CORE SUBJECT: Teaching THINKING in Schools and Universities
SOT provides THINKING as a CORE SUBJECT:
THE CORE SUBJECT is a national initiative to focus attention on:
• the teaching of “thinking skills” and also
• the teaching of “teaching thinking skills” in Australian schools.
• THE CORE SUBJECT is available to any educational institution in Australia.
Any school, college, university, TAFE or educational institution may offer THINKING as a CORE SUBJECT to any and all members of their community–students, faculty and parents.
In 2007, this training was used by students, teachers and parents at Melbourne Grammar School and the opportunity to participate will now be opened to other educational institutions around Australia.
Applications from Principals, Headmasters, Vice Chancellors or Students and Parents who would like their institution to be considered for offering THINKING as a CORE SUBJECT can be apply directly to The Principal, School of Thinking.
School Bookings:
Michael can be booked for presentations in Australian schools, colleges and universities by clicking here …
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THE MISSION
The primary mission of SOT, for 30 years, has always been:
To get THINKING taught in schools and universities
as a CORE curriculum SUBJECT.
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November 17 2009 was the 30th anniversary of the School of Thinking. For 30 years this mission has meant dealing in the USA and Australia with many foundations, government and educational institutions, corporations publishers and media in Washington and Canberra and also with individual educators, parents and students in 45 countries around the world.
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• Australia 2006
In 2006, Victoria became the first Australian state to put thinking as a core subject on the curriculum as part of the Victorian Education Learning Standards (VELS) curriculum from Level 1 to Level 6. Other states have followed. Many schools and universities around Australia, like Melbourne Grammar School and Victoria University are already teaching ‘thinking’ as a core subject.
• USA 1982
One day an invitation arrived from the University/Urban Schools National Task Force to speak at their last quarterly conference in San Francisco. This was a task force of school district superintendents from major American cities – Dallas, New York, San Francisco, Chicago etc. and was headed by Dr. Richard Bossone.
Dr. Bossone told me that their grant had run out and San Francisco was to be their last meeting as they had lost their raison d’etre and after the San Francisco conference, the task force would fold. He invited me to talk about the SOTs activities and teaching thinking. Our presentation was a big hit and as a result they passed a motion that their new raison d’etre would be to promote the teaching of thinking skills and they would apply to have their grant renewed.
Dr. Bossone was successful in getting the University/Urban Schools National Task Force grant renewed and he immediately convened a special conference In San Juan, Puerto Rico to focus soley on teaching thinking in US schools. I was once again invited to open the conference and other representatives of various thinking programs were also invited. At this conferencehis conference the leaders of education in the US including Dr. Frank Macchiarola, Chancellor, New York City Public Schools, and Mr. Gene Maeroff, President, New York Times Foundation and Dean of Education Journalists. Mr. Maeroff’s presence was strategically important because his was the top voice on education trends in America. Like the New York Times theatre critic who can make or close a Broadway show in one article, what Gene Maeroff writes in the Education Supplement of the New York Times, inevitably comes to pass. Gene was very impressed with the San Juan discussions and also the financial commitments given to the task force so in a special two-full page pull-out feature he subsequently wrote:
“Teaching to think: A new emphasis at schools and colleges
A major new effort to teach thinking skills is planned by the University/Urban Schools National Task Force, which will soon initiate a program in the public schools of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Minneapolis and Memphis. The College Board will provide $300,000 for the project… The School of Thinking in New York is the base in this country for teaching de Bono’s theory, disseminated from its headquarters in London, which includes breaking out of traditional thinking patterns. This means trying to devise new ways of looking at problems… it affirms the belief that without specific efforts there is no assurance students will learn to think clearly.”(New York Times: Education Winter Survey. January 9, 1983.)
This was the story that was taken up by the press around the nation and a new fad was created – teaching thinking as a skill. The media have been generous in supporting SOT and its activities, and as a group, journalists deserve a lot of the credit for SOTs success in achieving its mission.
Within a year from that New York Times story, we had accomplished our mission of getting thinking into US schools. This is an educational trend that is very unlikely to stop or unhappen in the future.
