Transcriber: Yuko Yoshida Reviewer: Tonia David
When my daughter was five,
she took a trial class at a cram school in Tokyo.
There she was given this problem to solve:
What's the difference between the two?
My daughter's answer was:
"The one on the left is more like a square
and the one on the right is more round."
"Incorrect", the teacher said.
Later I was told the correct answer had to refer to the difference
in the function and material of the objects, but not their shape.
"Why?", I asked.
The teacher didn't have an answer.
I came across many similar instances
not only at cram schools in Japan but also at public schools,
where children accept the "correct" answers
without being given much of an opportunity to question.
And each time I thought to myself, maybe,
something very important is missing in Japanese education.
And that something is to teach children to think,
or to think critically, to be more precise.
My 20 years of teaching at various Japanese universities tells me
Japanese students excel at doing what they are told to do,
but they have a much tougher time thinking for themselves,
simply because they haven't been trained to do so.
So, I launched my project: "Critical Thinking for Kids".
I tried to teach young Japanese children,
mainly first to third graders,
to think critically and independently.
Because I want them to concentrate
on the very act of thinking, there are no desks, no writing.
Just a lot of thinking through a lot of talking.
Here I'm trying to get kids to distinguish fact from opinion,
by the simple use of little flags.
I say sentences like "Mickey Mouse is popular" in Japanese.
And if they think it's a fact then they raise one flag,
and if it's an opinion the other.
This simple question can be rather challenging for Japanese children
who are not used to giving their opinions in their classroom.
And also in Japanese grammar, the subject is often left out of the equation,
tending to blur the line between fact and opinion.
The easiest, most powerful tool
to entice critical thinking, I think, is to ask "Why?".
I ask children many open-ended questions
so they come to understand there isn't always just one answer.
And when they give their opinions, I always ask, "Why?",
because it helps children realize
how they're arriving at the thought they have.
Another question I often use is "How did you find out?",
which can enhance a child's logical thought process.
The other day a first-grade girl told me,
"Plants contain a lot of water just like we do".
Great discovery. So I asked her how she found out,
and she went on to explain how she reached her conclusion
through all the facts she had dug up.
Two simple questions, "Why?" and "How did you find out?" can
provoke so much more thought into any classroom experience.
I often have kids put themselves in other's shoes
because I want them to learn to have more than one perspective.
I'll ask something like "Imagine you're a second-grader
who came to Tokyo a week ago from Sweden because of your father's job.
You'll be staying for three years. What about Tokyo do you find inconvenient?
To answer this, children will have to
find out about Sweden and its people,
which gets their minds going in a way that can be used
to research any topic in the future.
Another question I've thrown at my students is,
"How do you think the pyramids were built?"
One seven-year old boy said,
"People carrying bricks were hurled
to the top of the pyramids using a huge springboard."
Isn't it beautiful? I like this one.
But what this boy was doing in his head was
connecting all the little bits of knowledge he had,
that electricity or trucks didn't exist at the time, for example,
with something from his P.E. class, a springboard.
And through the exploration of logic and reasoning,
children can learn to have fun when they think, just as this boy did.
A fourth-grade boy told me,
"Everything we do in Miki's class is really fun."
Getting back to my daughter, she is now eight.
I've encouraged her to think critically for several years,
and I'd like to think she is now a great critical thinker.
I asked her what she likes about thinking, and her reply was:
"Critical thinking has given me confidence.
Because many ideas are based on my own thinking,
they mean so much to me. That's why they've given me confidence."
One day I'd like to see Japanese children express their own ideas
and debate as much as Western children do.
But my biggest point is
I want them to gain confidence and find out what they really want
to be able to value differences, understand their friends better,
and learn how to use all the knowledge
they've crammed into their little, wonderful minds.
And it can happen if more adults are willing
to teach them the beauty of thinking.
I'm ready to share my passion
for teaching critical thinking with anyone interested,
and I hope you all are, too.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)