On the Cultivation and Training of College Students' Innovative Thinking
The prosperity of a country depends on innovation, and the prosperity of a nation depends on innovation.
Innovation is the soul of a nation's progress and the driving force of a country's prosperity. Colleges and universities are the cradle of cultivating innovative talents, and cultivating college students' innovative ability is an important topic that every higher education worker must face directly and has faced directly. Looking at human innovation activities at all times and at all times, we will find that there will be no innovation activities without innovative thinking. Innovative thinking is the core and soul of people's innovative activities. In other words, innovative thinking ability is the core and soul of innovative ability. The cultivation of innovative ability is fundamentally the cultivation of innovative thinking ability. This paper intends to make a superficial exposition on the meaning and characteristics of innovative thinking, the influencing factors of innovative thinking and the cultivation and training of innovative thinking of college students.
First, the characteristics and essence of innovative thinking
Innovative thinking is a relative concept and a way of thinking relative to conventional thinking. It is generally believed that innovative thinking refers to all forms of thinking activities that play a role in the process of innovation. As a special thinking activity, innovative thinking has its own characteristics besides general thinking. Many scholars have summarized the characteristics of innovative thinking from different angles. The author believes that the characteristics of innovative thinking are mainly reflected in the following three aspects: 1. Novelty [1]: Innovative thinking is actually an unconventional thinking method, and innovation and difference are its major characteristics. Understanding of things does not stay in the original cognitive category, but re-understanding, which will generally produce new insights, new inventions and new breakthroughs and achieve unprecedented results. Second, uniqueness [1]: The uniqueness of innovative thinking lies in its originality, in its courage to question what people are used to or perfect, in its courage to fight against old traditions and habits, and in its initiative to deny itself and break its self-framework. In the choice of thinking, in the skills of thinking, or in the conclusion of thinking, it has an "unprecedented" uniqueness and a certain range of initiative and pioneering. Thirdly, it is multi-directional: the multi-directional nature of innovative thinking lies in being good at thinking from different angles, trying to put forward various ideas and schemes in front of a problem, thus expanding choices and flexibly changing some factors that affect things and quantities, thus generating new ideas. When thinking is blocked in one place, you can immediately turn to another direction and look for the best answer with your heart. Ensure the best solution to the problem [2].
Innovative thinking is essentially a comprehensive way of thinking, which is an organic combination of comprehensive application and complementarity of various ways of thinking.
1. Innovative thinking is the comprehensive application of logical thinking and illogical thinking [3]
Logical thinking generally refers to thinking that meets the requirements of formal logic. Its basic aspects are nothing more than thinking forms such as concept, judgment and reasoning, and logical methods such as comparative classification, analysis and synthesis, abstract generalization and induction and deduction [4]. In short, logical thinking is a formal thinking that establishes the reasoning relationship between concepts and propositions according to logical laws. Non-logical thinking is thinking that does not follow the logical laws of intuition, association, fantasy, conjecture and inspiration.
Innovative thinking is the comprehensive application of illogical thinking and logical thinking. Generally speaking, logical thinking plays an important role in the process of innovation. Because the discovery and presentation of invention-creation problems is mainly due to logical thinking. The observation, description and generalization of the object of invention and creation mainly rely on logical thinking. Even if it is the result of illogical thinking, it will eventually be supplemented, explained and perfected into logical concepts and methods. Only in this way can it become a scientific theory with universal guiding significance. In fact, in any innovation activity, innovators often keep exploring on the logical road paved by predecessors' knowledge. Where logical methods don't work, non-logical methods should be used to open up new paths; When the non-logical method has opened the way, it is necessary to build a "logical bridge" on the "abyss" between the old understanding and the new understanding in time. Even the most outstanding imagination, intuition and inspiration must be logically processed to find their logical basis. Otherwise, they cannot become real scientific knowledge. Therefore, a complete innovative thinking method that can complete the process of scientific creation must be the dialectical unity and comprehensive application of logical methods and non-logical methods.
