How to think, not what to think | Jesse Richardson | TEDxBrisbane

Summary

The speaker advocates for a shift in education from teaching students 'what to think' to 'how to think,' emphasizing the importance of fostering creativity and critical thinking. He discusses the historical context of the education system and proposes a platform, the School of Thought International, to teach these skills for free. The speaker also highlights the need for engaging educational resources, drawing parallels with effective advertising techniques.

Takeaways

• 🧠 The importance of teaching children how to think rather than what to think is emphasized, as traditional education often lacks instruction on critical thinking skills.
• 🏫 The speaker suggests that the current education system is a product of industrialization and has become a hard-to-change bureaucracy.
• 📚 It is argued that creativity and critical thinking are essential for innovation and problem-solving, and should be taught in schools.
• 🤔 The speaker highlights the need for students to be engaged in their learning process, fostering curiosity and self-motivation.
• 🔄 The idea that creativity is not just about artistic expression but also about making new connections and solving problems is presented.
• 🚫 The potential dangers of being open only to new connections without critical thinking are discussed, such as susceptibility to cognitive biases.
• 🤓 Critical thinking is defined as the ability to question rigorously, form coherent thoughts, and identify flawed arguments.
• 💡 The concept that it's okay to be wrong and that changing one's ideas can be liberating is introduced as a key aspect of critical thinking.
• 🌐 The speaker's experience in advertising is used to illustrate the power of simplicity and genuine engagement in effective communication.
• 📈 The success of the 'Your Logical Fallacy Is' website and poster demonstrates the demand for simple, engaging educational resources.
• 🏛️ The launch of the School of Thought International is announced as a platform for free learning of creative and critical thinking skills.

Q & A

What is the main argument presented in the script regarding education?

The main argument is that the education system should focus on teaching children how to think rather than what to think, emphasizing the importance of fostering creativity and critical thinking skills.

Why does the speaker suggest that the current education system may not be conducive to teaching how to think?

The speaker attributes this to the system's historical development in response to industrialization, creating a bureaucratic structure that is hard to change, and to past practices that were not based on a sophisticated understanding of learning.

What does the speaker propose as an alternative to traditional knowledge-based education?

The speaker proposes involving children in their own learning process by encouraging them to question, understand, and engage their minds, rather than just memorizing correct answers.

How does the speaker describe the role of curiosity in learning?

Curiosity is described as a spark that keeps children engaged and motivated to learn. When curiosity is ignited, children become self-powered learners who seek understanding on their own.

What is the relationship between creativity and the ability to think, as discussed in the script?

Creativity is presented as an essential part of learning how to think, as it involves making new connections and being innovative in solving problems, which is a fundamental aspect of human progress.

How does the speaker differentiate between art and design in the context of creative thinking?

Art is described as an expression, while design is about solving problems. The speaker advocates for teaching creative thinking that is more akin to design, focusing on adaptability and innovation.

What is the importance of critical thinking skills, according to the script?

Critical thinking skills are important for questioning things rigorously, forming sound arguments, identifying fallacies, and being open to the possibility of being wrong, which is liberating and transformative.

What is the speaker's view on the role of being wrong in the learning process?

The speaker views being wrong as a positive aspect of learning, emphasizing that it is not tied to one's identity and that changing one's ideas can be a liberating experience.

How does the speaker describe the combination of creative and critical thinking?

The speaker describes the combination as two sides of the same coin, which when used together, can lead to a dynamic interplay that fosters a deeper understanding and genius-level insights.

What is the purpose of the School of Thought International mentioned in the script?

The School of Thought International is a not-for-profit online school aimed at teaching creative and critical thinking skills for free, making educational resources available under a creative commons license for anyone with an Internet connection.

What is the speaker's suggestion for the future of education in terms of teaching thinking skills?

The speaker suggests incorporating thinking as its own subject in school curricula, dedicating as much time to teaching kids how to think for themselves as is done for traditional subjects like English and Math.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 The Neglect of Teaching Thinking in Education

The speaker begins by highlighting the importance of education and prompts the audience to recall if they were ever taught how to think during their schooling. They argue that while students are taught knowledge, the actual process of thinking is often overlooked. The speaker suggests that this might be due to the industrialization-era structure of the school system, as pointed out by Sir Ken Robinson. They emphasize the need to adapt education to a rapidly changing world and propose teaching children how to think rather than what to think, to keep the curiosity alive and empower them to be self-motivated learners.

