Productive Thinking-2

Shreepad Karmalkar
Professor, Electrical Engineering Department
Core Team Member, Teaching Learning Center
Indian Institute of Technology Madras

karmal@ee.iitm.ac.in

Education is not about learning

diverse subjects,
but about learning
diverse ways to the same subject.
- Aurobindo

ACTIVITY
Aim: To gain an appreciation of the levels of thinking
Low

Knowing or memory
Application or Problem solving

Evaluation or Critical thinking

High

Creativity

Make five squares of equal size out of a single large

square. You are allowed to cut and paste.

Questions testing levels of thinking

Following questions assume that students are taught the
statement and proof of Pythagorus theorem.

Q. State and prove Pythagorus theorem.

- Tests memory
Q. Using Pythagorus theorem, divide a square piece of
paper into five equal squares.
- Tests application or problem solving ability
Q. Divide a square piece of paper into five equal
squares. (No hint of Pythagorus theorem).
- Tests critical thinking
Q. Formulate a question for testing the levels of thinking.
- Tests creativity

Assignment
Understand critical thinking in detail using an internet search.

Reason can answer questions, but imagination has

to ask them

Imagination is more important than knowledge

What is Creativity
Ability to look at the same thing as everyone
else and think something different.
Ability to take a fresh look at familiar objects and
situations, enriched by past experience, but not
constrained by it.

Description of attitudes with the help of roses and thorns

Optimistic

Roses

Pessimistic Thorns

Realistic

Roses and thorns

Stoic

Roses or thorns

Humane

Roses for you and Roses for me

Selfish

Roses for me and thorns for you

Sadistic

Thorns for you and your blood for me

Divine

Roses for you and your thorns for me

Creativity in naming of individuals:

Na-ma-shi-va-ya-Na-ma-shi-va-ya-Na-ma-shi-va-ya

Creativity in expression:
Warmth

During the coming winter, our vivid memories

of India will warm us, as we face the snows.

Humour

Capitalism is the exploitation of man by

man. Communism is exactly its opposite.

Some general thinking strategies

Reformulation
Graphical and Tabular Representation
Logical reasoning
Division into sub-problems
Analogy

Problem:
How can you become more productive ?

Solution by reformulation:
How can you make your job easier ?

Powerful Reformulation or
Transformation Techniques

Binary number system

Logarithm

Problem:

The Tirupati Temple Problem

Exactly at sunrise one morning, you set out to climb the

Thirupati temple. The path wound round the mountain.
You climbed the path at varying rates of speed. You
stopped many times along the way to rest and to eat the
fruit you carried with you. You reached the temple just
before sunset.

Continued ..

Tirupati temple problem..

After fasting and meditating for several days, you began

your journey down along the same winding path, starting at
sunrise and walking, as before, at variable speeds. Your
average speed down the hill was more than your average

climbing speed.
Prove that there must be a spot along the path that you will
pass on both trips at exactly the same time of the day.

PROBLEM

Derive the trend in the behavior of plating adhesion

on a silicon substrate from the measured data as a
function of substrate area and doping level. The
adhesion is measured for 0.5, 1 and 2 cm2 area, and

P+, P, N and N+ doping levels. Each measurement

is repeated twice.

TABLE
(LIST)

Doping

P+
Adhesion
Strength
(106 N / m2)

N+

Area
(cm2)

Expt 1 Expt 2

0.5
1

10
7

10.2
7.2

2
0.5
1
2
0.5
1
2
0.5
1
2

5
8
4.3
3
4.1
4.1
3.9
3
2.9

6
9
4.7
3.1
4.8
5
5.8
3.2
6.1

TABLE (MATRIX)

Area
Doping

0.5 cm2

1 cm2

2 cm2

P+

10

10.2

7.2

P
N
N+

8
4.1
-

9
4.8
-

4.3
4.1
3

4.7
5
3.2

3
3.9
2.9

3.1
5.8
6.1

Adhesion strength ( 106 N / m2)

GRAPH

Adhesion strength
(106 N / m2)

10
1 cm2

0.5 cm2
6

4
2 cm2

2
0

N+

P+

PROBLEM

How good is a particular classroom teaching

learning process ?

Graphical Representation

Student action
Student question
Student response
Teacher question
Teacher response
Teacher talk

Using chalkboard

Time

Using charts
Using projections
Using multimedia

Teaching-learning Process

Assignment
Find out different ways of graphical representation of data.

Logical Reasoning

How many matches should be played on a knock-out

basis, to decide the winner from among ten teams ?

