CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 THE BACKGROUND
Critical Thinking: Thinking does in the mind. Halpern D.F(1984).Critical Thinking leads to precision and relevance, it is way of thinking positively not negatively, also method of thinking about thinking which is the key to think critically, when one control his/her conscience thought processes without conscience thought process one control with other people ideas. Critical thinking founding views in mind or planning in our mind by ourselves without letting public to know about it (Marzano, Robert) et al. the skill of critical thinking are the;
(a) Honesty
(b) Rationality
(c) Self-awareness
(d) Openmindedness
(e) Discipline
(f) Judgement
(g) Tolerance
(a) Honesty – Thinking in honesty way which is positively not negatively (D.N) (198) pp. 18-9.
(b) Rationality: The ability to combine problems together and reason what to do not just to take non-critical thinking also finding the best explanation on evidence and ignore the ones that is not good.
(c) Self-awareness: Thinking most have thought, conscience and them mind have be aware of what thought is in the mind, be aware of the person thought.
(d) Open-mindedness: The mind have to be aware and opened to have a positive thoughts, not non-critical thinking.(e) Discipline: The thinking must be well checked and well thought understand the right thoughts and wrong one. It will be well trained in other to achieve a critical thought and creative thought.
(f) Judgement: The mind must be checked and find different and collect the good thought and avoid the unused ones.(g) Tolerance: Thinking must have self-evidence, tolerance the ones the person feels as a good thought before saying or using it to solve problems.
Creative Thinking: The ability to give the interpretation of mind can be positive on negative. One would have thought that more enlightened attitude towards person would have thought that greatest appreciation of person’s capacity to be aware to thinks for himself and to reason about to metaphysical and epistemological issues. Also it insistence on the idiosyncratic character of persons experience liberated that person from treatment as an underdeveloped adult at school and at home. Various categories of critical and creative thinking are:
a) Observes self in the process of thinking.
b) Monitors and corrects self in the process
c) Can suspend thinking, judgements, and evaluations.
d) Knows the difference between thinking, sensing, and margining and can use each selectively.
e) Checks for errors and has standards for the communication of ideas.
f) Asking Questions from observations.
g) Giving reasons and distinguishing good reasons from bad ones.
h) Co-operation/collaboration stages.
i) Dialogue spirit requires care and commitment.
j) Critical and creative thinking, Dialogue is also essential for the building of common purposes and understandings in terms of any kind of growth.
k) It is an art to be though, studied and practical and as such it is not a result of a quick fix up.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problem stems from the type of education we and our children received which is completely benefit of the most relevant existential value for survival in the post modern epoch of our time. Nigeria Education system ignore the philosophy of any subjects in tantamount to committing academic suicide because critical and creative thinking community of inquiry is the ground-norm of the foundations for any authentic existence. The children find themselves suffocating and smoldering under the intolerable situation of academic bankruptcy and intellectual blackout due to the putative academic activities going on in our schools. The lack of reasonableness in their academic formula, produced human beings who are highly placed in society but who have equally unreasonably refused to accept the fact that the promotion of the reasonable human being. The lack of critical and creative thinking in our National Education curriculum led to the production of a class of insatiably greedy tribesmen in clean uniform but whose instinctive actions are so irrational that they take delight in producing political inequality. Unfortunately Nigeria youth faced with the great negative challenges of goalessness, aimlessness, non-critical and non-creative thinking in our Education system.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research is of great important in that tries to find out to a large extent the importance of critical and creative thinking of mostly in educational system in Nigeria. In view of the importance raised up, the skills of a number of educators and critical and creative specialists which are often cited are proved to be among the adopted techniques efficient teaching and learning critical and creative thinking in educational and creative thinking in educational system in Nigeria.
This study attempts to test, rather than simply to highlight, some of the recommendations, which are often learnt in methods classes but solden tried out in our own classrooms with our own pupils and the purpose of studying this in the tesina are the purpose of this research or study is to study with students observation the level of performance of students in the important of critical and creative thinking in educational system in Nigeria.
2. To ascertain the important of critical and creative thinking prepared among in educational system in Nigeria who are taught by the critical creative methods.
3. To a larger extent to detect the causes of poor attitude towards critical and creative thinking in educational system of Nigeria.
4. To determine the extent to which a different teaching approach might stimulated greater enthusiasm for intensive critical and creative thinking in our educational system and increase the thinking habits in Nigeria.
5. And also to analyse the problems as observed
6. Finally to be able to come up with possible solutions on how the problems should be rectified.
1.4 SCOPE OF THIS STUDY
(TESINA)Due to the constraints of time and financial resources involvement in the research work, this study is limited to some area in the educational curriculum with Nigeria system of education. The based on important of critical and creative thinking to the researcher’s base of operation, it is strongly believed that data obtained from this sampling will serve or (be adequate) for the purpose of this research.
1.5 DELIMITATION
This study will not only focus on the problems of important of critical and creative thinking in our educational system in Nigeria, but also will generally and mostly consider the basic reason while critical and creative thinking is very important in education such as skills in critical thinking creative thinking, areas which it involves caring thinking, system thinking, rational thinking, discipline thinking, higher order thinking, habit formatted in critical creative thinking and techniques for promoting critical, creative, caring also these are all important aspects of developing and improving thinking skills in the students.
1.6 DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS
(TESINA)Higher Order Thinking – The key to thinking critically, control ones thinking, discipline the thought and Higher-Order Thinking you probed deeper with one question and answer to other questions till you get the best idea to a solution at solving a problem. Also addition they both thinking together to get conclusions, also thinking more about a problem, question yourself or a particular problem.
