Creating meaning. The importance of Arts, Humanities and Culture for critical thinking development

Abstract

This paper discusses the need for Arts, Humanities and Cultural Studies to be widely studied within Higher Education. Research shows that such topics are necessary for the development of critical thinking, this type of analysis being innate to these domains. In this paper, I introduce the concept of creating meaning, which I define as the link between creative thinking and critical thinking and as the first attribute of a critical thinker. Before making inferences, judgements or decisions, one must identify the framework of a problem, determine the parameters of the discussion and reflect upon assumptions. These are propaedeutic to a good discussion and are prerequisites of a good critical thinker. Arguing that creativity is not a separate process from critical thinking, I aim to demonstrate that the Arts, Humanities and Cultural Studies are the promoters of critical thinking. Because disciplines in these fields are likely to create environments that foster critical thinking and encourage the production of meaning, I argue that these necessarily belong in all curricula of Higher Education.

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