences of the solution form part of mechanism of evaluation. A wrong answer implies that the strategies used are incorrect, and a right answer implies that the strategies used are the appropriate ones. 

Stumbling blocks to solving problems

It is common that although we have the ability of solving problems we do not come up with the appropriate solutions. Now let us see some of the factors that hinder us from solving problems. It is important to know about them so that we can avoid them and help our students to do the same too.

Santrock, (2004) based on studies identified the following obstacles:

Ø Lack of motivation. Even if one has the ability and strategies to solve problems one must be motivated to use the strategies to solve problems. I have heard teachers telling their students, “I know you can do this sum but you are intentionally not attempting it because you are lazy or not interested!” 

Ø Fixation. Sometimes we make wrong Problem presentation, ending up fixated at using a particular strategy that previously worked in a problem that looks similar. This is the result of not looking at the problem afresh to form appropriate problem presentation. Mental set is a type of fixation whereby the individual fails to solve the problem because of having the same view that worked in the past. In functional fixedness we are unable to solve a problem because we view things in their normal use. The world and situations change and thus one has to change his/her mind set to solve problems.

Ø Inadequate emotional control. Emotional aspects are essential in problem solving. Too much anxiety can prevent one from concentrating on solving the problem. Remember test anxiety undermines performance.

Feldman (1999) mentions the following factors in regard to inhibiting reasoning:

Ø Distraction by irrelevant information. In problem solving it is essential to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information in the problem. Very often irrelevant information leads one astray from reaching the solution.

Ø Belief bias. This is similar to fixation but different in that we abandon logical rules and base strategy on our own personal beliefs. This happens when we start with a wrong premise. Can you believe that some individuals kill people with albinism with the expectation of solving business related problems? This strategy is based on a very wrong premise.

CREATIVITY

Creativity is more than critical thinking. In many school problem situations students and their teachers do focus on a logical way, including critical thinking, of coming to one specific expected solution. However, in problem solving some individuals come up with creative solutions. What is creativity? According to Harris (1998) creativity is the ability to imaging or to invent something new, to generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing ideas.  So, creativity is more than just coming up with the correct solution in a logical format as in normal problem solving methods; it has to show originality. Harris further notes that creativity is an attitude to accept change, a flexibility of outlook and the habit of enjoying good work and looking for ways to improve it; and that creativity is a process of working hard and continually improving ideas and solutions by making alterations and refinement to the results. 

Creativity is found in all cultures, professions and in our daily encounters. There are several theories that try to explain why some people are creative while others are not. Below are some of the factors/characteristics that are associated with creativity (derived from a number of sources):

Ø Divergent thinking. This is the ability to generate new possibilities, solutions and inventions that are appropriate and correct as opposed to convergent thinking where one comes up with a solution that is based on known knowledge (Guilford, 1967). So, a creative student will come up with several answers whereas for the same question other students will all have one similar answer.

Ø Positive attitude.  According to Harris (1998) creative people are curious to know things just for the sake of knowing. They also, constructively challenge existing ideas/assumptions and beliefs that most problems can be solved. They persevere on solving problems since they believe that there is no quick answer to a problem. Mistakes are welcomed and failure is taken as an opportunity that something needs to be done. In short, creative people have the sense that they can do it.

Ø Willingness to take risk. Creative people are willing to risk in the venture that may bring high payoffs (Sternberg and Lubart, 1996). They believe that in the long run other people will find their ideas and inventions valuable. They have the ability to suspend judgment when new ideas come rather than condemning the results outright looking for what is good in outcomes that may seem bad.

Fostering students’ creativity

Although in the above paragraphs we said it is difficult to determine the causes of creativity, it is quite possible to teach your students to be more creative than they really are. We say “more creative” since students have elements of creativity that they utilize in their normal encounters outside the classroom setting. Based on different sources the following are strategies for fostering creativity among students:

Ø Encourage students to think divergently. Students do not have to follow the same sequence in problem solving but rather be encouraged to think in other ways and generate as many appropriate solutions as possible.

Nickerson (1998) proposes that the teacher should create conditions that are:

Ø Building basic skills. Basic learning skills are essential for critical thinking and more so for creativity. These skills are fundamental in creativity since lacking them leads to deficiency in learning processes in classroom setting.

Ø Stimulating and reward curiosity and exploration. Students have natural curiosity that needs to be nurtured by giving work that stimulates generations of new ideas as opposed to questions that require only specific answers.

Ø Building intrinsic motivation. Students should enjoy looking for answers for quenching their curiosity rather than on getting external rewards. Learning need not be based on being watched by the teacher.

Ø Promoting supportable beliefs about creativity. Teachers should avoid over controlling students based on dictating what is expected of them or ridiculing their responses. Criticizing students’ work diminishes creativity. Students need to be flexible in responding to challenges.

Ø Encouraging confidence and a willingness to take risks. Students should have the sense of “I can do it” and be willing to attempt without fear of failure or punishment. Incorrect answers are used to preserve until one is successful. 

Ø Teaching techniques and strategies for facilitating creative performance. Teachers have to create conditions that lead students to develop self-mechanisms that sustain creativity.  This includes redefining problems or considering the opposite of how they understand things.

Summary

In this topic we looked at different structures of memory. Information needs to be encoded to store in the memory. There are factors that either enhance or impede the processing of storing and retrieving information in the memory. The lecture also identified strategies for improving your memory and helping student to enhance their memories.

The last part of this topic focused on the thinking processes, critical thinking, stages used in problem solving and creativity. Also we looked at factors that may hinder thinking and interfere with reasoning and problem solving. The last part was on the means a teacher can use to foster critical thinking and creativity among his/her students.