2G - Creative Thinking and Innovation

Description:

In today’s world, having the ability to clearly reason through problems and to present arguments in a logical, compelling way has become a key skill for survival.  Critical thinking is “the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.”  In other words, it’s about using a specific set of systems and tools to look at a problem, find several alternatives, and choose the best one.

This course will introduce the basic concepts of critical thinking, including what critical thinking means, characteristics of a critical thinker, and common critical thinking styles.   It will cover how left- and right-brain thinking and whole-brain thinking fit into critical thinking.

The course will review the pitfalls to reasoned decision making and the seven phases of the critical thinking model.  After taking the course, you should be able to clearly reason through problems and to present arguments in a logical, compelling way.