This TEDx Talk by Steve Pearlman, Ph.D., addresses the critical need for improved critical thinking skills globally. He highlights the alarmingly low critical thinking abilities observed in teens and college students and presents a novel approach to teaching critical thinking based on the brain's natural evolutionary processes.
Critical Thinking Deficiency: Studies reveal a significant lack of critical thinking skills among teens, college students, and even graduates from prestigious universities. The speaker cites studies showing bleak results and minimal improvement in critical thinking abilities over four years of college.
The Sandbox Problem: The speaker identifies a significant challenge in teaching critical thinking: the complexity inherent even in simple situations (like children playing in a sandbox) necessitates a simplified approach without sacrificing the complexity of critical thinking itself.
Brain's Evolutionary Approach: Pearlman introduces a solution based on the evolutionary development of the human brain. He proposes building a critical thinking system upon the brain's fundamental operating system, which predates complex thought. This involves four primal thinking acts: perception, danger/reward assessment, decision-making, and action.
Four-Step Method: By leveraging the brain's natural processes, a four-step method is proposed to teach critical thinking: Detailed analytic observation, complex question clarification, multivariant evaluation, and forming complex conclusions. This method is shown to improve critical thinking across disciplines and positively impact students' lives outside of the classroom.
