T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L

JOURNAL
of LEARNING

Volume 18, Issue 6

Developing Creative Thinking: Using a Cognitive

Teaching Model in Literature Classroom

Munazza Yaqoob

www.Learning-Journal.com
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Developing Creative Thinking: Using a Cognitive
Teaching Model in Literature Classroom
Munazza Yaqoob, International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract: The twenty irst century is regarded as the age of globalization, telecommunication and di-
gital technology. The rapidly changing present world demands people to be multi-tasked and equipped
with the skills of collaboration and lexibility. Problem solving, goal setting, and creative thinking are
considered speciic skills required for the twenty irst century workforce. Modern research in educa-
tional psychology has proved that it is possible to improve human cognition, that is, capacity to think
creatively about challenges and opportunities, and to be able to generate creative solutions and
transform solutions and transform solutions into action. This research attempts to develop a method-
ology for teaching literature which blends thinking skills with literary contents and uses literature as
a tool to develop students’ cognitive abilities and improve their critical and creative thinking skills.
The design of the study is experimental and it attempts to explore whether the application of creative
thinking tools and techniques in a literature classroom can nurture students’ creative thinking or
creative problem solving abilities and other higher-order thinking skills and thus enable them to have
necessary skills to manage the problems and issues of the twenty irst century. For the purpose of the
experiment a cognitive teaching model is developed which is based on the research in cognitive
learning and thinking skills. The sample of the study is 138 students of M.A. English at International
Islamic University, Islamabad studying Romantic Poetry and Fiction II (Modern Fiction).

Keywords: Thinking Skills, Critical and Creative Thinking, Cognitive Abilities, Literature

T
HE RAPIDLY CHANGING present world of today demands people to be multi-
tasked, equipped with the skills of creative thinking and problem solving. Therefore,
higher education today is not regarded as “extended years of formal learning”, but
“lifelong habit of high level thinking” (Geersten 2003, p. 17). This situation justiies
the need for education to be reconstructed, theory to be redesigned, and strategies to be re-
considered. Teaching and learning practices are viewed and reviewed in the light of research
provided by cognitive psychology. Modern research in educational psychology has proved
that it is possible to improve human cognition, that is, capacity to think creatively about
challenges and opportunities, ability to generate creative solutions and transform solutions
into action, and skills to process, synthesize, and evaluate information. Research in higher
education has conirmed that the infusion of higher-order thinking skills has potential to re-
design higher education. Hence, today teaching of thinking skills is considered a primary
objective in the educational institutions. The present research explores the strategies and
techniques used in the thinking skills programmes, and attempts to develop a cognitive
teaching model which is based on the principles of cognitive learning and incorporates the
strategies and techniques to develop thinking skills. This experimental study attempts to
explore whether the application of cognitive teaching model in literature classroom would
nurture students’ creative thinking or creative problem solving abilities.

The International Journal of Learning

Volume 18, Issue 6, 2012, http://www.Learning-Journal.com, ISSN 1447-9494
© Common Ground, Munazza Yaqoob, All Rights Reserved, Permissions:
[email protected]
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING

There is a growing volume of research which highlights the signiicance of thinking skills
in educational programmes. It is realized as Lewis and Smith (1993) say that inclusion of
thinking skills in the curriculum has a positive impact on the teaching of academic disciplines.
According to their deinition higher-order thinking skills include problem solving, critical
thinking, creative thinking, and decision-making. These authors strongly feel the need for
research on “how to teach such skills [higher-order thinking skills] and how to incorporate
the indings from that research into in-service and pre-service preparation programmes” (p.
137). In this regard, Todd and Shinzato (1999) recommend two models to develop creative
thinking: The Autonomous Learner Model developed by George Betts (1991) and The
Renzulli Model developed by Joseph Renzulli (1997) for developing creative thinking and
personal growth. For these authors training in creativity helps students to be self-suficient
and independent which is one of the important aims of education.
Thinking skills programmes are organized and regularized in educational institutions and
curriculums in most of the developed countries of the world. Feuerstein’s Instrumental En-
richment (IE), The Somerest Thinking Skills Course, Martin Lipman’s Philosophy for
Children, Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE), Thinking through
Geography, and Activating Children’s Thinking Skills (ACTS) are some of the examples in
this regard (McGuinnes, 1999). Thinking skills programmes are conducted either as separate
programmes designed for teaching of thinking or as infused programmes designed to teach
for thinking. In infused programmes thinking is integrated with the existing curriculum.

Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is a whole brain process and a combination of convergent and divergent
thinking. The research in creative thinking as for example Vinack (1974; 2006), Badi and
Tajdeen (2005), Perkins (1988), DeBono (1986), Joubert (2001), Duffy (1998), Saaty, (2001)
and Ruggiero (1988) illustrates that the process of creative thinking involves generating
multiple ideas and then making selection of more useful, effective, or appropriate ideas in
order to have a workable solution to the problem.
In Vinack’s (2008, p. 1) opinion “creativity intimately blends realistic (objective) and
autistic (subjective) process.” This opinion is supported by Badi and Tajdeen (2005, p. ix)
and Ruggiero (1988, p. 18). These authors consider critical and creative thinking as insepar-
able concepts. Saaty (2001, p. 49) is of the opinion that creative thinking is a combination
of divergent and convergent thinking. Perkins (1988) regards it as a “process of search and
selection” (p. 309). Similarly Duffy (1998) thinks that in order to respond in a creative
manner to the challenges of life, one needs to remove completely the “conlict between the
two modes of thinking, between logical and intuitive” (p. 7). Joubert (2001) in this regard,
though uses different terms but agrees with Vinack, Saaty, Duffy and Perkins as she deines
creative thinking as “using imagination, a fashioning process, pursuing purposes, being ori-
ginal and judging values” (p. 18).
Thus being a combination of divergent thinking and convergent thinking, creative thinking
is also regarded as creative problem solving which is a whole brain process (Lumsdaine and
Lumsdaine 1995; Duffy 1998; Lucas 2003; King 2003; Clegg 2000; Flack 1997; and Halpern
1996). For Halpern (p. 370) creative thinking is a multistage process that consists of identi-
fying a problem, deciding what is important about the problem, and arriving at a novel way
of solving it. Similarly, Lumsdaine and Lumsdaine (pp. 17–18, 75–81) referring to creative

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thinking as creative problem solving are of the opinion that this process involves collecting
information about some problem, analyzing it in order to deine the problem and understand-
ing it. Many ideas are generated, elaborated and even synthesized to ind a better solution.
After that the results are further improved and tested for successful implementation.
deBono (1986, p. 237; 1987, p. 190) though takes a different position as he deines creative
thinking as a generative process, but he also agrees with Lumsdaine and Lumsdaine and
thinks that this generative process helps rearrange the available resources. In this sense, for
him it is like an escape from the main track or established patterns and traditional solutions.
It leads to more sidetracks, gives more options resulting into new patterns. It is hence,
shifting of attention from elements of common and routine observation to different and un-
usual ones. This further results in discovering unusual and original solutions. Saaty (2001,
p. 56) also thinks that creative thinking is lexible and original and its function is to refashion
elements and restructure patterns and redeine problems. Lipman (2003, pp. 245–247) gives
a comprehensive deinition of creative thinking. For him creative thinking involves originality,
productivity, imagination, independence, experimentation, holism, expression, self-transcend-
ence, surprise, generativity, maieuticity, and inventiveness.

