Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking is convergent or “judgmental” thinking, where the mind discovers a common attribute, expressed as a word or phrase, which is shared by more than one idea or concept in the population of ideas being considered. These emerging attributes describe the “glue” that connects the associated ideas. Put another way, the associated ideas are “judged” to belong to a particular class or category, described by a new idea representing a shared attribute. VIS-IT Techniques support and direct critical thinking in the following ways:

• Focus thinking with explicit “Focus Questions” that keep the activity on point.
• Use highly visual tools, involving meaningful colors and shapes, to energize, reinforce and organize ideas.
• Capture and build a comprehensive group memory.
• Facilitate communication and follow-up.

VIS-IT Techniques stimulate critical thinking in groups by inviting the participants to consider a population of two or more ideas and, then, to reach a consensus on the words that represent a significant attribute that is shared by more than one of the ideas. A good example of these techniques is the “Clustering” step of the Thinking with Hexagons technique. Critical Thinking activities must begin with a set of ideas that are to be evaluated. The idea generation step of the Thinking with Hexagons techniques, which involves divergent thinking – as in brainstorming – can be used to produce the original population of ideas.