If we want children to thrive in our complicated world, we need to teach them how to think, says educator Brian Oshiro.

教育家Brian Oshiro说，如果我们希望孩子们在复杂的世界中茁壮成长，我们需要教他们如何思考。

We all want the young people in our lives to thrive, but there’s no clear consensus about what will best put them on the path to future success. Should every child be taught to code? Attain fluency in Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi and English?

我们都希望我们生活中的年轻人能够茁壮成长，但是对于什么能最好地让他们走向未来成功之路并没有明确的共识。每个孩子都应该接受编码吗？流利的普通话，西班牙语，印地语和英语？

All the facts explain a truth ：Critical thinking is a 21st-century essential

所有的事实都说明了一个道理：批判性思维是21世纪必不可少的。

If we want our children to have flexible minds that can readily absorb new information and respond to complex problems, he says, we need to develop their critical thinking skills，says educator and teacher trainer Brian Oshiro.

教育家Brian Oshiro说，如果我们希望我们的孩子拥有灵活的思维能够轻松吸收新信息并应对复杂问题，那么我们就需要培养他们的批判性思维能力。

In adult life, “we all have to deal with questions that are a lot more complicated than those found on a multiple-choice test,” he says in a TED talk. 

他在TED的演讲中说道，在成人生活中，我们必须处理一些比起考试中的多项选择题中复杂得多的问题。

“We need to give students an opportunity to grapple with questions that don’t necessarily have one correct answer. This is more realistic of the types of situations that they’re likely to face when they get outside the classroom.”

这个时候，我们需要让学生学会去解决那些不一定有正确答案的问题，这对帮助他们走出校园时解决各种情况更有帮助。

作者：Leonardoworx LWX

1.  Go beyond “What?”

and ask “How?” and “Why?”

不仅仅要知道“What？”,更要学会多问 “How？”和“Why？”

Let’s say your child is learning about climate change in school. Their teacher may ask them a question like “What are the main causes of climate change?”

Oshiro says there are two problems with this question — it can be answered with a quick web search, and being able to answer it gives people a false sense of security; it makes them feel like they know a topic, but their knowledge is superficial.

假设您的孩子正在学习学校的气候变化，老师问了一个类似于“气候变化的主要原因是什么？”的问题。

但这个问题存在两个问题：第一个是他们可以通过快速的网络搜索来回答，这样简单直接的方式会让他们进入到思考的舒适圈；第二则是，如果只回答这样一个问题，他们就只能获得浅层次的思考，无法站在一个话题的层面进行更深度的思考。

The solution is this，at home, prompt your kid to answer questions such as “How exactly does X cause climate change?” and “Why should we worry about it?” To answer, they’ll need to go beyond the bare facts and really think about a subject.

解决方案是这样的，在家里，你可以引导你的孩子回答诸如“ XXX是如何导致气候变化呢？”和“ 我们为什么要担心气候变化？”之类的问题。这样提问的目的是，他们需要超越事实并站在一个整体的角度思考整个话题，比如思考“气候变化”这个话题而不是单一的了解“引起气候变化的原因是什么”这个问题。

Another option is Localizing questions . Other great questions: “How will climate change affect where we live?” or “Why should our town in particular worry about climate change?” Localizing questions gives kids, says Oshiro, “an opportunity to connect whatever knowledge they have to something personal in their lives.”

另一个方法是本地化问题。我们可以把上面提到的问题改为：“ 气候变化将如何影响我们居住的地方？”或“ 为什么我们的城镇特别担心气候变化？”

把问题本地化会让孩子们更有切身感。Oshiro说，“这是让他们将自己所掌握的知识与生活联系起来的好机会。”

2. Follow it up with 

“How do you know this?”

跟进“你怎么知道这个？”

TOOT Science insisted on defending every child's thinking power when designing T-BOOK. T-BOOK advocates guiding children to defend their choices.

