PROMOTING CREATIVITY AND CRITICAL THINKING; A WAY FORWARD FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The paper discussed the promotion of creativity and critical thinking in secondary school students for achieving skills development. Skills are developed through critical thinking and creativity. Critical thinking is a kind of thinking in which a person asks questions, analyses, interprets, and evaluates what he or she hears, says, reads or writes. Creativity has been described as a skill used to produce something which no specific rules can be applied. Creativity is related to innovation which is a process of both generating and applying creative ideas in some specific context. According to this paper some of the scientific skills include observing, inferring classifying, measuring, communicating and problems solving, to mention but a few. Some strategies/ approaches for promoting creativity and critical thinking for skills development such as using student –centered approaches in teaching and learning, designing and presenting students with activities that have multiple solutions, connecting students to real-world problems among others were discussed. Furthermore, special roles which a science teacher must play to ensure effective development of critical and creative thinking for skill development were x-rayed. Way forward for ensuring skill development is enhanced in secondary school students science curricular were also stated.