Have you ever thought about how you think? The fact that that we even have the ability and sometimes that we take things for granted? In this blog, we are going to talk about the different types of thinking.
Let’s have an example, when we see babies we think that they are adorable and how they always look so amazed by their surroundings, and that is because we start developing a type of thinking called «concrete thinking», let me guess, you didn’t even know that there are types of thinking? Am I right? Don’t feel bad, before my cognitive skills and creativity class I didn’t either, so let me pass you my recent knowledge.
Concrete thinking is literal thinking about physical things. According to noted psychologist Jean Piaget, babies and young children go through predictable stages of cognitive development during which they gradually move from concrete to abstract thinking.
This kind of thinking stays until around age eleven; we are beginning adolescence, juju! That’s when things start to get a little bit complicated, but no worries, I would explain it, just for you.
Along with our concrete thinking, personal experiences, and observations, we form hypotheses, predictions, consider alternatives and plans.
Now, we get to logical thinking. You might have heard of it, in school, probably you imagine some professor screaming, «C’mon guys! Think logical», yeah like it was that easy! Right? Well, actually it kind of is. We use our reasoning to help us «make sense» of things, with the help of facts, reasons, relationships, and structures. Plus, to answer to our angry teacher.
«The ability to interpret, combine ideas and develop a series of conclusions from certain data or information perceived» is what we call inferential thinking. To get to these conclusions, we use our sensory system or as you may know: five senses. Using these senses will allow perceiving data in different ways, for example, let’s say you go out on a playground and the first thing you notice is that the floor looks wet, and smells like it rained so, based on our sight and smell we could say that it rained earlier.
Last but not least, critical thinking! «it involves the conceptualization, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and ultimate application of information so that the learner may reach conclusions, or from independent judgments based upon what the learner has experienced combined with previous knowledge» Allen, 2008. In this kind of thinking, some steps could lead to great critical thinking, but for that, we would do another post, so stay tuned.
References:
Edublox . n.d ). Logical thinking : A learned Mental Process . [Online].
Retrieved from web page: https://www.edubloxtutor.com/logicalthinking/ January 11 th ,
Anonymous. (2019). Inferential comprenhension . 12/01/2020, from
NSW Government Web site: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching and learning/studentassessment/smart teachingstrategies/literacy/reading/inferential comprehension
https://www.healthline.com/health/piaget stages of development
https://www.healthline.com/health/concrete thinking
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/concrete thinking
https://www.healthline.com/health/piaget stages of development