2. Innovative thinking is a supplement to divergent thinking and convergent thinking [3] Divergent thinking is also called diffusion thinking, radiation thinking, radiation thinking and so on. It refers to the thinking method of thinking around a question from different directions and angles and seeking multiple answers to the question from all aspects [4]. Divergent thinking is a three-dimensional and multi-directional thinking method, which has the characteristics of universality of space, radioactivity of thinking, diversity of levels and arbitrariness of angles. Generally speaking, the farther you stretch your mind, the wider your mind will be, and the higher your chances of making new discoveries.
Convergent thinking is a way of thinking as opposed to divergent thinking. Also known as convergent thinking, convergent thinking, seeking common ground thinking and concentrated thinking. Aggregative thinking requires multi-channel thinking to point to a central point, take the problem as the center and organize information around the center. Gather in the center from different aspects to achieve the purpose of solving problems. If divergent thinking radiates from one point to all sides, then convergent thinking is to concentrate on a certain point from all sides, and convergence, abstraction and generalization are its basic core.
Innovative thinking is the complementarity of divergent thinking and convergent thinking. In other words, divergent thinking and convergent thinking are two important components of innovative thinking. Divergence is for convergence, and convergence is the inevitable result of divergence. Divergence is the basis of convergence and convergence is the purpose of divergence. Both should not be neglected. They complement each other and are in unity of opposites. Their interactive development and organic combination form the basis of individual innovative thinking. If we only pay attention to convergence and ignore divergence, it may lead to the poverty of thinking, which is not conducive to innovative thinking activities. Similarly, if we only pay attention to divergence and ignore convergence, many thoughts will not be concentrated, and the thinking process will get out of control, fall into disorder and become chaotic thinking, which is not conducive to the realization of innovative activities. Western research shows that most creative discoveries are the complementary results of convergent thinking and divergent thinking. That is, the solution to a problem is often that people's thinking diverges along some different paths, and then the divergent results are synthesized with convergent thinking, and the best clues are keenly grasped. Let the results of differences be refined and sublimated, and finally promote the innovative solution of the problem. Therefore, innovative thinking is the complementarity of divergent thinking and convergent thinking.
In addition, innovative thinking is a combination of seeking common ground and seeking differences; The reflection of positive thinking and reverse thinking; The fusion of point, line, plane and even posture thinking and so on.
Second, the influencing factors of innovative thinking
1. Innovative spirit is the premise of innovative thinking: innovative spirit refers to an innovative attitude and pursuit formed by innovative subjects based on their understanding of innovation. It is a state of mind and a non-intellectual factor. Innovative spirit is the first prerequisite for individuals to produce innovative thinking. Innovative spirit comes from acquired training and exercise, and is also influenced by many non-intellectual factors. For example: curiosity, thirst for knowledge, skepticism, interest, hobby, will, passion, thinking independence, etc. These factors have different promoting effects on the emergence of innovative spirit, but their mutual connection, mutual influence and interaction are conducive to the formation of innovative spirit. 2. Knowledge and experience are the basis of innovative thinking: innovation, in a word, is a kind of "negation" and transcendence of previous work, and the process of innovative thinking is actually a process of reprocessing existing information. Therefore, knowledge and experience are the basis of innovative thinking, and also determine the level and quality of innovative thinking. The richer the knowledge and experience, the sharper the observation problem, and the easier it is to open up new areas of innovative thinking activities. The higher the level of knowledge and experience, the higher the level and level of innovative thinking.
What needs to be emphasized is that knowledge and experience sometimes make people form thinking inertia and even form habitual thinking patterns. This leads to dogmatism and rigidity of people's thinking, which affects and restricts people's innovative thinking and has a negative impact on its formation. Therefore, we should dialectically understand the dual effects of knowledge and experience on innovative thinking and pay attention to weakening the influence of habitual thinking. Critically inherit the existing knowledge and experience, make breakthroughs and innovations in reference, and make the existing knowledge and experience play an active role in innovation activities.