Do you think that in education, they should spend more time focusing on skills and not just subject related topics? I mean, it's good that you learn your subjects like science and geography and maths and all the other subjects. But would you agree that it would be useful to spend more time on things like: critical thinking and analysis, logic and how to construct/deconstruct an argument. You know, helping develop young minds into how to think rather than what to think. They never did anything like this when I was at school and even only touched on these things at university. What sort if things would you like to see taught in schools? Your thoughts....... Happy days
I think the majority of your thought process is genetic, and you can only learn information, and partially learn how to be a critical thinker, but the majority of it is just born into. Though knowledge can expand your mind and make you think differently, it wouldn't really be "correct" to have a class on how to control your brains synapses, those kind of happen naturally.
It depends on the age group. It's all well and good teaching children skills based stuff instead of subject based, but younger kids need something to apply it to. I don't know how many times I've heard a child tell me, for example, that they don't need to learn to read because books are boring. If they don't see that there is a reason to learn something, a lot of children won't bother because they will focus on things that they DO think are important. On the other hand, if you start trying to go back in time and teach children nothing buy dates and kings and queens and battles of the war (I'm looking at you Gove, you stupid irritating bastard) then you wind up with a bunch of children that might know some trivia but can't do a damn thing with it. It needs a balance. Personally, I prefer to teach skills based and application heavily from a young age, then switch to a more skills based approach as they get older with the idea being that you encourage children to figure out WHY they are learning things.
I totally get what your saying, but I'm thinking more develop than control. You can teach things like logical thought and how to build an argument from premise to conclusion ad well as develop skills to see when an argument is flawed. I also believe that although we can't all be super smart, you can overcome genetics for intelligence if you have the determination and right tuition. I mean primary school, I was considered really dumb and couldn't concentrate often put with the more remedial kids. I wouldn't settle for that and as hard as it was, I sought out the knowledge and skills myself. I now have a degree in physics and am just finishing my second in radiography. I still don't consider myself intelligent (I'm a bit thick really) but, when acquiring the right thought skills, I think most people could go further than they think. Happy days
I'm in agreement, for the most part. After all, it's all very well knowing the formulae and case studies, but it doesn't count for much if you can't use it for anything. We talk all the time about how competitive the job market is around this time as well, and since employers are more interested in how you think and what skills you bring to the table than what you know, it's crucial to develop that side of education. Along the lines of what Ellia said, different age groups need different approaches. Around early-mid teens is when people start forming their own ideas about things rather than just emulating, so I'd say that's when we need to start introducing the critical thinking. Around year 9 in UK school-time, I'd say. It doesn't even need to be an extensive course in logic or such like. In my school, some of the teachers, when you give an answer, just ask "but why do you think that?" or "do you agree with what that person said?" - imo simple prods like that are an easy way to get people to move beyond memorising what they learned and evaluating it instead, since you're gently challenging them to defend what they think rather than leaving them to churn stuff out in an answer. It might just be a slight adjustment to teaching style rather than something drastic. Having to defend your opinion or evaluate and question what someone else said is something we all have to deal with at some point (I'd hope), so I think we really should be valuing that aspect of education more than we are now. If it starts earlier, chances are students will develop those skills earlier, which of course is helpful.