Developing Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is a dynamic process and is concerned with deliberate reorganization of
data and application of skills and techniques. Therefore, a good knowledge base and a trained
perceptual ability are considered necessary for the effective functioning of creative thinking.
Boden (2001) explaining it states, “creativity and knowledge are not opposed to each oth-
er…creative thinking cannot happen unless the thinker already possesses knowledge of a
rich and/or well-structured kind” (p. 95).
Creative thinking is nurtured with the deliberate act of focusing attention on certain aspects
of an object or situation during the process of perception. Hence for deBono (1991, p. 77,
95), “the teaching of thinking is not the teaching of logic, but the teaching of perception”
because the human mind is a “pattern making and pattern using system” and has a brilliant
ability to form and use patterns. He further explains that the low of incoming information
is linked up and organized into set patterns and thus meanings are assigned to the objects of
perception, which help to make sense of the world around. He therefore, suggests that one
needs to develop “some artiicial framework” (103) and make efforts to deliberately use it
in order to direct one’s attention to or hold it on the aspects to be needed for further processing
in creative thinking. He has discussed a number of techniques for this framework in his dif-
ferent works as for example (1985; 1990; 1986; 1991). He (1986) suggests the techniques
of exaggeration, defamiliarization, repetition, highlighting, extension and diversion, giving
random input, rotation of attention, reversal, the end before the means, and juxtaposition.
He has (1990; 1985) has also introduced the tools of The Plus, Minus, and Interesting Points
(The PMI) and Provocative Operations (PO) to direct perceptual process.
Po: “Po” (1990, p. 225) involves juxtaposition of two unrelated things like comparing
moon with cheese. It facilitates unconnected jumps in thought processes and opens new
possibilities. The PO tool helps restructure patterns of thinking in a novel fashion. It is con-
sidered extremely important for fostering creative thinking.

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The PMI: This tool helps attend to an object or areas from three different directions and
thereby enables one to generate a variety of ideas. “P” stands for plus points, “M” for minus
points, and “I” for interesting points (1985, p. 11–19).
In addition to this, creativity scholars and researchers consider visuals as “powerful tools”
(Feden and Vogel, 2003, p. 138) to help students draw and focus their attention on desired
areas, and activate their generative thinking. In this regard a number of strategies and tech-
niques have been suggested to use visuals and graphics. The techniques of Mind Mapping
suggested by Buzan (1988) and Lucas (2003), Preparing Checklists and attribute listing (list
of all the characteristics of an object or a situation) suggested by Halpern (1996), Lotus
Blossom suggested by Michalko (1994), and Preparing Discussion Webs suggested by
Tierney, Readence and Dishner (1995) are noteworthy in this regard.

Cognitive Teaching Model

The cognitive teaching model prepared to develop creative thinking of the students of liter-
ature incorporated the tools and techniques for nurturing creative thinking. The content, i.e.,
literary texts, was blended with the tools and techniques to nurture creative thinking. Teach-
ing activities incorporating creative thinking techniques and tools were arranged and graded
according to Bloom’s (1956) ranking of thinking skills. Bloom in his seminal work has
classiied thinking skills into six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation. These six levels are placed into two broader categories: higher-
order thinking skills and lower-order thinking skills. Knowledge, comprehension, application,
and analysis are regarded as lower-order thinking skills, whereas, synthesis and evaluation
are considered as higher-order thinking skills.
Cognitive teaching model provided the theoretical framework to teach the experimental
groups for Romantic Poetry and Fiction II. The model was implemented through lesson
plans which were supplemented with worksheets. Each lesson plan provided information
about length, overview, purpose of the lessons, strategies and techniques to develop creative
thinking included in the lessons and objectives, material, and procedure of the different
session of the lessons. The purpose of each lesson plan was to give students practice in
strategies and techniques that developed creative thinking and other higher order thinking
skills. Lesson plans were designed considering the convergent and divergent aspects of cre-
ative thinking, thus they helped the students read the text critically, and give a creative re-
sponse to it. These lesson plans also aimed to facilitate the students to become independent
learners and be lexible as well to learn to work in collaboration. Creative thinking tools and
techniques were text based and taught through teaching activities which were graded from
simple activities like collection of basic information to more sophisticated activities like
synthesis and evaluation. These tools and techniques were sequenced in four sections of all
the worksheet supplementing the lesson plans. The objectives of each lesson were designed
keeping in view students’ comprehension and language proiciency level. The activities were
divided into four sections:

