Expanding our students' brainpower: idea generation and critical thinking skills

How do we teach our students to think? This is not a skill that they can pick up by doing "X" number of homework problems; it is the product of good habits that must be practiced and honed on a daily basis. It is a state of mind that continually questions "Who? What? Where? When? How? Why?" In light of this reality, we developed this segment for the "Introduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writing" graduate course this past summer. Our goals during this three-day class period were: /spl middot/ To define the creative process /spl middot/ To identify techniques that enhance creativity /spl middot/ To practice idea generation and critical thinking skills in controlled settings This segment helps smooth the transition between the undergraduate mentality of "teach me" to the desired graduate-student mentality of "enable me." It attempts to demystify the creative process, which most people associate with inspired moments and geniuses, so that students can deliberately foster an atmosphere that will help them generate new research ideas.