Becoming a creative and critical thinker is a life-long process which begins at the first glimmer of awareness and conscious thought. It is an ever-expanding process which constantly broadens perceptions, opening new avenues of exploration and thus never reaches completion.

How can teachers and parents help children to learn how to think? What is meant by "thinking skills"? How do creative and critical thinking differ? What are the traits of the creative mind?...the critical mind? What standards shall we use to judge the quality of our thinking?

Teaching our students to think critically and creatively should be the central purpose of schooling.

Topics:

Assess student responses to questions in order to understand how they think

Use strategies that help students understand and monitor their own thinking processes

Create questions that require students to think and reason

Infuse creative and critical thinking skills throughout the entire school curriculum

Use moral dilemmas to facilitate moral reasoning

Describe how the brain processes and stores short and long term memories and the role that emotions play in these processes