Back to Knowledge

approach, has an expiration date (which is not marked on the label, but it’s certainly soon), whereas thinking skills have an eternal shelf life. Thinking skills — strategies, techniques, heuristics, etc. — are tools for dealing with knowledge, which don’t wear out; these tools may be used, among other things, but mainly to criticize knowledge (and to determine its expiration date) and to create new knowledge. In other words, “Give the child a fishing rod — thinking skills — and not fish — knowledge!” (For the record, this sound bite, “give the child a fishing rod!” is one of the favorites of Israeli prime ministers when they talk about education. It is based on the proverb attributed to Lao Tzu, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”) The skills approach caught on quickly, and the market filled up with various thinking skills. Why not, after all? What sells better than simple skills for upgrading thinking? However, it should be noted that the term, “thinking skill,” while certainly the most prevalent term in the discourse about teaching thinking, is ambiguous and confusing because it includes both the thinking tool and the way it is to be applied — skillfully, rapidly and precisely. What follows are some examples of thinking skills approaches.