It worth raising a crucial issue which is knowledgeable thinkers are more likely to achieve success, solve problems and make correct decisions for life than ordinary people. The ability to think clearly and rationally is essential whatever human beings choose to do, so thinking clearly and systematically is of great importance in every field of life especially in education field. Teaching thinking skills is basic due to the flux of knowledge available in all fields. Thinking skills provide the necessary tools to address this flood of renewable knowledge that has been witnessed in our modern world. Via developing this skill, learners can differentiate themselves from others.  they help learners to promote imagination and concentration. They also give them the potentials to view the world differently. (Jarwan, 2007: p.60). As indicated by (Larsen, 2002: p.55), the new challenge for the development of educational and pedagogical curricula is that it needs to provide programs on teaching thinking process to all; therefore, educators in recent years strive to create strategies to develop thinking for all individuals to solve unexpected problems. That is schools and curricula must provide students with proper tools and proper thinking skills that they can use to deal with multiple and diverse situations that they may encounter in school and in life as well. Friesen and Jardine (2010), Freire (1970), Cotton, (19991).

The urgent need for high thinking skill is a must for all in the current digital era with Web 2.0 and other forms of technology having become an inseparable part of schools, learning styles are changing rapidly, forcing learners to carry a transformational change in their pockets in the form of powerful multimedia handheld devices (Chen, 2010). These digital technologies have changed the traditional pedagogical paradigm, by enabling educators to reach their students directly and to revolutionize their learning experiences, which poses a lot of challenges in the way of thinking both critically and creatively. Therefore, it is time to reflect on whether our pedagogical approaches are congruent with the learning styles of this generation. Learners will not be working on routine information seeking and problem solving, but will forge new and dynamic relationships, and tackle novel challenges with sophisticated technology (McWilliams, 2008). The challenge for educators is thus to move beyond the convergent thinking tasks of multiple-choice and recall assignments that are dominating educational practices.  Based on these important grounds, the researchers conducted this study which showed the importance of creative thinking in teaching via determining the obstacles that limit the extent to which creative thinking is practiced and the elements that lack creativity in our schools’ curricula. Pragmatically, it aims to give recommendations to deal with these obstacles. The number of studies concerned with creativity in the Palestinian schools is not adequate. Since we have a low level of creativity in our schools, studies like this should minimize the gaps that prevent the creative thinking elements in curricula

Unfortunately, Palestinian schools do not enhance creative thinking at a satisfactory level. The current curriculum and teaching strategies are reluctant to give up rote memorization and spoon feeding. Curricula do not include creative materials and questions. Moreover, schools do not give teachers autonomy on deciding what to teach in their classes. They are obliged to follow their school’s system, the predetermined textbooks and lesson plans. There is no place for creative activities that allow students to deal with new situations in effective ways. Teacher- centered education in our schools limit the extent of students’ creativity. Teachers supply students with the possible questions to be asked in the exams, and they leave no room for students’ creativity in answering them and dealing with new authentic situations. Students are like robots, expected to give predetermined answers to certain questions. This restricted systematic educational process suppresses creativity, imagination and innovation. Instead of supporting students’ abilities to merely memorize paragraphs, rules and techniques, teaching policies that allow multiple answers, analysis and representations of the materials must be developed. (Hamdona, 2007Jarwan, 2007, Ayat 2012, Hammad, 2014 and Romahi and Issa 2010)

Title

Research in Social Sciences and Technology /Ressat

Publisher

PKP: Public Knowledge Project

Publisher Country

Turkey

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

4

Year

2018

Pages

1-13