Critical+Response

= =   ** Summary **   In “Thinking is hard – thinking differently is harder still”, Jerry Reed discusses Dr Claudine Clarke’s interest in teaching young people to think creatively when solving problems. Dr Clarke mentions two people who have influenced her thinking – Dr John Fanselow and Dr Edward De Bono. Firstly, Dr Fanselow believes that people should try doing something a different way when they are solving a problem and this could lead to surprising results. Secondly, Dr De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats approach helps people, especially employees, to approach problem solving from different angles. Dr Clarke believes that thinking innovatively contributes to all areas by encouraging genuine creativity.   ** Discussion **   Dr Clarke’s opinion of teaching people to think creatively to encourage creativity in problem solving is a convincing and interesting one because she points out many advantages that thinking creatively has, especially for organisations. However, Dr Clarke fails to consider that things like people’s backgrounds and culture may make it difficult to change thinking habits so easily.   Dr Clarke points out that creative thinking has many advantages for organisations, for example she says that people who learn De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats strategy return to their workplace with more approaches to solving problems. Dr Clarke’s point here is valid and makes sense that if people try to solve a problem by thinking about it from a different perspective that this will enable them to approach problem solving differently.   In addition, Dr Clarke is correct in her belief about Dr Farneslow’s approach of trying to do something a different way when they are solving a problem. Obviously using the same approach when problem solving may not work, so trying something different may result in a different outcome.   However, Dr Farneslow, Dr De Bono and Dr Clarke have not considered that people’s personalities, backgrounds and cultures may make trying to think in a different way a challenging thing to do. a  **Checklist for critical response:**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__Summary__ of the main idea and details (could be more information, explanation, reasons, etc.)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Shorter than the original text
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Using different words (paraphrase, don’t copy)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Mention the article title, date of publication, and author
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Describe the type of text (purpose, medium, etc.)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Briefly state each idea
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Concluding sentence
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">No opinions here! Only description

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__Discussion__ of the ideas (the content here depends on the type of text)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Overall response to the text (introduction)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Positives / Negatives
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Whether you agree/disagree
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">How well the ideas are explained and supported
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Refer to the ideas from the summary, and comment on them (don’t summarise again)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Has the writer missed anything important?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What should be added to the text?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Questions/concerns/inspiration as a result of reading
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Related issues (you can refer to your experience and values)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Summary of the discussion (conclusion)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Only one main idea for each “body” paragraph.

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