WMU should establish a center for creative thinking

By Hasan Al Momani
Western Herald

Creative thinking is a skill that enables us to look at problems and life deeply. It makes us see the third dimension of things in our life, which helps us overcome problems and find better solutions.

Some people think that creative thinking is innate and others think it is acquired through learning and education. In fact, creative thinking is partly due to both – we might inherit it from our parents and acquire it from education.

Western Michigan University takes the skills of creative thinking into account through implementing them into the strategies and methods of education.

This is clear from the syllabuses of courses we take, in which we find that our professors design their courses to motivate creative thinking in students. In other words, they are interested in the practical side of creative thinking skills.

However, creative thinking is considered a discipline that has its own ABCs and methodologies. This means that there is a theoretical framework to the creative thinking skills that should be rooted in our thinking.

Our university should orient students with the theoretical framework of creative thinking skills in order to the best way of thinking creatively.

The best way of orienting students with these skills is through establishing a center for creative thinking. The center might be beneficial and resourceful for not just our campus but for the community of Kalamazoo.

It would create a generation on our campus that might be effective in solving the problems of the community.

The center should be a shared effort by all the professors on campus and the experts in the field.

Each professor at this university can enrich the center with his or her knowledge and experience about creative thinking in his or her field.

WMU professors’ knowledge and experiences can be the basis for the creative thinking skills students need in life. Their knowledge can be the nucleus of the creative thinking skills that might become a great resource for all students.

Additionally, students’ parents can help by providing the center with their knowledge and creative thinking skills that have come from the problems they faced in life.

The center can organize workshops for students on creative thinking skills. These workshops would be highly effective in improving studies and changing students’ ways of looking at problems.

The center might provide students with a booklet that will give them the guidelines for creative thinking.

This booklet should include the best methods by which we can think creatively. It will help students conduct successful research and teach our students effectively.

Finally, the center might extend its activity by establishing a graduate program in creative thinking that might be the first of its kind in Michigan.

The graduates of this program will certainly pave the way for creating more distinguished leaders in the United States and the world.

The center might offer a course with a certificate that can be offered to community members of Kalamazoo and the students of the university.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=14913

Posted by heraldstaff on Feb 17 2010. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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