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1. Reviewing the text: This section included activities to focus the process of attention
and collect required information. It thus served to develop lower order thinking skills
as categorized by Bloom. The strategies and tools for this section included attribute
listing, preparing checklists, rehearsal (repeating the key points or information), fraction
(breaking down a situation into fractions in order to be restructured) using visuals and
organizing material. The teaching activities in this section included summarizing, note
taking and selecting required information.
2. Shaping interpretations: This section included the activities for comprehension, ana-
lysis, and application which are regarded as lower order thinking skills by Bloom. The
strategies and techniques used in this section included organizing material, mind map-
ping, PMI (collecting plus, minus and interesting points), elaboration and advance or-
ganizer. The teaching activities in this section included comprehension, inference, and
explanation etc.
3. Making connections: This section included the activities for inference, making com-
parisons and synthesizing ideas which according to Bloom are higher order thinking
skills. The strategies, tools and techniques focused in this section included brain storm-
ing and discussion, transference, making connections, PO or provoking operations (us-
ing unusual juxtapositions) and putting to other uses. The teaching activities in this
section included drawing comparison and contrast between characters and events given
in different texts, between the world of the text and real world, between the text and
others forms of art, between literary texts and other disciplines etc.
4. Extension: This section included the activities for evaluating contents or ideas, intro-
ducing innovative solutions, and giving creative response. This section was specially
designed to nurture creative and generative aspects of students’ thinking. The tools and
strategies which this section utilized included the reversal method (looking at the things
in a different way and changing the expected modes), rearrangement and reorganizing,
synectics, putting to other uses, writing response essays and creative reading journals,
brain storming and discussion. The teaching activities of this section included restruc-
turing literary texts, substituting characters, settings and endings, interviewing literary
and imaginary characters, role playing and dramatizing, reorganizing poetic texts into
prose and ictional prose into poetic, introducing new characters in the texts and deleting
the existing characters etc.

All the four sections of the worksheets were carefully designed and graded to develop creative
thinking as deined in this study. This study takes creative thinking as creative problem solv-
ing process which combines critical and generative thinking skills. The irst two sections of
the worksheets titled as Reviewing the Text and Shaping Interpretation aimed to help the
students collect relevant information, process it and after critically analyzing organize it and
categorize it. Third and fourth sections called Making Connections and Extension aimed to
facilitate the students to transfer information and use it in multiple ways in various contexts.
These sections were planned to train the students in generating innovative ideas and using
the ideas for developing new categories of knowledge.
The lesson plans encouraged students to critically analyze texts or information, organize
information, use tables and charts and other visual techniques, take notes, make independent
interpretations, generate personal responses, draw comparisons, connect the text with other

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subject areas and real life, write reading journals, dialogues, letters, summaries, descriptions,
critical commentary, and creative response essays.
In the teaching sessions taking into consideration the research on developing creative
thinking, students were encouraged to work in pairs or groups or interact in brainstorming
sessions. They were encouraged to predict, infer, investigate and generate their ideas without
any hesitation.

