In which of the following activities, potential for nurturing creative and…

Concept — How strongly an academic activity nurtures creative and critical thinking depends on two properties: the breadth of independent viewpoints it exposes a scholar to, and the depth of live, unrehearsed evaluation it demands. Creative thinking is stimulated when unfamiliar problems, methods and findings are met together, because fresh connections between them become possible; critical thinking is stimulated when claims must be questioned, defended and weighed against evidence in real time. An activity that stands high on both properties has the greatest nurturing potential; one that is high on only a single property, or on neither, has less.

Application — Judged on those two properties, participation in a research conference stands highest among the activities listed. A conference assembles researchers from many institutions and traditions into parallel sessions, keynotes and paper presentations, so a participant meets a wide spread of problems, methods and findings instead of a single line of work, which gives breadth. The open discussion and question-answer that follow each presentation require the participant to appraise unfamiliar arguments, raise objections and defend responses without a script, which gives depth. Encountering many independent positions and having to evaluate them live is exactly the combination the concept identifies, so the potential here is relatively greater.

Comparing the activities

Result — Participation in a research conference is therefore the activity with relatively greater potential for nurturing creative and critical thinking, and it is the answer recorded in the official CBSE UGC NET July 2018 Paper 1 key.