05:01

🎨 Embracing Creativity and Critical Thinking

The speaker discusses the significance of creativity in defining human innovation and progress, distinguishing it from art by emphasizing its problem-solving aspect. They advocate for teaching creative thinking to enable adaptability and innovation. However, they also stress the importance of critical thinking to counteract cognitive biases and to foster the ability to question and refine one's own thoughts. The speaker presents critical thinking as a skill that encourages the acceptance of being wrong and the liberation that comes with changing one's views. They propose that both creative and critical thinking are complementary and essential for a well-rounded approach to problem-solving and understanding.

10:03

🌐 Simplifying Education with Engagement

Drawing from personal experience in the advertising industry, the speaker shares insights on the power of simplicity and engagement in effective communication. They suggest applying these principles to education, criticizing the lack of creativity in school curricula and the ineffectiveness of traditional teaching methods. The speaker shares their own initiative of creating a poster and website to educate about logical fallacies in a simple and engaging manner, which became a viral success. They propose the idea of an online platform that provides resources for teaching and learning creative and critical thinking skills, emphasizing the potential of such a platform to transform education.

15:03

🏫 The Vision for a School of Thought

The speaker introduces the School of Thought International, a not-for-profit online school aimed at teaching creative and critical thinking skills freely under a creative commons license. They envision a 3D virtual campus as an immersive learning environment and discuss the importance of teaching ethics, the philosophy of science, and critical reading of journalism in schools. The speaker questions the current priorities in education and advocates for the inclusion of thinking as a core subject in the curriculum. They conclude by emphasizing the urgency of teaching children how to think in the face of unprecedented global challenges and the potential of collaborative efforts to bring about change in education.

Keywords

💡Education

Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values, and habits. In the video, it is highlighted as important but criticized for its lack of emphasis on teaching students how to think critically and creatively. The speaker argues that the current system focuses more on imparting information rather than fostering independent thought.

💡Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment. The video emphasizes the importance of teaching critical thinking in schools to enable students to question, reason, and identify biases and logical fallacies. It is presented as a counterbalance to the acceptance of information without scrutiny.

💡Creativity

Creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something. The speaker discusses creativity as an essential aspect of learning how to think, suggesting that it is not just about artistic expression but about making new connections and solving problems, which is central to innovation and adaptability.

💡Cognitive Biases

Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking that affect the judgments and decision-making processes. The video points out that everyone is prone to cognitive biases, which can lead to flawed thinking. Teaching critical thinking helps students recognize and overcome these biases to form more accurate and rational conclusions.

💡Logical Fallacies

Logical fallacies are errors in reasoning that undermine the logic of an argument. The speaker introduces the concept of logical fallacies as part of critical thinking education, giving examples of common fallacies and the importance of recognizing them to avoid flawed arguments.

💡Curiosity

Curiosity is the desire to learn or know more about something or someone. The video suggests that fostering curiosity in students is crucial for engaging them in their learning process. When curiosity is ignited, students become self-motivated to seek knowledge and understanding.

💡Engagement

Engagement refers to the involvement and interest of students in the learning process. The speaker argues that engaging students in their own learning is more effective than passive learning. This active participation helps maintain curiosity and encourages independent thinking.

💡Design

Design is the process of creating a plan or layout for the construction of an object, building, or system. In the context of the video, design is contrasted with art, emphasizing its problem-solving aspect. The speaker advocates for teaching design thinking as a way to encourage creativity in problem-solving.

💡Adaptive

Adaptive refers to the ability to adjust or change in response to new conditions or circumstances. The video suggests that teaching students to be adaptive is important for their future, enabling them to innovate and solve problems in a rapidly changing world.

💡Immersive 3D Campus

An immersive 3D campus is a virtual environment that simulates a real-world campus experience. The speaker proposes the idea of creating an immersive 3D campus for the School of Thought International, which would be a novel way to engage students in learning about creative and critical thinking skills in an interactive and visually stimulating manner.

💡School of Thought International

School of Thought International is a not-for-profit online school mentioned in the video, aimed at teaching creative and critical thinking skills for free. It represents a new approach to education, making these important skills accessible to anyone with an internet connection, regardless of their location or age.

Highlights

The importance of teaching children how to think rather than what to think is emphasized.

The lack of instances in traditional education where students are taught to think critically is highlighted.

