CHAMPIONING STUDENTS: DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

[continuation from the Last Post ~ in connection with the recent launch of a series of new programs intended for parents as well as their school-going kids/teens, under the auspices of 'The House of Creative Brains'.]


Today most of us, irrespective of whether one is student or working pro, we are information rich but knowledge poor.

Most of us also think that the Google search engine is our entry point for information search, leading to quick knowledge acquisition, instead of critical reading & critical thinking.

Is the technology of today, with the overwhelming advances of the Internet & other modern conveniences of the "electronic culture", producing a decline in critical reading & critical thinking?

Literary critic Sven Birkerts, author of 'The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age', which was published during the nineties, said:

"... the search for truth requires deep reading & deep thinking... dual processors which inform such a search & lead us toward insight & illumination."

Dilip offers powerful thinking tools & methodologies to read fast & think skillfully, so as to help you to cut through all the data smog, info-glut & info-garbage.

In a nut shell, critical thinking is not necessary being "critical" & negative.

To me, I think the well-known 'Critical Thinking Community' puts it in perspective:

"Critical thinking is the art of taking charge of your own mind. Its value is simple: If you can take charge of your own mind, you can take charge of your life."

With this philosophy in mind, we reckon a student is more likely to approach reading as a thinking endeavour, rather than a regurgitating routine.

Thinking is definitely hard work - it's an intellectually disciplined process; that's why so few people want to engage in it.

Dilip & I share the ardent belief that most students will not learn how to think unless we accord explicit attention to helping them to do so.

We also believe that thinking - critical thinking, to be more precise - gives students the ability to not only understand what they have read, but also build upon that knowledge without incremental guidance.

Critical thinking teaches students that knowledge is fluid, & builds upon itself. It is not simply rote memorisation or the ability to absorb lessons unquestioningly.

In the end analysis, Dilip & I believe that critical thinking, which encompasses skills sets like conceptualising, predicting, hypothesising, fact finding, analysing, decision making, problem solving, comparing & contrasting, organising, inferring, synthesising & evaluation, encourages students to think for themselves.

More importantly, students will be encouraged to use good thinking as the guide by which they live their lives.

I like to leave the following inspirational quote as food for thought:

"A common belief is that knowledge is power. It's not. Knowledge is ubiquitous in the Internet Age and thus grants no special privileges, no unique power. Certainly we need to have knowledge and stay current. But the real power comes from what we do with knowledge. In other words, in the 21st century power comes from our ability to think... "

~ Michael Durr, author of 'My Brain, My Future';

[to be continued in the Next Post.]

[For more information about the series of new programs under 'The House of Creative Brains', please get in touch with Ms. Faye Yeoh via her email faye_yeoh@yahoo.com.]