The ability to think creatively and engage in problem solving begins with the skill of analysis or what educators call analytic thinking.
Analytic thinking can be broken into three steps: 1.
Take things apart mentally 2.
Examine the parts and their relationship to each other 3.
Examine the parts and their relationship to the whole As home schoolers, we have the opportunity to ask questions and present learning situations that can help our students think in this way.
Once they understand interrelationships, they will be able to reorganize information in new patterns and create with it.
However, if we're afraid to deviate from the "right answer" as presented in an answer key or teacher edition, we'll stifle the growth of this important skill as the following true story illustrates: A ten-year-old student was shocked when a substitute teacher handed back a recently-scored pop quiz.
To his surprise, he was awarded an "F" missing 10 out of 10 points.
One question missed went something like this: Katie went to the store to buy flour for her mother.
She found a one-pound sack of flour for $.
40 and a five-pound sack for $1.
65.
Which was a better buy? Feeling proud that he had broken the question apart and analyzed it thoroughly, the student had come up with a creative solution and stated that both answers could be right given the limited information provided.
For instance, nothing was said about how many family members there were which would affect the consumption rate, or if the bag could be stored properly so as to avoid spoilage and bugs, and how much money Katie had at the time, etc.
The teacher initially listened politely as he defended his answer to her, but she soon grew impatient referring to the teacher manual, the final seat of authority, which said unequivocally that the right answer was the five-pound sack! The student asked to see the teacher manual for himself to which the teacher responded, "Don't be ridiculous, then you would know all the answers.
" What was quickly becoming an argument, he answered back, "No, I would only know the so-called 'right answers' which you know, which would mean I wouldn't really know anything at all.
I'd be just like you.
" His final remark became an immediate ticket to the principal's office.
Bad attitude aside, sadly the teacher was not prepared to affirm a thought process that used analysis to reach a creative solution.
In my next ezine, we'll look at how to do this in more detail.
Thanks for reading!