The speaker suggests that the education system's structure is a result of industrialization and is hard to change.

The historical context of the education system's establishment during less sophisticated times is discussed.

The rapid changes in the world and economy necessitate an adaptation in educational approaches.

Involving children in their own learning process is key to maintaining their curiosity and engagement.

Teaching for understanding rather than memorization fosters self-powered learning.

Creativity as an essential part of learning how to think is introduced.

The distinction between creative expression and design in the context of problem-solving is made.

The necessity of teaching critical thinking to counter cognitive biases and flawed thinking is stressed.

The liberating effect of accepting the possibility of being wrong and changing one's ideas is discussed.

The interplay between creative and critical thinking as a powerful tool for understanding is presented.

The speaker's background in advertising and the application of simplicity and engagement in education is shared.

The idea of applying advertising principles to make learning engaging and fun is proposed.

The success of the 'yourlogicalfallacyis.com' website in educating about logical fallacies is highlighted.

The launch of the School of Thought International as a platform for learning creative and critical thinking is announced.

The vision of an immersive 3D campus for the School of Thought to enhance the learning experience is introduced.

A call to incorporate thinking as a subject in school curricula and the potential benefits for society are discussed.

The potential impact of teaching kids how to think in the current volatile period of human history is emphasized.

Transcripts

Translator: Leonardo Silva Reviewer: Cristina Bufi-Pöcksteiner

We can probably all agree that education is important, right?

That's pretty universal.

But I want you to think back to your time in school

and see if you can remember something.

See if you can remember a time

when you were actually taught how to think.

Well, the lesson you were being given

was specifically teaching little you as a kid,

with big, wide eyes and a sponge-like brain,

how to go about the business of thinking.

Now, if your experience was anything like mine,

you'll probably struggle to think of a single instance when that occurred.

And when you think about it, that's completely insane, isn't it?

In at least, what, ten years that we all spend in school,

we get taught all sorts of knowledge like, "This plus this equals that,"

"Such and such happened in nineteen diggity two,"

which is great,

but the actual teaching of how to think,

not so much, right?

So, the idea I'd like to share today

is that we need to teach kids how to think, not what to think.

Now, if you're unfortunate enough to be talking to a conspiracy theorist,

they might tell you that the reason we're not taught how to think

is that the powers that be don't want us sheeple

waking up to their lizard people, GMO, chemtrail, vaccine propaganda.

(Laughter)

Or something.

But I suspect the real reason is quite substantially more boring and plausible.

As Sir Ken Robinson identified

in his wonderful TED Talk on how schools kill creativity,

that's just kind of how the school system responded to industrialization,

and now it's a big entrenched bureaucracy and bloody hard to change, right?

And remember we set this whole education system thing up

around the same time that we thought hitting kids with sticks was a good idea,

and if they had a cough, we gave them heroin-based cough syrup,

like, with actual heroin in it,

which, you know, admittedly was pretty effective at calming it down.

But the point is that we weren't exactly sophisticated in our understanding.

But now, as we all know, our world and our economy are changing rapidly,

and how we approach education needs to adapt.

So, what's different about teaching children how to think

is that we're involving them in the process of their own learning.

Instead of just telling them to memorize the right answer,

we're asking them to engage their own minds, their own awareness,

by questioning things,

attaining understanding, not just knowledge.

And that involvement, that engagement, is so important

because it keeps a spark of curiosity alive

that so often dies around the same time

that kids start resenting the kind of only-one-right-answer didactic nature

with so much schoolwork; it's usually around grade 3 or 4.

And when you alight that curiosity,

you no longer have to push knowledge on to kids

because they actually want to understand.

There's no need for carrots and sticks to force learning

because they become self-powered, nerdy, little curiosity machines.

And as result of that, you know,

they are, you know, able to think entirely on their own merits.

But what are actually talking about here when we say "learning how to think"?

Well, I think part of it is creativity.

But creativity isn't just some self-indulgent feely thing.

It largely defines us as a species.

When you think about it,

almost every great innovation,

political theory or scientific breakthrough

has sprung from creative thinking, right?

So, from Plato to Einstein, from agriculture to iPads,

because creative thinking is, in essence, nothing more than making new connections.

But to be clear,

what I'm talking about here isn't creative expression.

Art's great, but what I'm advocating is less like art and more like design.

And the difference between art and design

is that art is an expression, whereas design solves a problem.

