Hi, I’m Charlotte. First of all, I apologize to you for such a late post. I had transferred into the class late and didn’t get the chance to purchase a course package until the end of last week.
Anyways, let’s move on to thinking about thinking.
I am an INTP. I play with a lot of possibilities and ask a lot of “what if’s”, which I guess that makes me more of a divergent thinker. At any given moment, there are a lot of thoughts are simultaneously running through my head. I often imagine my thoughts to look like a really crazy mind map, with lines criss-crossing here and there and overlapping bubbles. Having so many different thoughts at once, I need to create a visual representation of my thoughts somehow to keep everything organized and in perspective. I make a lot of lists, write a lot of monologues, and sometimes draw mind maps. Then, this is where my convergent thinking comes in: after having everything articulated somehow, I add logic in and organize everything in a coherent order and draw conclusions. Logic is my older and more mature best friend, and creativity is my younger best friend. Yes, you can totally have more than one best friend. Organizing my thoughts is the more challenging part of whole “thinking process”, but after that, the transition from divergent to convergent thinking comes naturally to me.
Lockwood, Pink, and Martin explain convergent and divergent thinking as two distinct ways of thinking that are identified with two distinct types of people. However, I think that both types of thinking are never one without the other. Although our academic system encourages critical thinking and rewards those who are good at it, usually the best solutions are conceived through divergent thinking coupled with convergent thinking. Teachers have long taught a methodical way of approaching problem-solving as the best way to approach problems. True, convergent thinking seems most practical and time-efficient when trying to solve problems. But at the same time, the best solutions are only found if many options and different angles are explored! Divergent thinking and creativity are the best ways to do just that. As Pink illustrated, young students who pay little attention to what is and is not valued by society engage more in divergent thinking and creative problem solving. As kids get older though, they tend to focus on the convergent thinking and lose some of the divergent thinking along the way. I think educators need to teach students to think both convergently and divergently and promote the collaborative use of both in everyday problem-solving.
Einstein was a strong divergent thinker and that allowed him to explore theories endlessly. His convergent thinking allowed him to draw conclusions and explain his thoughts clearly to people. It’d be cool to have more Einstein’s among us. They would make for very interesting conversationalists.
