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Here are our thoughts, articles, projects and workshops relating to critical thinking skills. In order to thrive in the 21st century we need the ability to question the sources of our knowledge. We must move beyond simply accepting what we believe as given. We must become agents of our own knowledge production – informed and critical decision-makers – rather than passive recipients and consumers of information.
The ability to engage in productive dialogue is one of the most important skills for thriving in the 21st century. The skills of productive dialogue enable us to resolve conflict through non-violent means, empower us to participate in democratic processes and equip us to become collaborative agents in the on-going process of knowledge production….
Continue readingIt turns out that a country does not have to be wealthy to make significant progress in preparing its children for the future. What it does need to do, according to the Worldwide Educating For the Future Index (WEFFI) report, is shift its focus beyond measuring the memorisation of specific…
Continue readingThis lesson was inspired by something the motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins, said: Questions are the control to your own experience of life … What makes the biggest difference in life? It’s not the events that shape your life. It’s how you evaluate them. If you change your questions, you…
Continue readingWe invite you to go on a deep dive with us into the process of designing and facilitating project-based learning, by exploring one project in some detail. In 2017, in collaboration with Lorraine Srage, Dino Angelou and Caryn Horowitz we facilitated the #iexist exhibition with Grade 8 and 9 learners…
Continue reading“Be a nuisance where it counts.” Those are the words of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, an American journalist, women’s rights activist and environmentalist. Having freedom of speech is not just an opportunity for self-expression. It is what makes it possible for us to participate in the decisions that will shape our…
Continue readingThe speed at which technology is now changing, and as a result the speed at which our knowledge of reality is changing, has never been this fast. It is impossible to know exactly how machine learning will impact on the way we live, learn, work and play. Will it erode…
Continue readingFrom a MindBurst perspective, critical thinking is the ability to work things out for yourself.
Continue readingBelow is a sequence of three versions of a definition of critical thinking, each one more detailed than the previous. Click each image to download. Feel free to use and distribute the posters however you wish.
Continue readingIn 2016 MindBurst worked together with teachers from Sacred Heart College to create 5 posters that captured key insights from the critical thinking skills training we had been doing with Grade 10s. The intent was to signal how critical thinking skills enable a learner to challenge and resist the status…
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