How to train students to think

It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.

Tony Robins

At times, good, fair decisions require us to think hard and make tough choices. At times, we have to choose the best of two good options or worse, the lesser of two evils.

Thinking is hard. Therefore most people go in life on autopilot following the conventions, assuming everything they have been told, and everything they think is the "truth". People form opinions and don't change them, even in the face of opposing rationale and data. 

Why?

They didn't get the chance to practice their thinking muscles. 

Why?

We don't train students to think. Our industrial education system, designed to produce clerks, just doesn't promote thinking.

The 3 r's reading, writing, and arithmetic are about knowing, understanding and calculating. The art of decision making is left to chance. We assume that some people are just good at thinking things through and some aren't. 

However, thinking ability and the willingness to think is a muscle. The more opportunity it has to be used, better it develops.

So, can we practice decision making in the classroom?

Yes! A resounding yes.

Training to think for kids

Ricardo Semler, a Brazilian businessman and philanthropist, opened a new kind of school in which students help make the rules. Students (all less than 8 years old) come up with what's fair, how things should be done and what punishments should be given if something goes wrong. You can read his book, for the same. If you don't want to spend money, at least watch his TED talk.

This had a couple of benefits. First, kids eventually made the same kind of rules that adults would have made for them but these were their own rules so they followed them with more zeal. Second, students had to decide things based on morality, practicality, what's right, and what's not. I can't think of a better activity for kids to train them to think.

Training to think for other school students

Barbara Mae Gayle, at University of Portland did an experiment (which later became a standard practice in her class) wherein she gave students different topics. Students had to prepare a presentation with viewpoints, both against and favor of the topic. To her surprise, after the presentation, 68% of presenters softened their stance and were able to think about the alternative veiwpoint as well. However, only 30% of the listeners altered their viewpoint on the the presented topic. So:

Preaching doesn't work. You can't lecture your way to changing minds. Students have to do the work (think) to see the light.

One final trick

There are plenty of problems and questions in the world, which don't have a clear-cut answer but sure have a lot of arguments, both for and against. Students should be first asked of their initial opinion on the topic, then allowed to research evidence for and against their viewpoints. Then discuss again on the same topic.

Doing this even once a week can expose students to the realization that things are not always black and white. You just have to be open to receiving new information and ready to change your mind if required.

We all have our biases and will use cognitive shortcuts to make simple decisions. However, a little more patience, a little bit of extra thought, a little bit of empathy can take our life on a different, better course.

What do you think?