KJCKorea
Journal Central

Chung‐Ang  University’s  <Creative  Thinking  and  Communication>  aims to strengthen abilities to read critically, think creatively and communicate  actively,  and  thus,  to  think,  emphasize  and  converge  the relevant subjects. Since the spring of 2015, the program has been available  to  college  freshmen  in  66  units,  designed  to  give  a  sense  of feeling in the face with intellectual heritage from above, and a capacity  with  respect  to  self‐identity  building,  critical  thinking,  empathetic feeling, reasonable decision‐making and claiming civic responsibility  in  our  everyday  life. The  course  first  starts  with  a  individual,  and  then  expands  to general  human  and  human  society  as  a  whole.  In  the  meantime,  students read, think, and debate on issues, which help them look into  their  minds,  contemplate  on  human  nature  and  conditions  of  life, and look over realties they face in making a choice everyday. Convergent  imagination  provides  a  kind  of  base  for  in‐depth  study  of subject and its expansion and networking, and search for creative solution  to  a  problem  we  face.  It  enables  us  to  open  our  minds  and  to adopt the outside world within ourselves, further helping us recognize  the  unseen  relationships  among  the  subjects,  connect  them  by thinking over and conferring the meanings to them. In <Creative Thinking  and  Communication>,  you  could  find  a  gradual  convergence and expansion of a subject while handling just one issue, or  you  may  find  it  unfolding  during  the  whole  period  of  the  course,  transcending issues and chapters in the program. After  the  first  semester,  the  students  overall  gave  positive  feedback  on the program. The students responded favorably that it helped to enhance  creative  thinking(76%)  and  communication  skills(82%).  On  the other hand, they said that they had some difficulties in critical and  expansive  thinking  beyond  the  mere  understanding  of  the  text.  The instructors surveyed responded accordingly that they felt the same  trouble  in  their  teaching  to  help  students  think  critically  and  expansively, and that there were some cases where the students did not  read  and  understand  the  text  well  enough  to  go  further,  leading  to a superficial discussion and arbitrary conclusion in the end. But, they  said  that  they  believed  the  course  facilitated  participation  from  the students, resulting in fruitful interpretation, creation of sympathy and  critical  activity  on  the  subjects. For  a  better  <Creative  thinking  and  communication>,  I  would  like  to recommend creating a text full of detailed and various contents, facilitating  the  process  “text ‐  expansion  of  viewpoints  and  issue  raising ‐ search for a solution”. I also believe we should build a better circumstance  surrounding  the  course,  by  downsizing  the  number  of  students in each class, providing a better classroom facility suitable for  discussion  and  debate,  and  allotting  more  in‐class  hours  to  the  course.

liberal arts, creative thinking, communication, convergent imagination, competencies