Thinking is the most fundamental human skill. The quality of our future is going to depend entirely on the quality of out thinking. If thinking is so important can it be taught directly and explicitly as a subject? There is accumulating evidence that ‘thinking’ can be taught directly as a skill in its own right.

There are some key questions:

1. Can teachers handle this new subject?
2. Can students (of different ages and abilities) learn this skill of thinking?
3. Do students enjoy this subject?
4. Do students use the skills they learn?

The purpose of ‘action research’ is to answer these questions in a practical ‘real life’ manner. This means seeking to find out what actually happens rather than see how students respond to an artificial testing situation.

When reading this report it is important to keep in mind that the results were obtained with different teachers dealing with different students. There is, therefore, a wide range of responses. What becomes very clear is that thinking can be taught directly as a skill and that both teachers and students respond well.

About ninety per cent of the errors in thinking are errors of perception. The methods taught in this programme seek to clarify, enlarge and enrich perception so that the response is more appropriate.

Edward de Bono

Malta

August 2001