So the point of teaching kids how to think creatively

is to teach them how to be adaptive,

how to innovate in order to solve problems.

Not sitting in a loft with red wine, ciggies and a black skivvy,

suffering the burden of no one understanding their artistic genius,

but sitting in a planning meeting, or a startup incubator,

or anywhere else in the real world

that contributes to our real-world economy.

So, our schools need to teach creative thinking.

But I think that's only half of it -

I think that's only half of it because teaching creative thinking is great,

but if you're just open to new connections,

then, you know, that's a little bit of a recipe for disaster as well

because you need to keep your thinking to account.

Never trust a brain,

especially your own,

because we are, every single one of us, prone to cognitive biases,

to prejudices and to the blinding effects of privilege and in-group psychology.

We like to think of ourselves as really quite objective and clever,

but the unfortunate truth is that we are all, to some extent,

flawed, ignorant and deluded,

which, you know, sounds not good.

But happily, we can do something about it by learning critical thinking skills.

What critical thinking teaches us is how to question things rigorously,

how to form sound, well-reasoned, coherent thoughts and arguments

and critically how to identify bullshit.

But perhaps the most important thing it teaches us

is that it's good to be wrong,

that the ideas we hold aren't us

and that we don't need to defend them to the death,

and, in fact, that we can change those ideas

and that it is absolutely liberating to do so.

It's something really fundamental to how we approach the world

to have the vulnerability and the humility

to be receptive to the idea that I might be wrong, you know?

It's profoundly transformative.

And when we're trained as critical thinkers,

something significant shifts

because we become aware of our own thinking.

"Why do I think this? How have I come to this conclusion?"

We become quite literally self-aware.

This is my thesis:

that creative and critical thinking are two sides of the same coin,

two parts of an equation that add up to how to think.

And what's really interesting is that something happens

when our mind is trained to think both creatively and critically

because that equation adds up to more than just a sum of its parts.

There's a seed of genius, there's a fertility of understanding,

that allows our mind to grow to such great heights

when it's able to think creatively

in dynamic interplay with thinking critically.

When those two aspects of our ability work together,

amazing things happen.

A da Vinci moment's born from the cognitive alchemy

of a mind that is free to plan and explore,

yet also disciplined to apply reason and rationality.

And such a mind is also a fortress of understanding.

It's largely impervious to the lies and the nefarious manipulations

of politicians, the media and the advertising industry,

which presents me with something of a segue.

So, for the past 15 years or so,

I've been manipulating people into buying things that they probably don't need,

working as an advertising creative in the ad industry.

And in that time,

I've learned a fair bit about both creativity and bullshit.

But perhaps the most important thing I learned

is that if you want an ad to be effective, you need to create genuine engagement,

and you need to do so using the power of simplicity.

If you can get that right,

then your ad doesn't feel like an ad anymore.

Instead, it feels like something that someone might actually not hate

and possibly even want to read, watch or interact with.

So, but what if we applied that same truth to education instead of advertising?

Now, we all know that making learning fun and engaging is a good idea,

it's sort of obvious,

but to be blunt, there really isn't much evidence of it in practice.

And I think the reason for that

is that the people who design school syllabuses

usually aren't talented entertainers:

no trained designers, directors or other creative professionals.

And the unfortunate truth is that using Comic Sans

and putting an illustration of a zany scientist up in the corner of the page

doesn't actually make learning all that much fun, right?

(Laughter)

A great example of how to do it right is Horrible Histories.

As the name suggests, it takes all the most awful aspects of history

and puts it into a narrative form.

And of course kids absolutely love it because it's disgusting and fascinating.

Another wonderful example of how education should be engaging

happened when a scientist also happened to be a poet,

because Carl Sagan didn't just teach us about the cosmos;

he helped us to progress as a society, he changed how people think.

Now, education is the most important cornerstone of civilization, isn't it?

Shouldn't we be making it as engaging and effective as possible?

Shouldn't we be applying the same rigor,

the same innovation that we do to marketing,

to education?

So, a couple of years ago,

I was teaching my own boys about logical fallacies,

which is an area of critical thinking,

and it occurred to me

that maybe I could use my advertising powers for good instead of evil, right?

(Laughter)

Now, fallacies are essentially like flaws in reasoning,

and I wanted my boys to be aware of some of the more common ones

like the appeal to nature fallacy.

But all the explanations I'd read online

were these just impenetrably dense academic walls of text, you know.

