Thursday, May 1, 2008

Are We Doing That ?

I like to read Edward de Bono's books. There are many different thinking skills that we can learn from his books. I remember how I started to read his books -- Back in the late 80's (or early 90's), the Education Ministry was very interested with various thinking skills, CoRT Thinking, thinking about thinking, subject-based thinking skills and so on. (I hope many people still remember this.) I have attended a training session whereby I was supposed to be trained to be a trainer at the district level. Realising that what I was exposed to was not enough for me to train others I embarked into the journey of studying Edward de Bono's various thinking skills and got addicted along the way.

It is unfortunate that we have many good programs in the past but due to factors that my thinking skills may be be strong enough to comprehend, these are things of the past even though I strongly feel it is even more relevant today.

Edward de Bona has a very uncanny way of using various graphics to illustrate various thinking skills. Let me share with you one example here.

When we see a situation, we should not be quick to make judgment based on that perception alone. It should not a 'seeing is believing' type of conclusion. Hence, the gap between seeing and judging should be filled with exploring. Exploring here means, a more in depth study, looking into various aspects and possibilities, critical analysis, or whatever thinking skills suitable for that particular situation. Are we doing that frequently?

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