Critical ThinkingE Villalba, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Ispra, Italy

ã 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

GlossaryConvergent thinking Whereas divergent thinking allows

the individual to find numerous and original ideas,

convergent thinking allows the individual to find the one

correct or conventional idea.

Divergent thinking This refers to the process of finding

different solutions and answers to one problem.

Evaluation Evaluating involves the determination of the

adequacy of a solution to a problem. It will play a major

role in determining what is and what is not considered

creative.

Stage model of creativity This model maintains that the

creative process involves different stages in a sequence.

Critical thinking might be more important in later stages of

the processes than at the beginning.

Valuation This process is selective, but it is not critical, nor

evaluative. It involves mainly the identification of specific

criteria.

Introduction

For some time, creative thinking was seen almost as syn-

onymous with divergent thinking. Divergent thinking tests

provided a sound alternative to the, by that time popular, IQ

tests. Their validity and predictive power for creativity made

them a widely used tool in creativity research, to the point

that divergent thinking tests were seen as criteria for crea-

tivity. However, nowadays it is generally accepted that crea-

tive thinking also entails convergent and critical thinking.

While divergent thinking involves the generation of ideas,

convergent thinking refers to the capacity to provide a single

(or few) adequate idea(s). Creativity is usually associated

with the capacity to produce something new and adequate.

Divergent thinking would be needed to generate ideas, and

convergent thinking would be used for choosing adequate

ideas. Critical thinking can be considered as a part of conver-

gent thinking. It involves the evaluation, analysis, synthesis,

and interpretation of something to provide a judgment. Criti-

cal thinking, thus provides the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of choosing

one idea. In this sense, as creativity, it is always seen as a

higher-order skill.

Aspects of Critical Thinking

As in the case of creativity, there is a lack of an agreed upon

operational definition of critical thinking. However, there are

certain aspects that are commonly addressed within research

on critical thinking. Research in critical thinking is usually

associated with two main traditions, one more psychologically

oriented and focused on teaching meta-cognition skills –

thinking how to think – and one more philosophically

oriented, more interested in the ontological nature of the

phenomena of thought and judgment.

In general terms, critical thinking is seen as a purposeful

skill. This means that critical thinking is related to dispositions.

As in the case of creativity, to be a critical thinker involves not

only specific cognitive abilities, but also willingness to assess

and evaluate information in a critical manner. In other words,

the intention of a person to be critical is crucial to developing

critical thinking skills. In this sense, critical thinking has been

seen as self-regulatory judgment.

Second, critical thinking generally involves the analysis

and identification of central issues and assumptions. That is

to say, critical thinking requires analyzing how arguments and

thoughts are constructed and if they are robust in their for-

mulation. Linda Elder and Richard Paul from the critical think-

ing community divide the elements of thought into point of

view, purpose, questions at issue, information, interpretation

and inference, concepts, assumptions and implications, and

consequences.

Third, these elements of thought are evaluated in order

to provide a judgment. This judgment, a single ‘correct’ answer,

is generally based on the application of logical thinking.

Because of this, certain advocates of critical thinking have

maintained that critical thinking is about providing standards

of thought. Judgments should be evaluated in terms of clarity,

credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and

significance.

Finally, critical thinking is always associated with the iden-

tification of bias in ideas or statements.

From the above aspects, it can be seen that critical thinking

can be considered a specific form of convergent thinking.

Critical Thinking in Relation to Creativity

Critical Thinking and the Stage Model of Creativity

Critical thinking and creative thinking have different con-

ceptualizations. For this reason there are diverse perspectives

on the relationship between critical thinking and creativity.

A sequence or stage model of creativity would involve the

idea that critical thinking is used in specific stages of the

creative process, while it would, in fact, inhibit creativity in

other stages. It is generally agreed that the first phases of the

creative process involve divergent thinking and should not

involve critical thinking. This is the case, for example in brain-

storming techniques. In the first stage, brainstorming session

participants are only asked to generate ideas, irrespective of

their quality and without being critical about them. This idea

relies on the assumption that the human mind adopts ‘modes’

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324 Critical Thinking

of thought for action, and that if one is set to use divergent

thinking, without use of a regulatory mechanism that blocks

inadequate ideas, these will flow more freely and easily. This

is also the basis of some other creativity techniques developed

by Edward de Bono, such as ‘six thinking hats.’ The technique

consists of making people in a group work with imaginary hats

on. Each of the hats determines what type of mental process

the person is allowed to carry on at that specific time. A white

hat, for example, involves the collection of facts and informa-

tion, a red hat deals with the feelings and emotions associated

with the problem, a black hat represents critical judgment,

a yellow hat represent positive judgment, a green hat stands

for new ideas, and a blue hat represents the mode of seeing the

big picture. There is however no conclusive evidence on the

claim that this is the way the mind works, and it is not clear if

in a creative process a clear separation between divergent and

convergent modes of thinking is strictly necessary.