And so I did what I do at work when I'm given a 12-page communication strategy

that I somehow have to fit onto a billboard someone can read

as they're drive past in their car.

I simplified.

I tried to come up with some clear explanations and examples

we could about in the car on the way to school in the morning,

which was actually a really fun exercise.

And I ended up putting together a poster

with 24 of the most common logical fallacies,

each with a single simple sentence that clearly explained the concept, right?

And then, it occurred to me

that perhaps the same idea could work well online, you know,

and I could share it with other parents, teachers and the world at large.

And so, with the help of some programmer friends,

we came up with a creative commons website at yourlogicalfallacyis.com .

The idea was that if you saw someone committing a fallacy online someway,

you just linked them to it.

If someone was misrepresenting an argument,

you just linked them to yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman, right?

So probably the best way to explain it is to show you an example from the site.

So, this one is false cause,

in which we presume that a relationship between things

means that one is the cause of the other.

So for example,

"Pointing to a fancy chart, Roger shows how temperatures have been rising

over the past few centuries,

whilst at the same time,

the number of pirates have been decreasing.

Thus, pirates cool the world and global warming is a hoax."

So -

(Laughter)

You get the idea.

We also made the poster available as a PDF

that anyone could download and print out for free.

So, we launched in 2012, and yourlogicalfallacyis.com blew up.

It was tweeted by the likes of the lovely Mr. Stephen Fry, PZ Meyers,

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, our own Dr. Karl, among thousands of others.

It was featured on sites like Boing Boing and Upworthy,

melted our servers, front-paged on Reddit, attracted over 3,5 million unique visitors

and is currently the top logical fallacies site online.

(Laughter)

It's getting around 10,000 unique visits a day,

and most awesomely the poster is currently being featured

in may thousands of classrooms and other kids' bedrooms

all around the world.

So, you know -

(Applause)

Thanks.

(Applause)

So that went quite well.

(Laughter)

It was surprising.

It would seem that making educational resources simple, fun and free

is a good idea, right?

So, what now?

Well, what if we did the same kind of thing but on a much bigger scale?

What if we created a platform

that allowed teachers to teach critical thinking,

that allowed any student to be able to learn

about philosophy and creative thinking?

What if we created a platform where anyone could get -

sorry -

where anyone could have access to resources on thinking?

So just recently, we launched the School of Thought International,

at schoolofthought.org .

The purpose of the School of Thought

is to help us question all schools of thought.

What it is is a not-for-profit online school

where anyone can learn creative and critical thinking skills for free.

The content, courses, tools, apps, games and resources that we create

will be available for everyone to use under a creative commons license,

from primary school teachers through to university philosophy departments

and any student of any age anywhere in the world

with an Internet connection.

(Laughter)

And what if instead of flat images and walls of text

we took the liberty that an online school can take

and created a fully immersive 3D campus

designed to be a living vision of an enlightened learning utopia

writ large in the virtual space?

And what if we could actually help change our school system?

I mean, why are we teaching kids what's on the periodic table of the elements,

but we're not really teaching them why science is important,

about philosophy of science

or how to read journalism with a critical mind,

about how taking evidence-based approaches helped take us from the Dark Ages

into this golden age of progress and technological wonder?

I mean, how many lectures does the average student receive at school

about following the rules?

And yet we don't teach them ethics.

We don't teach kids how to understand and internalize

the difference between right and wrong.

We just tell them, "Don't do that, that's wrong,"

and then we yell at them if they transgress.

We teach kids how to make extremely ugly shorts in Home Ec.

(Laughter)

But perhaps teaching them about logic and reason

might be at least as important life skills in this information age, you know.

What if schools incorporated thinking as its own subject into their curricula?

Is that such a crazy thought?

I mean, what if we spent as much time teaching kids how to think for themselves

as we do on English, Math or any other subject?

Not only would this be great for kids in all aspects of their learning in life

and the future of our species,

it would also mean that people with degrees in philosophy

will finally be able to get a job.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

So -

We're approaching perhaps the most important and volatile period

in all of human history.

Now more than ever, we need to teach kids how to think, not what to think.

And you know,

if we can do things in collaboration with people like Peter Elton

from the University of Queensland's Critical Thinking Project

and cutting-edge who helped us put together these visualizations,

I think that can be a possibility.

I hope you find this to be an idea worth spreading.

Thank you.

(Applause)