Method and Procedure of the Study

The study used true experimental pre-test – posttest control group design. The two groups
employed for the experiment were called experimental group and control group. Pre-test
and posttest were conducted on both the groups. Pre-test– posttest comparison helped the
researcher decide the desired learning outcomes and create the measures to capture them.
68 students of M.A. English second semester studying Romantic Poetry and 68 students of
M.A English studying Fiction II at International Islamic University, Islamabad were selected
to participate in the study. 34 students of Romantic Poetry were assigned to experimental
group and 34 to control group by even and odd number technique. Similarly 34 students of
Fiction II were assigned to experimental group and 34 to control group.
The pre-tests and posttests were prepared by the researcher. They were subject-based and
were prepared to measure creative thinking skills of the students of English literature at
Master’s level. They covered basic components of creative thinking and included a range
of creative thinking and other higher-order thinking skills techniques and tools such as Plus,
Minus, and Interesting (the PMI), and Provocative Operation or making unusual juxtapositions
(PO), Creative Problem Solving, The Reversal Method, Attribute Listing, Creative Ideas
Checklist, and Making Connection etc.
Lesson plans and worksheets were prepared by the researcher to teach the experimental
groups while the control groups were taught according to the traditional lecture method.
Keeping in view the theoretical assumptions, earlier research indings, particularly those
focused on developing creative thinking, and other high-order thinking skills, a variety of
teaching learning situations and activities were devised. The creative thinking tools and
techniques such as Plus, Minus, and Interesting (the PMI), and Provocative Operation or
making unusual juxtapositions (PO), Creative Problem Solving, Fraction, The Reversal
Method, Attribute Listing, Creative Ideas Checklist, and Making Connection etc. were used
to prepare teaching activities and situations for the experimental groups of Romantic Poetry
and Fiction II. 24 teaching session were arranged for both experimental groups and control
groups. Each session was of 1 hour. Lesson plans were prepared for each of the teaching
session of experimental groups.
The lesson plans deined the objectives for developing creative thinking, speciic objectives
related to the study material for the speciic session, the tasks to be learned and performed.
They also listed the material to be used, outlined the procedures to be followed, included
follow up activities for extending learning, and identiied the selected teaching strategies
and techniques. In each lesson plan activities were classiied and arranged in a graded order
from less dificult to more dificult. The lesson plans were conducted with the help of work-
sheets.

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 MUNAZZA YAQOOB

It was considered important to maintain an atmosphere of collaboration, cooperation and

lexibility, and student-centered setting in each teaching/learning session arranged for the
experimental groups.
Pre-tests for both experimental groups and control groups were conducted at the start of
treatment while posttests for all groups were arranged at the completion of treatment period
i.e. 24 sessions.

Analysis
Data collected through pre-tests and posttests were analyzed statistically applying z- test.
The data were analyzed on the level of .01 and 0.5 for signiicance. Comparison of the per-
formance of the control groups for Romantic Poetry and Fiction II and experimental groups
for Romantic Poetry and Fiction II was made at pre-test and posttest levels. The statistical
comparisons along with their Z value are given below in the table 1:

Table. 1
S. No Comparison of Performance Z Value
1 Comparison of performance of control group on pre-test and posttest 4.97
for Romantic Poetry
2 Comparison of performance of experimental group on pre-test and 21.17
posttest for Romantic Poetry
3 Comparison of performance of experimental and control group on 1.36
pre-test for Romantic Poetry
4 Comparison of performance of experimental and control group on 16.14
posttest for Romantic Poetry
5 Comparison of performance of control group on pre-test and posttest 3.41
for Fiction II
6 Comparison of performance of experimental group on pre-test and 38.14
posttest for Fiction II
7 Comparison of performance of experimental and control group on 1.08
pre-test for Fiction II
8 Comparison of performance of experimental and control group on 21.28
posttest for Fiction II

Findings and Discussion

The experiment was conducted to investigate whether the application of creative thinking
tools and techniques through cognitive teaching model can enhance creative thinking and
other higher-order thinking skills of the students of literature. The experiment carried out
generated positive results and illustrated that the implementation of creative thinking tools
and strategies employed through the cognitive teaching model improved the performance
of the students of literature in terms of development of creative thinking.

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At the level of pre-test no signiicant difference is seen in the performance of control