First, providing a creative solution might involve critical

thinking from an early stage. If critical thinking is understood

as the capacity to produce self-regulatory judgment that results

in interpretation of a phenomenon, then critical thinking is

crucial for problem identification. As Mark Runco indicates

in the conclusion to the book Problem Finding, Problem Solving

and Creativity, problem finding skills constitute an important

aspect of creativity. Problem identification derives from critical

thinking, and thus creativity would be enhanced by it from the

beginning. Even further, it may also be the case that critical

thinking fosters the creative process during phases of generat-

ing ideas. Creativity involves the combination of complex,

sometimes opposed cognitive, personality, and social char-

acteristics, and it seems that the creative process is nurtured

by movement between these opposite extremes. If this were

the case, critical and convergent thinking might play a role

in each of the phases of the creative process, and not just the

final stages.

Critical Thinking and Intelligence

Another possible interpretation of the relationship between

creative and critical thinking relates to intelligence. In most

cases tests of intelligence involve convergent thinking skills.

Items on tests of intelligence frequently have only one correct

answer. It is thus necessary to critically evaluate the options

provided. There seems to be evidence that the relationship

between creativity and intelligence involves some sort of

threshold, below which no creative performance is possible.

Individuals above the threshold might or might not be crea-

tive. Below the threshold individuals lack basic information

processing skills and are relatively uncreative. In this view, criti-

cal thinking will relate to creativity, but only above a certain

threshold. That is to say, individuals without some threshold

level of critical thinking will not be able to be creative.

Critical Thinking and Persuasion

There is another possible interpretation of the relationship

between critical thinking and creativity. More and more, crea-

tivity research is acknowledging persuasion as an important

component of the creative process. Creative individuals are

those who are not only capable of producing new adequate

ideas, but who also have the capacity to ‘sell’ their ideas, so that

the idea is taken further. This type of interpretation of creativity

is more prominent in research related to innovation and eco-

nomic perspectives on creativity. According to this approach,

critical thinking is crucial in order to provide adequate argu-

ments that make the idea attractive. This relates very much

to the critical thinking movement, which calls for certain

standards of thinking involving clarity, credibility, accuracy,

precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and significance. It is

likely that creative individuals with good persuasive abilities

employ some of these elements when making an idea appeal-

ing to others.

Critical Thinking and the System Theory of Creativity

Yet another possible relationship between creativity and criti-

cal thinking can be taken from the system theory perspective.

In this theory, Mihaly Cziksentmihalyi proposes that creativity

can only be understood in terms of the interrelationship

among three elements: the individual, the domain and the

field. The domain refers to specific areas in the ‘culture’ where

the creative product has been constructed: mathematics,

poetry, music, etc. Thousand of domains compound the cul-

ture. The field refers to all the individuals who act as gate-

keepers to the domain. They evaluate whether a product is or

is not creative. The actor refers to the individuals who pursue

the creative action. In this theory, critical thinking will also

play a role not only in the individual who carries out the

creative action, but in the validation of what constitutes crea-

tivity and what not. If creativity is, as understood by Cziksent-

mihalyi, “a post-hoc social attribution to new ideas and objects

that find favor in the marketplace of ideas or of commodities”

then critical thinking is important for creativity. In fields where

the gatekeepers have limited critical thinking capacity, the

acceptance of innovative ideas might be easier than in those

where critical thinking is prominent. These aspects relate to the

distinction between evaluation and valuation. Evaluation will

mainly look at what is wrong with the options, while valuation

will focus on the positive sides of the idea. These two (evalua-

tion and valuation) are important in assessing whether a prod-

uct can be regarded as creative or not. It is likely that valuation

plays a major role in the determination of the originality of a

product, while evaluation will be more important in determin-

ing its adequacy.

