Developing a child’s critical thinking abilities has always been what this website has been driving at since its inception. We have put great emphasis on how important it is that the today’s children should be capable of critical thought, critical problem solving and teamwork. The opposite, however, seems to be what the educational system in Europe today is all about, according to an article by Dr. Michael G. Jacobides for Harvard Business Review.
Memorisation vs. critical thinking
Dr. Jacobides says that many European schools sill give priority to memorisation instead of encouraging students to be more critical in their thinking. This system, according to Dr. Jacobides, produces nothing more than degrees better suited to a generation ago. What he’s saying is that memorisation may be a useful way to educate people decades ago, but not these days, when the skills required to survive, much less succeed, in today’s ever-shifting economic landscape require analytical thinking, among others.
If this is indeed how the educational system in Europe is teaching its students, then it certainly isn’t doing the children of the Old World any favours. The educational system in Europe, as pointed out by Dr. Jacobides, has been clearly designed for a very different world than what we are living in today, and changes are indeed necessary if we want our children to be optimally equipped for it.
Click here to read the full article.