I am an Adjunct instructor or logic whose former students return to say that the skills they acquires in our community of thinkers and its students countered strength approach to learning have aided them in other courses, in family life, and in their places of employment. I have applied thinking skills as a resource parent helping families seek medical and educational services for their children with special needs.
Also it is my sincere belief that the critical and creative program is focused in the right direction. They are interested in providing the best preparation to students who are teachers or those who aspire to be teachers. They provide students with challenges and experiences that are offered nowhere else in a college curriculum Eduwin Aguira 1995.
To aid the tesina the research for emulated the following inquires:
A) The Nigeria which lacks the most valuable educative ingredient the fourth R.I I choose to call at the missing the 3rd millennium.
B) Educating the Nigerian children in the 4th R (fourth) for the 3rd millennium.
C) Pedagogical system of education is both discriminatory and dichotomic in nature and practice, content and intent.
D) Pedagogical always paid lip service to the teaching of creativity, reflective an critical thinking as enshrined in our National Policy on education (1981) reversed 1998)
E) Nigeria educative system has because of lack of reasonableness in their academic formula.
F) The paucity of critical and creative thinking as ingredients in Nigeria Education is responsible for the existence of the Trinitarian evils of pride.
G) This lack of authentic fundamental philosophy in Nigerian Education due to lack of reflective thinking in our classrooms has pus as a people on a platform of the receiving end of a most painful socio-political tyranny.
H) The lack of critical and creative thinking habit in our National Education curriculum led to the production of a class of insatiably greedy tribesmen in clean uniforms but whose instinctive actions are so irrational that the take delight in producing political instability delight in producing political instability economic chaos an social inequality.
I) Unemployment is becoming an inalienable right of our young graduates.
J) Work without payment of salary is becoming a new culture of the civil servant and expensive hand out without lecturer have become the mode of the teaching profession in our Educational system in Nigeria.
Even as of now teachers in Primary Schools have not be paid their three months salary in Enugu State it is because of lack of Higher Order Thinking in human minds that leads to that; they don’t think higher to see that teachers are great in the Education without teachers no Education so Nigeria purpose to think and understand the important of teacher in the country and if they don’t think of teachers it means they hate their children.
Again let me make haste to deflate his head loaed question by saying that the facilitator’s role of helping the students or members of the community improve their critical, creative and caring thinking skills, abilities and dispositions. The discussion of the facilitator’s role in fostering critical, creative and caring thinking (CCACT) must begin from the recognition of the facilitator as a person whose unique character, interests and desires can not be separated out from the idea of the facilitator’s rule.
This is the practice at the African Thinkers Enugu which is the Coal City University, which of course is in consonance with the enabling law and the insistence of founding fathers that whoever must work or study in that institution must imbibe the culture and tenets of critical, creative and caring thinking community of inquiry Philosophy for children (PFC) and PWC). A facilitator facilitates with students in the community setting while administrative staff facilitate with men ands materials in the office environment for the same realization of corporate objective.
Good facilitators are expected to do more when they facilitate than acting according to prescribed roles. Their desire to nurture a love for learning to help students recognize and act upon their capabilities and to establish a classroom climate, which is based upon mutual regard, and respect is required is that those facilitation be authentic individuals who are striving to improve their practice through the use of critical, creative and caring thinking though acting upon their belief in the importance of critical, creative and caring reflection, facilitators would attempt to
1) Analyses the own thinking processes and classroom practices and provide reasons for what they do.
2) Be open-minded, encouraging students to follow their own thinking and not simply repeat what others have said.
3) Change their own positions when the evidence warrants, being willing to admit a mistake.
4) Consistently provide opportunity for students to select activities and assignments from a range of appropriate choices.
5) Exhibit genuine interest, curiosity and commitment to learning.
6) Seek imaginative, appropriate and ethical solutions to problems.
7) Be sensitive to other’s feelings, level of knowledge and degree of sophistication.
8) Show sensitivity to the physical elements which sensitivity to the physical elements which contribute to a stimulating learning environment through the physical arrangements and displays they provide or facilitates.
9) Undertake the organization and preparation required to achieve learning goals.
10) Allow for students participation in rule setting and decision making related to all aspects of learning of including assessment and evaluation.
Facilitators have the onus of developing and organizing a conducive, climatic environment to enhance the internalization of the values of critical environment to enhance the internalization of the values of critical, creative and caring thinking. The type of classroom environment which the facilitator helps to create is an integral part of his thinking skills and dispositions. The type of climate which appears to be most desirable is one called community of inquiry which the participants have equal intellectual freedom to air and own up their views. It is also a climate that fosterers psychological safety within a structure where individual respect one another as persons of unconditional worth. The conducive climate environment are the following characteristics:
a) Tolerance of one and another and their views.
b) Consistency in seeking for truth
c) Comprehensiveness of the point or problems on ground
d) Open mindedness.
e) Self correction
f) Conscious use of criteria
g) Sensitivity to context
h) Confidence in one’s ability and maturity
i{) Respect for all participants as potential sources of insight.
Facilitators can move towards making their classroom more thoughtful places by main judgements and decisions from a base of empathy and understanding, by valuing originality and authenticity and by using differences of opinion as facilitating situation which invite thoughtful analyses.
In achieving these facilitator will ensure that the students or participants observe the following ground norms:
i) Paying attentive to where is speaking
ii) Taking turns when reading or making contributions.
iii) Respect others and their perspectives.
iv) Giving reasons to buttress their points
v) Object to weak reasons
vi) Giving counter reasons to object to earlier reasons adduced
vii) Accepting the responsibility for contributions made within the context of other’s remarks.
viii) Build on strong reasoning.
ix) Collaboratively engage in self-correction