Critical Thinking in Education

Creativity and critical thinking are usually seen as cross-

curricular competencies included explicitly in the syllabus

or in the national curriculum. The promotion of both creativity

and critical thinking has been made a political priority in

many countries. However, it is less clear if creativity and critical

thinking are actually being encouraged in education.

It seems reasonable to think that convergent thinking has

an advantage over divergent thinking in educational settings.

Group workmight require conformity and convergence among

individuals. The form of education still most prominent

Critical Thinking 325

usually involves a teacher giving a talk in front of the students

and asking questions that have only one adequate answer.

Traditional teaching has usually been done in a transmission

manner, where teachers ‘pass’ knowledge to their students. In

addition, convergent skill tasks are also easier to grade in a

traditional manner, since they involve one correct answer.

Within this traditional pedagogy, however, critical thinking

has had a certain amount of support, probably more than

creativity. From a philosophical tradition, the so-called Socratic

system involves a series of questions and answers between the

teacher and the student. Through the creation of a dialectic

process between the teacher and the student, the latter can

discover new knowledge as he or she is guided critically through

his or her assumptions and structures of thought. In this way,

students can learn to be critical thinkers.

However, some people maintain that increasing critical

skills will be associated with a constraint in providing original

ideas. As has been explained above, however, this is not neces-

sarily the case. It is likely that critical and creative thinking are

not independent, but it also seems likely that there is some

interaction between the two, since the creative process most

probably involves some aspects of critical thinking.

Conclusions

Critical thinking can be seen as part of the more general con-

vergent thinking skills that involve the production of one

correct answer. The relationship between creativity and critical

thinking will depend on the different conceptualizations of the

constructs and what aspects of each of the processes are taken

into account. The stage model approach to creativity helps to

resolve the apparent paradox between creativity involving

both, critical thinking and divergent thinking. In different

moments, the creative process involves different cognitive

tools. Critical thinking might play a role, not only at the end

but also during the creative process. Furthermore, critical

thinking involves valuation and evaluation, which are neces-

sary for problem identification and persuasion, as well as for

determining the originality and usefulness of ideas.

See also: Divergent Thinking; Economic Perspectives on Creativity;Intelligence (as Related to Creativity).

Further Reading

Csikszentmihalyi M (1996) Creativity. New York: HarperCollins.Csikzentmihalyi M (2009) A system perspective on creativity and its implications

for measurement. In: Villalba E (ed.) Measuring Creativity. Luxembourg:OPOCE.

De Bono E (1999) Six Thinking Hats. Toronto: MICA Management?Resources Inc.

Ennis RH (1996) Critical Thinking. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Facione PA (ed.) (1990) Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes

of educational assessment and instruction. American Philosophical Association,ERIC ID 315 423.

Fluellen JE (1992) Unpacking Richard Paul’s strong sense of critical thinking. In:Reflection on the Annual International Conference for Critical Thinking atSonoma State University. Paper presented at the Mid Atlantic Regional Councilfor Critical Thinking.

Griggs RA, Jackson SL, Marek P, and Christopher AN (1998) Critical thinking inintroductory psychology texts and supplements. Teaching of Psychology 25:254–265.

Halpern DF (1996) Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking,3rd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

McMillan JH (1987) Enhancing college students’ critical thinking: A review of studies.Research in Higher Education 26: 3–29.

Moore BN and Parker R (2008) Critical Thinking, 9th edn. New York:McGraw-Hill.

Paul R (1990) Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a RapidlyChanging World. Foundation for Critical Thinking: Santa Rosa, CA.

Paul R and Elder R (2002) Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of YourProfessional and Personal Life. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Runco M (1994) Conclusions concerning problem finding, problem solving andcreativity. In: Runco M (ed.) Problem Finding, Problem Solving and Creativity,pp. 272–290. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Runco MA (ed.) (2002) Critical Creative Processes. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Relevant Websites

http://www.criticalthinking.org – The Critical Thinking Community.http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/ – Critical Thinking Web.http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic69.htm – Critical and Creative Thinking - Bloom’s

Taxonomy.http://lateralaction.com/articles/critical-thinking/ – Why Critical Thinking Is Not a

Creativity Killer.