Foreword.html

Foreword by Dr Edward de Bono

If 'thinking is the most fundamental human skill, what are we doing about it? Is it enough to assume that the teaching of the traditional subject matter will produce an improvement in thinking skills?

Can thinking be taught directly and explicitly? What is the effect on the students? Can teachers handle the direct teaching of thinking skills?

These are the questions that are fundamental as they are important. This Action Research investigation follows the direct teaching of thinking as an explicit subject in its own right. The method of Action Research was chosen because it is more relevant to the subject matter. Thinking 'behaviour' is as important as 'thinking results'. How do students undertake their own thinking? How do students react to the thinking of others? What sense of 'metacognition' do students develop?

Thinking is not just a matter of the relevant information. Thinking is not just the application of the rules of logical progression. Thinking is much more than just avoiding logical errors.

In most ordinary real life matters, perception is by far the most important part of thinking. If perception is limited, biased, egocentric or short term, the results will be poor no matter how good the logic. Professor David Perkins at Harvard showed that ninety percent of the errors of thinking were errors of perception. This report covers the teaching and use of simple 'thinking tools' that improve perception.

When someone is asked to 'think about something', what do they do? The thinking tools provide a structured exploration of the subject. It is no longer a matter of messing around or drifting from point to point.

This report lays out in detail the practical results of setting out to teach thinking as a deliberate skill. Thinking is more than intelligence. Thinking is the operational use of intelligence to produce results.