2.3 Inventive thinking skills in science
According to the enGauge (NCREL, 2003), inventive thinking skill is a crucial element in surviving and
thriving in the 21st century. This skill includes six elements. The first element is the ability to adapt and manage
complexity. This would enable the students to recognize and understand that change is constant, at the same time
deal with change positively by modifying their thinking, attitude or behaviour to accommodate and handle new
environment. The second element in inventive thinking skills is self direction which refers to students’ ability to set
goals related to learning, plan for the achievement of those goals, independently manage time and effort, and
independently assess the quality of learning and any products that results from the learning experience. The third
element is curiosity. This refers to the students’ desire to learn more about something and is an essential component
of lifelong learning. Fourth is creativity which is the act of bringing something into existence that is genuinely new
and original, whether personally (original only to the individual) or culturally. This implies that students’ are able to
produce something new or original that is either personally or culturally significant. The student’s willingness to
think about a problem or challenge, to share that thinking with others and to listen to feedback is known risk taking.
Risk taking is defined as a willingness to go beyond safety zone to make mistakes, to creatively tackle challenges or
problems with the ultimate goal of enhancing personal accomplishment and growth. Finally, higher order thinking
and sound reasoning refer to the cognitive processes of analysis, comparison, inference and interpretation,
evaluation and synthesis applied to a range of academic domains and problem solving contexts. The students are
able to compare analysis, make inference and interpretation, evaluate and solve problems in the tasks given to them
and in their everyday life.