November 10th, 2009 at 4:02 am
India needs a School of Thinking in each district of each States in India.
Please help in building such School in India. I am doing efforts in this direction.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Thinking is a skill. All skills require training. Thinking is in no way any different to any other skill, concept or important learning consideration. Thinking to think and then thinking about which thinking skill or strategy to employ requires much practice, repetition and rehearsal. The big brain train is a great idea. In the years that I have focused on thinking with an equal sense of educational importance, I have discovered that if one person in isolation makes a committed effort it can make a difference. If many people work together for a common cause and with a common language then Australian schools will notice a huge difference. What is more important is that maybe the biggest difference could be seen in the improved decision making performed by a generation that seems to lack, respect, responsibility and consideration for too many things. Thinking is already in the curriculum, but I question the effectiveness and the specific importance that is required to make that significant difference to the individual, to the family and to the community.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:45 am
Is there as international conference in Australia next year. I have funds and would like to go to one. Could I be on your mailing list of conferences. Thanks
March 24th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I have been teaching Cognetics to classes in and around Hobart as a relief teacher in prmary schools. Now that The Big Brain Train initiative is available, I will let principals know about it, starting today.
Best wishes, Michael and Co.
March 14th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
love to see this in schools inside my country..New Zealand, truthfully, worlwide, schools, any educational system whereupon we bring forth a better behaved way of life for us all on this planet, then perhaps we will live in peace on earth, which of course to date is an unknown quantity and quality of how our lives could be on earth in peaceful times, hmmmm..peace on earth, sounds like a fairytale, sometimes with the right thought, dreams can come true, its up to me, and its up to you…
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 am
I find this exciting and promising, I also look at those students graduating from the current curriculum in high schools and colleges and do not find that their skills in thinking have vastly improved. If the SOT had more input into the Curriculum and teaching methods used in teaching thinking then I believe there would be a vast improvement. The “6 Training Principles” are valid and direct, whereas teaching by rout memory is not and thus does not actually teach thinking even it may teach the principles. Principles learned by rout memorizing are soon forgotten but actions are not. For an experiment ask the checker at the store next time to count out the money given back to you or ask why if 25cents equals 1/4 then why does 15 minutes also equal 1/4. The answer is quite simple but it requires thinking.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:59 am
man this would be so great to teach in schools all of the United States, maybe than it would give the children coming up to be our leaders something to think about besides gang wars or what they could do to hurt some on or what ever they think about now days. It might give them a purpose in life and a direction to get out of the situations they are facing now. It would really open up the world to them.
January 24th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Hi
I m an engg. student.I m studying in Tezpur University which is in Tezpur(Assam),India. My sir has advised me to visit this web as he visit this site frequiently.This first time I m visiting this site.
THANKS
November 16th, 2007 at 1:57 am
Hi
I work in China teaching business, one of the important things I teach students is the importance of thinking. Obtaining material is hard here I hope this site can help.
Thanks
July 11th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I commend this great initative and find it very inspiring. As I hear more about SOT, I can see it opening up whole new paradyms for anyone who used the skills and for us all, step by step, and often stepping sideways
What a fascinating world we live in
April 19th, 2007 at 3:47 am
While I find this exciting and promising, I also look at those students graduating from the current curriculum in high schools and colleges and do not find that their skills in thinking have vastly improved. If the SOT had more input into the Curriculum and teaching methods used in teaching thinking then I believe there would be a vast improvement. The “6 Training Principles” are valid and direct, whereas teaching by rout memory is not and thus does not actually teach thinking even it may teach the principles. Principles learned by rout memorizing are soon forgotten but actions are not. For an experiment ask the checker at the store next time to count out the money given back to you or ask why if 25cents equals 1/4 then why does 15 minutes also equal 1/4. The answer is quite simple but it requires thinking.
December 3rd, 2006 at 4:19 am
thinking rightly positively and methodically alternating with randomly can make great difference in one’s understanding of issues. if only all of us can think we could have achieved many feats for ourselves and for the world