Pondering what critical thinking is, I viewed a few videos on YouTube and stumbled upon "
Imagine: How creativity works," in which I found several interesting points, some of which confirmed and sort of explained some understandings I already had, and others which I found surprising but, with explanation, made some sense. The presenter Jonah Lehrer discussed how insights are made and what science and neurology have discovered about the process. One point Lehrer made was that the brain tries to find solutions in one part of the brain, but when the answers or solutions aren't forthcoming, it begins to use other parts of the brain, one being the "interior superior temporal gyrus" (yeah, right!). This part, it seems, becomes active when the ordinary solutions don't seem to be working, and it seems to be operating when one is in a more relaxed state. Epiphanies (sudden realizations) seem to come from this part of the brain. From the video it appears there are times where one has to grind away to find the solution to a problem and there are others where one needs to step away and relax to find the answer.
One critical thinking activity I have my students complete is to try to connect a box of nine dots using four, continuous straight lines without ever lifting your pencil. To so
To solve the problem, one has to go outside the box of dots; however, in most cases, people just don't do that. Visually, it seems, the constrain themselves within the box. I usually give students a week to try to solve the problem, and my advice to them is to draw a new set of dots each time they try and advise them to see what isn't working. As the week progresses, I offer some visual clues (abstract pictures with the meanings "Think outside the box")
In addition, I offer some quotes to provides some guidance, such as Edward Albee's "Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly."
I endeavor to challenge my students to think and to work hard. Last year, I had one student named Emily who really became obsessed with trying to find the solution. And I mean obsessed. After nearly a week of failed attempts, Emily was posting on Edmodo how she had nine (that's right 9!) pages of failed attempts, and I was honestly becoming concerned about the frustration Emily was expressing from her posts. I told her to look over her failed attempt and to think about what was not working. Later, whatever happened, Emily discovered the solution. Once it occurred to Emily to go beyond the box of dots, she found the one and only solution. Here, you can see how she found it. This experience seems to line up with what Lehrer mentions about how the minds works in a dual state to find new and fresh solutions to problems. And Emily showed both the grit (determination to succeed) and ability to find the solution.
To solve the problem, one has to go outside the box of dots; however, in most cases, people just don't do that. Visually, it seems, the constrain themselves within the box. I usually give students a week to try to solve the problem, and my advice to them is to draw a new set of dots each time they try and advise them to see what isn't working. As the week progresses, I offer some visual clues (abstract pictures with the meanings "Think outside the box") 
In addition, I offer some quotes to provides some guidance, such as Edward Albee's "Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly."
I endeavor to challenge my students to think and to work hard. Last year, I had one student named Emily who really became obsessed with trying to find the solution. And I mean obsessed. After nearly a week of failed attempts, Emily was posting on Edmodo how she had nine (that's right 9!) pages of failed attempts, and I was honestly becoming concerned about the frustration Emily was expressing from her posts. I told her to look over her failed attempt and to think about what was not working. Later, whatever happened, Emily discovered the solution. Once it occurred to Emily to go beyond the box of dots, she found the one and only solution. Here, you can see how she found it. This experience seems to line up with what Lehrer mentions about how the minds works in a dual state to find new and fresh solutions to problems. And Emily showed both the grit (determination to succeed) and ability to find the solution.
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