CRITICAL THINKING AND CREATIVITY IN EDUCATION WHY DO WE NEED THEM

This paper advocates the need for critical thinking and creativity in education. It described critical thinking as the capacity to think more clearly and logically in order to understand the valid connections that exist between ideas. Critical thinking is being considered in this paper as the defining quality of the fruitful and creative mind. It further noted that critical thinking is important in education because without the skills of critical thinking it may be difficult to determine some issues of societal concern in the society. In the era where knowledge economy is driven by information technology, the paper argued that critical thinking, creativity and problems solving skills are indispensable. It added that both critical thinking and creativity are essential to development. Five criteria of critical thinking were also outlined in the paper to include: Doing away with any form of bias in passing judgment about an issue; identifying the different objectives there are in relation to a particular issue; evaluate an opinion to determine how strong or valid it is; Recognize any weakness or negative points that there are in an argument; and provide structured reasoning and support for an argument that one wishesto make. The paper concludes that Nigeria may continue to depend on others for solutions to its own problems unless it begins to think critically and creatively towards solution to its own problems.