groups for Romantic Poetry and Fiction II and experimental groups for the same subjects as
is indicated in the z value given in table 1. This result conirms that at the start of the treatment
the control groups and experimental groups for both of the subjects exhibited similar per-
formance. This comparison at pre-test level helped to highlight the impact of the experimental
treatment which was carried out for two months. On the other hand, results of comparison
of the performance of control groups for Romantic Poetry and Fiction II and experimental
groups for the same subjects at the level of posttest show a signiicant difference in achieve-
ment of both the control groups and experimental groups. Z value in Table 1 clearly indicates
that experimental groups for both of the subjects scored signiicantly higher than the control
groups. It conirms that the experimental treatment given through cognitive teaching model
for two months helped to nurture students’ creative thinking and other higher order thinking
skills.
Data analysis of the experimental phase indicates that though there is a difference in
achievement of control groups for Romantic Poetry in their performance on pre-test and
posttest, yet it is not a signiicant difference as the z value of their pre-test and posttest show.
This slight difference in their achievement is the result of two months teaching. This result
is in contrast to the performance of experimental groups for Romantic Poetry and Fiction II
who exhibited a far greater development as is indicated in the z value of their pre-test and
posttest.
The comparison of the performance of control groups and experimental groups was made
in terms of development of creative thinking and other higher-order thinking skills. The
results conirmed that the experiment was effective in terms of achieving the objectives of
the current research. It thus led to a rejection of the null hypothesis and favored the cognitive
teaching model which was employed to teach the experimental groups.
In the researcher’s opinion the most signiicant inding from this investigation is that the
students’ creative thinking skills, which include originality, elaboration, lexibility, transfer-
ence abilities, making connections and using information in multiple contexts, creating new
categories of knowledge, and creative problem solving, were enhanced. Pre-tests, posttests,
and pre-tests-posttests comparisons indicate clearly the increase in creative thinking skills
and other higher-order thinking skills of students in treatment groups but no signiicant de-
velopment, in this regard, is observed in the students of control groups.
In addition, the results also revealed that the proposed cognitive teaching model had a
positive effect on the students’ conidence, independence, and communicative and collabor-
ative skills. They also exhibited greater interest in literary texts even when they were not
taught from the examination point of view. The interest in studying literature generated
through the cognitive teaching model can also be attributed to the development of students’
transference skills. They could perceive a link between life and literary texts or could manip-
ulate texts for learning communication skills and problem solving skills.
The cognitive teaching model was an opportunity for students to generate personal innov-
ative ideas, share ideas, be engaged in transference and extension activities, process, organize,
and synthesize information, and study literature as a life-relevant subject. The model attempts
to be in line with the methodology of studying literature suggested by reader response literary
theory and criticism. The model facilitates students to develop their unique interpretative
skills and be independent and autonomous learners who are able to generate interpretations
which are in accordance with their beliefs, social and cultural contexts, and knowledge base.

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The model provided students with in-depth study of literature. They were engaged in multiple
activities ranging from simply locating speciic information to using information creatively.
They resultantly, learnt to be lexible, critical, innovative and elaborative.
The model provided students ample opportunities to discuss, share, and communicate. As
a result, their English language skills were polished. The practice in writing reading journals
and response essays resulted in their improved writing and reading skills and conidence to
express their personal views and thoughts in writing. With English as their second language,
the students had developed a fear for academic writing, which was seen as being gradually
over come by continuous practice in writing personal response essays and journals.
The activities such as redesigning and restructuring literary texts, projects, research assign-
ments, conducting interviews, and arranging dialogues and presentations equipped students
with conidence and autonomy, in addition to giving them an awareness of their own creative
potential. It is expected that this training would enable them to be an effective part of work-
force of the country.
The most useful outcome of the experiment was the increase in students’ ability to analyze
the situation or events critically and respond to it creatively. They learnt to break the estab-
lished conventional structure of thinking, create new structures and develop their creative
problem solving skills.
The experiment provided students of treatment groups with the opportunity to have their
creativity polished. All the students who experimented with the tools and techniques of
creative thinking gained creative thinking skills and other higher order thinking skills and
learnt to employ them in solving real life problems and managing other subjects in the cur-
riculum. Students gained new tools with which they could express their creativity. Students
in treatment groups became more creative after they worked on tasks and exercises that
motivated them to discover their own ideas and use them in creative way.
Studying literature with cognitive teaching model did not impede students’ understanding
of literature but in fact helped them communicate and generate ideas independently and then
organize them for better interpretations. One of the obvious reasons was the reader response
approach to the interpretation of literary texts, which served as a foundation for the application
of cognitive teaching strategies and techniques to nurture creative thinking and other higher-
order thinking skills of students. This approach like other post modern approaches to the
study of literature such as deconstruction, contextualization, and cognitive poetics recom-
mends a methodology of teaching literature which takes literature as a tool to teach inquiry
and investigation, information processing skills, creativity and problem solving. This approach
thus, serves to prepare students to accommodate in the twenty irst century – the age of glo-
balization, telecommunication and digital technology.