托特科学在设计T-BOOK时就坚持捍卫每一位孩子思考的权力，T-BOOK主张引导孩子为自己的选择辩护。

Oshiro says, “They have to provide some sort of evidence and be able to defend their answer against some logical attack.” Answering this question requires kids to reflect on their previous statements and assess where they’re getting their information from.

回答“How do you know this?”这个问题需要孩子们反思他们他们的答案，并说出他们是从哪里获取信息的。

Oshiro说，“他们应该学会通过提供某种证据来捍卫自己的答案，给别人的反驳和怀疑一个具有逻辑性的回答。”

3.Prompt them to think about 

how their perspective 

may differ from other people’s.

引导他们去思考自己的观点与其他人的观点有何不同。

A question likes “How will climate change affect people living in X country or X city?” or “Why should people living in X country or X city worry about it?” 

Kids will be pushed to think about the priorities and concerns of others, says Oshiro, and to try to understand their perspectives — essential elements of creative problem-solving.

类似于“气候变化将如何影响生活在X国或X市的人们？”或“为什么生活在X国或X市的人们担心呢？”这样的问题会引导孩子进一步思考。

Oshiro说，这样的问题会使孩子们去思考别人回答的优点和重点，并试图去了解其他人的观点，这是创造性解决问题的基本要素。

In the classroom of TOOT Science, we are also creating such opportunities for children. In our card achievement system, we set up skills cards that connect life, summary, express communication, cooperation, and sharing.

在托特科学的课堂上，我们也在为孩子创造这样的机会。在我们的卡牌成就系统中，我们设置了联系生活、总结、表达交流、合作、分享等技能卡牌。

We hope that every child in the classroom learns not only a scientific knowledge, but also an experimental method or an observation method. We hope that they can form a system of thinking skills, and such thinking ability is obviously not a simple thinking problem. The answer can be formed.

我们希望在课堂上每一个孩子学会的不仅仅是一个科学知识、或者一种实验方式或者观察方式，我们希望他们能够形成一套系统思考的能力，而这样的思考能力很明显不是单纯的思考问题、给出回答就可以形成的。

4.Finally, ask them 

how to solve this problem.

最后，问他们如何解决这个问题。

For example, rather than ask “How can we solve climate change?” — which is too big for anyone to wrap their mind around — ask “How could we address and solve cause X of climate change?”

Answering this question will require kids to synthesize their knowledge. Nudge them to come up with a variety of approaches: What scientific solution could address cause X? What’s a financial solution? Political solution?

例如，不要问“我们如何解决气候变化？” 因为这对于任何人来说都太大了。你可以问“我们怎样才能找到气候变化的原因并解决它？”

回答这个问题需要孩子们对他们的知识进行综合性地梳理。推动他们进行思考并提出各种方法，例如“什么科学解决方案可以解决导致X？财务解决方案是什么？政治解决方案是什么？”

You can start this project any time on any topic; you don’t have to be an expert on what your kids are studying. This is about teaching them to think for themselves. Your role is to direct their questions, listen and respond. Meanwhile, your kids “have to think about how they’re going to put this into digestible pieces for you to understand it,” says Oshiro. “It’s a great way to consolidate learning.”

Oshiro说，你可以在任何问题上采用这样的教育方式，你不必成为某一方面的专家，但你需要教他们自己进行系统的思考。要知道，你的角色是指导他们的问题，倾听和回应。与此同时，你的孩子必须考虑如何将自己的想法变的能让你理解，这个过程是固学习的好方法。

Critical thinking isn’t just for the young, of course. He says, “If you’re a lifelong learner, ask yourself these types of questions in order to test your assumptions about what you think you already know.” As he adds, “We can all improve and support critical thinking by asking a few extra questions each day.”

当然，批判性思维不仅适用于年轻人。如果你是一个终身学习者，不妨问问自己这些问题，以便测试你对你认为自己已经知道的事情的理解程度。

正如Oshiro补充说的那样，我们应该每天都有额外的问题让我们通过询问自己来获得批判性思维。

Half past 2019, 

Have you understood the critical thinking?

2019过去一半了，

批判性思维你搞懂了吗？