1
Essay 2 final draft
Critical thinking and creativity versus memorization and rule following
In our culture today, intelligence is associated with formal education and everyone is
in pursuit of education because without it you are considered unintelligent. The pressure is
transferred to children who are expected to grasp the concepts taught in a class within a year
after which they progress to the next grade where the concepts keep advancing. Since the
teachers have a lot to cover within the year and the fact that they teach students in a group, they
are forced to move on in their coverage regardless of the percentage of the learners that caught
the concept. The system of education today puts learners under pressure because all that matters
is what reflects on their grade at the end of a semester or term. To attain the grades and avoid
questions and looking stupid, learners have devised means to get the grades which include
memorizing of concepts right before the exam. Critical thinking has been left out of education
and instead memorization and rule following is given priority and rewarded. The place of
critical thinking in education has been left out, and this threatens innovation because young
minds are programmed to follow a set of rules without a chance to make mistakes and learn
from them.
The evaluation system requires that learners answer questions that have been picked in
the units they have studied over the term. These questions test their mastery of some concepts
at once and within a limited span of time. The method of evaluation may be effective for other
aspects of learning such as information retention and memory but is not a good indicator of
mastery of concepts. Teacher sees how much one can remember, the learners memorize as
many concepts as they can from topics, they consider significant and put them down on the
exam paper, after which everything is forgotten. Since there are policies and methods of
learning, learners are expected to adhere to them to succeed. For example, some of the projects
2
that were done outside of class and off the course requirements have turned to be life-changing
innovations; Google, Microsoft, and apple. Larry Page, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were creative
and innovative, but they had to get away from the norm to think beyond the books.
The problem that arises from this rush through the education system is that innovation
is not encouraged. Perception of free thinking is that of rebellion. Learners are not encouraged
to think freely; they have to stick to the rules. For example, a kid who has an interest in vehicles
and spends most of his time with machines will still be pressured to spend his time wellanalysing literature and poems without asking why he has to do it. The school is associated
with intelligence and a license for a good job and additionally a happy life. Students who cannot
memorize as much are forced to use other gimmicks in exams like carrying cheat sheets with
written answers. Cheating in exams is an indication of dishonesty among students which is a
bad sign for whom they are going to become in the society. However, when a student gets to
an exam room, looking at an exam question creates panic in them because their mind starts to
race to ask whether they wrote the answer for that. The first instinct after reading a question is
to look at the sheet for some answer instead of thinking critically and evaluating the question.
Eventually, the student ends up misunderstanding the question and giving inappropriate
answers.
Poor performance in the exams necessitates students to repeat the grades they are in
until they have attained the minimum requirements. Students who may have performed better,
given more time or given another form of evaluation testing their creativity, are forced to repeat
classes. The effects of that are learners feel demoralized and think of themselves as unable to
learn. Repeating a grade causes psychological problems for the learners and cause them to
deteriorate further. Memorization and putting learners under strict rules suppress their
imagination such that they cannot be innovative. There is no room for mistakes, and that is why
you have to get it right before you can proceed to the next level. The economy today runs on
3
innovation, and the complexity in the societies require that learners be exposed to more
problem-solving situations to learn how to think critically under varying circumstances.
Keeping them under strict rules limits their ability to explore and learn new things and adapting
to diversity.
Mike Rose in his article on the American scholar, explains the concept of cognitive
variability where he acknowledges that all the fields require a level of intelligence that suits it.
As he talks about his mother’s work as a waitress, and his uncle’s as a foreman at general
motors, he shows that someone does not have to be formally learned to be intelligent. This then
means that we can move from the practices that hurt out creativity and deprive learners the
ability to think creatively. All the varying abilities in learners should be encouraged ("BlueCollar Brilliance - The American Scholar"). The system has taught the learners competitive
behaviour and prepared them to face life with the same attitude.
Knowledge is about transforming society; it is supposed to make those who acquire it
better. The curriculum being taught needs to be re-examined to ensure that what is being taught
prepares the learners for life. It should not be a competition used to sort through leaners who
do well and punish those who do not succeed. This might cost money and time to change the
courses. Changing the course may be a difficult solution considering that it is a question of
culture. What people already believe may be difficult to change however much time it takes.
However, it is evident that the education system has suffered lack an action that needs must be
taken.
4
Works Cited
Blue-Collar Brilliance - The American Scholar". The American Scholar, 2018,
https://theamericanscholar.org/blue-collar-brilliance/. Accessed 16 Oct 2018.
Lin, Wei-Lun, and Yunn-Wen Lien. "Exploration Of The Relationships Between RetrievalInduced Forgetting Effects With Open-Ended Versus Closed-Ended Creative Problem
Solving." Thinking Skills And Creativity, vol 10, 2013, pp. 40-49. Elsevier BV,
doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2013.05.004.
Reflections: 1, 2, and 3 Assignment 2018
Prompt
After completing each essay, develop a reflection about writing that essay. Describe the most
meaningful and significant aspects of the reading, writing, and research experience.
Details
. · You may use the first person "T" since this is about your experience.
• Your audience is your instructor and your classmates.
Feel free to be creative in your reflection. You can include a question, a visual, links, lyrics
from a song that came to mind during the process of writing your essay, etc.
Requirements
· State the most important aspects of your learning: challenges you face or have overcome
and specific skills, types of knowledge or habits you have learned.
· Include an interesting title
· Be as specific as possible in all of your descriptions of learning.
• Use MLA format: double space, 12 inch font, 1" margins on all sides
Support your points by using specific examples of mistakes, knowledge, strategies,
feelings, or processes.
Write 2-3 paragraphs 1-1 full page (double spaced).
· Upload your reflections to your electronic portfolio by the end of the semester, if not before.
Before you write your reflection, please consider these questions:
1. What new things did I learn or experience?
2. What did I do well? (Process, content, structure, research, proofreading, etc.)
3. What were my challenges?
4. What did I learn from writing this essay that can make me a better writer?
5. What study skills helped me with this assignment? What skills do you need to improve?
6. How did I utilize what I have been learning in LIB 100?
Purchase answer to see full
attachment