Conclusion
The current research attempted to develop an approach that combines literary studies and
cognitive science and prove that cognitive psychology can help update, renew, and redesign
methods of teaching literature and equip students with the necessary skills to manage com-
plicated issues of the twenty irst century-the age of globalization, telecommunication, and
digital technology.
The indings and results of this study show that the cognitive teaching model proposed
in this study for developing creative thinking of the students of literature served to achieve

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the aims and objectives of twenty-irst century education. The model served to nurture a
spirit of lexibility in students and they were trained to work in collaboration with others in
order to ind out creative solutions to the problems presented to them. The model through
its tools (lesson plans and worksheets) illustrated that creative thinking is a combination of
critical and generative thinking and thus is creative problem solving. The model trained the
students to process and to analyze information critically and use it for developing new
knowledge and generating innovative ideas. The students were trained to critically examine
traditional patterns and assumption and restructure them.
As to date no research in thinking skills has been conducted in Pakistan, it is hoped that
this study will help conduct research in more sophisticated cognitive teaching methods and
resultantly bring improvement in teaching learning situation in Pakistan. The researcher is
of the opinion that when innovative models of teaching are explored and discussed, and new
instructional design are experimented to nurture creative and other higher-order thinking
skills of learners, then teachers will truly be able to claim that they are training the young
learners for the effective citizenship of the twenty-irst century society because our future
depends on our intellectual abilities and our creative abilities.

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 MUNAZZA YAQOOB

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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING

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dday/print?articleId=108663&fullArticle=true&tocId= 91086

About the Author

Dr. Asst. Prof. Munazza Yaqoob
I am an Assistant Professor and Chairperson of the Department of English (Female Campus)
at International Islamic University. My research interests include cognitive poetics, literary
theory, comparative literature, postmodernism and cognitive learning.

82
Editors
Mary Kalantzis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Bill Cope, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Editorial Advisory Board

Michael Apple, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.
David Barton, Lancaster University, Milton Keynes, UK.
Mario Bello, University of Science, Cuba.
Manuela du Bois-Reymond, Universiteit Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Bill Cope, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Robert Devillar, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, USA.
Daniel Madrid Fernandez, University of Granada, Spain.
Ruth Finnegan, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
James Paul Gee, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.
Juana M. Sancho Gil, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Kris Gutierrez, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Anne Hickling-Hudson, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Australia.
Roz Ivanic, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Paul James, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Carey Jewitt, Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK.
Mary Kalantzis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Andeas Kazamias, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.
Peter Kell, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.
Michele Knobel, Montclair State University, Montclair, USA.
Gunther Kress, Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK.
Colin Lankshear, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia.
Kimberly Lawless, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA.
Sarah Michaels, Clark University, Worcester, USA.
Jeffrey Mok, Miyazaki International College, Miyazaki, Japan.
Denise Newfield, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ernest O’Neil, Ministry of Education, Sana’a, Yemen.
José-Luis Ortega, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Francisco Fernandez Palomares, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Ambigapathy Pandian, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
Miguel A. Pereyra, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Scott Poynting, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK.
Angela Samuels, Montego Bay Community College, Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Michel Singh, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Helen Smith, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Richard Sohmer, Clark University, Worcester, USA.
Brian Street, University of London, London, UK.
Giorgos Tsiakalos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Salim Vally, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Gella Varnava-Skoura, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Cecile Walden, Sam Sharpe Teachers College, Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Nicola Yelland, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
Wang Yingjie, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Zhou Zuoyu, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

Please visit the Journal website at http://www.Learning-Journal.com

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The Learner Community
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