Tree
1

2 3

4 5

6 7

8 9

10 Teams

Winner

Logical Reasoning
All men are mortal. Rama is a man. So, Rama is a mortal.
To decide a winner from among 10 teams, 9 teams
have to be eliminated.

Every match eliminates 1 team.

Hence, 9 matches need be played for eliminating
9 teams.

Logical reasoning is extendable

To decide a winner from among n teams, n-1 teams

have to be eliminated.

Every match eliminates 1 team.

Hence, n-1 matches need be played for eliminating
n-1 teams.

PROBLEM

Why is the computer down ?

Analysis
= Representation
+ Division into sub-problems
+ Logical reasoning

UPS

Analogy
An analogy enables a look at a situation as an
inter-related whole.
Analytical approach on the other hand dismembers
a whole into parts, and may destroy the attributes
which may pertain to the phenomenon as a whole.
Problems are solved and creative works are generated

by transfer of existing ideas to new surroundings

Examples of great discoveries

through analogy

Electromagnetic wave Matter wave

Solar system Atomic structure

Prescriptions

Practice, Organization and Motivation

Creativity is a skill which can be developed by PRACTICE.
Conscious application is needed, not the vagaries of
inspiration, in order to achieve a creative output.

Creativity is a matter of ORGANIZING ones basic skills,

not regretting that one was not born with a quick or

logical mind.

Practice, Organization and Motivation

MOTIVATION is recognized as a crucial factor in the

development of creativity.
High but not the highest intelligence, combined with the
greatest degrees of persistence, will achieve greater
eminence than the highest degree of intelligence with
somewhat less persistence.

[Cox, 1926]

Learn Different Solutions to the Same Problem

Example: calculation of
= 22
22 < < 4 (square), 3 < < 23 (hexagon)
/ 4 = Tan-1 1 = (x x3/3 + x5/5 x7/7 + .) at x = 1

Buffons needle experiment

= 2 x (total drops) / (no. of hits)

Learn Different Solutions to the Same Problem

Assignment
Find four different proofs of Pythagorus theroem, using
internet search or otherwise.

Solve a problem by different strategies

Whenever faced with a problem, apply the various
strategies suggested to see what kind of solution
results from each strategy. [The strategies include
reformulation, graphical representation, logical
reasoning, division into sub-problems and analogy].

Document analogies as and when you

come across them

Assignment
Describe at least two analogies you have come across
in your area of interest.

Note Keeping
Noting ideas as they occur
- helps you to remember them
- speeds up your thinking
- focuses attention on your subject
- stimulates cross-fertilization of ideas

If you do not record your ideas you will spend all

your mental energy trying to resurrect old ones.

Have an open mind

An open mind - is receptive to alternate points of view, regardless

of the present level of commitment to a belief.

- acknowledges areas of common ground with those
who hold alternate beliefs, and allows dialogue with

someone with opposing views without attacking the

proponent of those views.

MORE PRESCRIPTIONS ..
Arrange and rearrange what you read or hear, from
different points of view.
Allow opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas
so as to generate new problems.
- interact: discuss, answer doubts, teach, explain.
- Set aside time to read in other disciplines, keeping

track of what others are doing that seems original.

- if possible, work in areas outside of areas we are
currently learning about

Problem Solving vs Problem Finding

Students are used to well-defined problems having a
single solution. They are uncomfortable with ill-defined
problems.
Finding a problem
is harder but more essential than solving it
is as much a students responsibility as that of the guide.
A problem must spring from a researchers mind like a
plant springing from its own seed.

Problem Finding

It is better to kill a little problem than to bruise a much

larger one.
Do not worry too much whether your problem is the best
one to study. Once you go deep, any problem becomes
interesting. The important thing is to get started.

Getting Started
Ideas strike by chance, but only to a prepared
mind
Only a prepared mind can follow a lead opened by
an observation which is too insignificant to attract
the attention of a common man.

To prepare the mind, do the following cyclically

- Reading
- Implementing someone else's work
- Thinking (in partial ignorance)

Attributes of Research Problems

Difficulty
Value or usefulness

Originality
Is it interesting (does it deny commonly held assumptions ?)
Significance / impact (all the above and more)
Cost / equipment / cooperation

Summary
At the end of this lecture, we are now able to
describe different ways of thinking
describe ways in which one can develop thinking

and generate ideas

Summary
As per psychology, thinking is a skill that can be developed

through practice.
The requirements for creativity are a strong motivation
and an open mind, not high intelligence.

Learning about different ways to a problem and visualization

of the world in terms of analogies, are two ways of nurturing
creativity.

Summary
Various strategies of solving problems include:

reformulation, graphical representation, division

into sub-problems and logical reasoning.