Thinking skills

What is it? 

Critical thinking is the ability of individuals to assess evidence from multiple sources and to make balanced, reasoned judgements or decisions based on it.   

Why is it important? 

In an age of the internet and social media, critical thinking skills are essential for individuals to identify and assess reliable sources of evidence and to support the solving of complex problems such as resource scarcity and climate change.

How can you support its development?

Tips:

• Use real-world problems or case studies in your teaching that relate to your subject or topic as this encourages students to engage with the material.  Employers and other external providers can be a good source of case studies if needed.
• Ask students questions and make them engaging. This encourages students to go beyond knowledge recollection and gets them to engage with the subject material on a deeper level.
• Ask students to create their own case studies or questions and use these to asses how well they understand the topic.
• Critical thinking can be developed through real-world, applied learning and active teaching methods. For more tips see the relevant pages of the curriculum toolkit:

Curriculum toolkit: Real-world/applied learning

Curriculum toolkit: Active teaching methods

Examples:

• The School of Physics and Astronomy use flipped classrooms to engage students in learning at a deeper level
• In the School of PPLS the Psychology degree programme has been redesigned to ensure that throughout all years of the programme and across individual years, the degree develops students’ skills and attributes relevant to 'doing' rather than 'knowing' Psychology

What is it? 

Problem solving is the ability to come up with solutions to complex issues and problems and is done both individually and in teams.  It involves individuals being able to understand and define problems, identify solutions and make decisions about which solution to recommend or implement.  Being comfortable with uncertainty is required to test out solutions.   

Why is it important?  

The current era is characterised by complex problems including ageing populations and inequality; problem solving skills will be essential in identifying solutions to such problems.

How can you support its development?

Tips:

• Use problem-based learning or ‘wicked’ problems in your teaching to enable students to apply their learning.  Employers and other external partners can be a good source of material.  You can find out more about 'wicked' problems on the Wicked Problems Project website:

Wicked problems project website

• Have students work in groups on problems to enable students to collaborate and share potential solutions.  If there is an opportunity to have students working in interdisciplinary groups this can be particularly beneficial for problem solving.
• Problem solving is often developed through students working on real-world examples related to your discipline.  See the real-world and applied learning page of the curriculum toolkit for more tips:

Curriculum toolkit: Real-world/applied learning

Examples:

• The School of Education and Sport employs tutors who work in industry and they provide real-world problems for students to solve during tutorials
• The Law School uses real-world examples in teaching and students are asked to identify solutions to genuine legal problems
• The School of Informatics has a compulsory ‘Professional Issues’ course where students are presented with problems and asked to reflect on how they would deal with them

What is it? 

Decision making, or judgement, is the ability to choose between different options, drawing on reliable sources of information and evidence to make sound, well-informed decisions. 

Why is it important?  

It’s increasingly likely that individuals will have many different jobs over the course of a career and will therefore need to make several decisions relating to their work and career, so good decision making skills will be essential.

How can you support its development?

Tips:

• Use problem-based learning or ‘wicked’ problems in your teaching to enable students to apply their learning.  Employers and other external partners can be a good source of material.  You can find out more about 'wicked' problems on the Wicked Problems Project website:

Wicked problems project website

• Have students work in groups on problems to enable students to collaborate, share potential solutions and make decisions. This can give students exposure to different decision making styles and the factors that affect decision making in teams.
• Decision making is often developed through students working on real-world examples related to your discipline.  See the real-world and applied learning page of the curriculum toolkit for more tips:

Curriculum toolkit: Real-world/applied learning

Examples:

• The School of HiSS runs an Honours optional module on ‘Nature, Greenspace and Health’ where students act as consultancy, make decisions and present solutions to a real-world problem
• The Schools of Geosciences and PPLS (Psychology) run outreach and community engagement courses working with external organisations on real-world challenges where students are required to make decisions and present solutions to clients

What is it?  

Creativity is the ability to come up with ideas and then to put those ideas into action.  Being imaginative or ideation is the ability to come up with ideas and this becomes creativity when those ideas can be put into action.

Why is it important? 

Creativity is a crucial skill in dealing with unexpected problems and identifying solutions.  Taking the Covid-19 pandemic as an example, individuals had to show creativity in adapting to a new style of living, including working and studying at home in response to this global unexpected event.   

How can you support its development?

Tips:

• Create diversity in your teaching strategies and assessment methods to support students’ creativity
• If possible, give students a choice of assessment to showcase their creativity.  For example, have students create a digital artefact on a topic or subject they are interested in
• Have students create their own case studies and questions to showcase their creativity
• Use peer discussions to support students with generating and sharing ideas  
• Use presentations or pitches to showcase students’ creativity.  Use employers and other external partners to assess students’ pitches to give a more authentic experience
• There is considerable overlap between creativity and having an enterprising mindset.  See the enterprise education page of the curriculum toolkit for more tips:

Curriculum toolkit: Enterprise education and mindset

Examples:

• In Edinburgh College of Art (Graphic Design) students work in groups as acting as a design agency on real client tasks
• In the School of Engineering students work on a design project in their Honours years, supported by employers

What is it? 

Systems thinking is both a set of tools or methodologies and a mindset or way of seeing the world as a set of complex systems.  Systems thinking helps individuals to see and understand the range of factors that affect what is happening within a system (e.g. the labour market and the global climate which are both complex systems), understand the problems and manage risks within those systems.  

Why is it important? 

As an example, the labour market is a complex system with a huge range of factors influencing it and it operates at local, regional, national and international levels.  Individuals need to understand how the labour market works and the factors that influence it such as the economy, global events, government intervention and laws and how this impacts on the opportunities available to them.  Systems thinking skills will be needed so that individuals can understand the labour market system and navigate their way through it.   At the macro level individuals will also need systems thinking skills to solve the many challenges we face such as ageing populations, global health and inequality and climate change . 

How can you support its development?

Tips:

• Use ‘wicked’ problems in your teaching; complex problems that have multiple potential solutions to support students to apply their learning and develop systems thinking.  Employers and other external partners can be a good source of material.  You can find out more about 'wicked' problems on the Wicked Problems Project website:

Wicked problems project website

• Have students work in groups on problems to enable students to collaborate and share potential solutions.  If there is an opportunity to have students working in interdisciplinary groups this can be particular beneficial for developing systems thinking.
• Consider industry, societal or challenges related to your discipline that could be used as case studies for developing systems thinking
• Have students work in groups to analyse a sector of the labour market related to your subject area.  This will support them to understand a dynamic, complex system and all the factors that influence it. 

Examples:

• The Business School runs a labour market analysis project where students analyse a sector of the labour market and identify factors that impact on the sector and likely future trends
• The School of Informatics runs a compulsory third year module on systems design where students work in teams to design and build a robot from scratch over a semester