| CODE | IOT3110 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Creative and Critical Thinking for Public Officers | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | The Edward de Bono Institute for Creative Thinking and Innovation | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit is designed to equip fifth year public administration students with the knowledge and the skills necessary to think critically, engage in self-reflection and apply creative thinking tools to enhance performance, effectiveness and efficiency within the public sector. During workshops, which will form an integral part of this study-unit, students will be encouraged to apply higher order thinking competencies and creative thinking techniques to case studies about specific, existing and new challenges in their field. Students will be empowered to develop their creative potential and think outside of the box to generate new solutions to existing problems whilst considering alternate points of view. Students will also be expected to contribute situations from their own experience to which the methods can be applied. On completion of this study-unit, students will be able to apply critical and creative thinking skills to engage with, and reflect on various work related issues. Study-unit Aims: This study-unit aims at: - Developing students’ higher order thinking competencies, by introducing them to the fundamentals of critical thinking; - Familiarizing students with various creative thinking tools to consciously challenge their own thought patterns and responses to life situations; - Encouraging students to start asking questions and reflect on their own thinking and one's personality traits - how they influence cognition; - Enhancing the students' emotional intelligence. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Recognize critical and creative thinking as distinct but related thinking skills; - Describe and reflect on the traits of a critical thinker; - Apply standards to assess thinking; - Apply critical thinking skills, intellectual standards and creative thinking skills in the process of solving problems in case based scenarios; - Harness/Control emotions of self and others; - Recognize and consider alternate points of view when thinking through issues and making decisions. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Develop a reflective approach that will help them grow as developing professionals within the public administration sector; - Reflect critically on the how to meet needs and resolve issues to develop stronger communities; - Apply critical and creative thinking skills to enhance practice and enrich the quality of services delivered to people and communities. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: de Bono, E. (2000). Six Thinking Hats. London: Penguin Press. Paul, R., & Elder. L. (2013). Critical thinking tools for taking charge of your learning and your life. 3rd Edition. Prentice Hall. Supplementary Reading: Brookfield, S. (2008). Developing critical thinkers: Challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting.Jossey-Bass. Browne, N., & Keeley, S. (2014). Asking the right questions: A guide to critical thinking. 11th edition. Longman. Weisberg, R. (2006). Creativity: understanding innovation in problem solving, science, invention and the arts. Wiley & Sons. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Independent Study | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Petra Caruana Dingli |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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