There is a problem involving hobbits and orcs. Three hobbits and three orcs are travelling together. At one point in their journey, they arrive at a river, where they find a small boat which they can use to cross to the other side. However, the boat is only capable of taking two creatures at any one time. Just to make things more complicated, the hobbits know that whenever there are more orcs than hobbits in any given place, the orcs will immediately attack the hobbits and eat them. The problem is how to get all three hobbits and all three orcs across the river without losing any hobbits. Some years ago, when I was teaching tertiary courses on creative and critical thought, I used to get my students to roleplay their way through this classic Hobbits and Orcs problem. We would divide the room in half, with a make-believe river running down the middle. Our three hobbits would be in charge, with the slower-witted orcs following the hobbits’ orders when it came to managing the river crossing. Depending on the group, our three hobbits would invariably start off very confident in their plan of action, only to discover some tiny flaw in their otherwise brilliant and cunning plan. It would generally take the students three or four attempts before they got it right, by which time a considerable amount of hobbit blood would have been needlessly spilt! The Hobbits and Orcs problem is usually presented as an example of critical thinking, where we have to take a series of dependent steps to arrive at a reasoned and correct solution. As with most critical (aka logical) thinking, it is often a good idea to attack the problem systematically, with pen and paper, trying different approaches and recording The problem with hobbits and orcs By Phil Sales our attempts to solve the problem. In contrast to this reasoned and analytical approach, we have creative thinking. This is where we can let our imaginations run wild, and we can dream up wonderful solutions to our problem. When we flipped our dial from critical to creative thinking, my students came up with some truly innovative ideas. Could we jump over the river, build a bridge, or even dam the river? Maybe we could explore the bank, looking for a better crossing point, a bigger boat, or even a helicopter? And, if our priority is the hobbits, then who said that we couldn’t just leave the orcs behind? Creativity certainly leads to some interesting solutions. When we create a vision of what could be, then we are probably calling on our creative skills rather than our purely critical ones. At their worst, creative solutions can be wildly expensive, cumbersome, and impracticable, while still providing the impetus that we need to move closer to a workable solution. So, it should be no wonder that creative thinking skills are highly valued in the workplace. Rachel Wells has recently written several short articles for Forbes, focussing on creative thinking as a high-demand workplace skill. Wells noted the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Survey claim that 73% of organisations surveyed reported that creative thinking skills were a top priority for them. The same survey claimed that creative thinking skills were expected to increase in both importance and relevance as we approach the end of the 2020s. More broadly, both creative and critical thinking are highlighted as important skill-sets, in light of growing complexities in the workplace. Interestingly, creative thinking doesn’t seem to be a natural given in all workplaces. Highly systematised environments with routine and repetitive tasks (such as factory floors and clearing-houses) seem to place more emphasis on repeating recognised activities than they do encouraging the adoption of new and imaginative ideas … at least, until such time as management decides otherwise! That said, there is considerable need for both critical and creative approaches. You have probably used them on multiple occasions, and on a daily basis, in your own early childhood education centre. Depending on your point-of-view, there are either three essential things which you need in order to effectively use these skills, or three barriers-to-execution which you need to overcome in order for the process to work properly. The first of these essential factors is having a problem of some description. The problem provides the impetus for us to apply our critical and creative faculties. The problem might be a leaking roof, a declining roll, or a new regulation which we have to implement. Basically, we want a situation which presents a difficulty which needs to be overcome. The second essential involves people, who are willing and able to use their critical and creative thinking skills. Ideally, we need people with some understanding of how to utilise both methods of thinking. While most people have some generic level of understanding of what is involved in critical and creative thinking modes, the real value of these methods comes out when we start teaching effective thinking strategies. There are some wonderful tools, tips, tricks, and techniques available, and I might spend some time discussing these in a future article. March 2024 { 34 }
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