Lipman and De Bono

Compare and contrast at least two approaches to teaching thinking. Explain to what extent they are compatible and to what extent incompatible. explain the significance for planning provision for the early years

In order to appreciate the theories of Mathew Lipman and Edward de Bono, who I will discussing in this essay, a clear definition of Early Years is required.

' Early Years is the first stage of life (0-8) in which a child develops physically, socially and emotionally through the interactions they have with others and the effect that the environment has around them. They also develop spiritually through communicating with others to develop their own views and morals later in life. As the child progresses through these stages of development, skills will be acquired through the child's own activity, family, friends and early years providers'

(lecture notes, wk 32:6)

Therefore the early years are recognised as the most important period of development in a child's life.

This essay will be comparing and contrasting two approaches to teaching thinking to children. The approaches will be that of Mathew Lipman and Edward de Bono. My argument will be that de Bono's views are more successful in the early years setting.

Mathew Lipman is an American educationalist who developed the "Philosophy for Children" scheme. He developed purpose written material for the teaching of philosophy to young children, because he was concerned about two problems in education: first, children do not think as well as they are capable of (and a truly democratic society demands that children think well); and, secondly, children's original curiosity, sense of wonder, and enthusiasm for intellectual enquiry dramatically diminishes, as they progress through school (Reed, 1992, p. 147).

The Philosophy of children involves 'communities of enquiry', which is a method that helps children develop their communication, logical thinking, creativity and emotional literacy skills. The thinking, interpersonal and problem-solving skills they learn also help them to achieve across the curriculum. Lipman writes;

"when a class moves to become a community of enquiry, it accepts the discipline of logic and scientific method; it practices listening to one another, learning from one another, building on one another's ideas, respecting one another's point of view, and yet demanding that claims be warranted by evidence and reasons."

(Lipman, 2003)

When children and adults are enquiring into moral issues, they will be using Socratic dialogue. This is a;

'form of debate based on the adversarial notions of prosecution and defence. In particular it involves the feigning of Ignorance in order to entice the opposition into making claims which can then be challenged.' (Glossary)

Lipman developed a body of work consisting of novels and manuals for teaching philosophy for children. The fictional novels and the accompanying manuals of exercises designed to foster philosophical discussion among children are unlike Lipman's theoretical work. The novels have an elusive narrator who speaks in a voice of wonderment about philosophical issues, who has not finally "figured things out." The manuals, although designed for teachers, have the same tone. There may be a list of questions for kids to discuss- "Are you the same person if you change your clothes/ if you change your name/ if you change your mind?" Children themselves are set the task of "figuring it out." These texts encourage analogical thinking, which is thinking that recognises analogies. To be critical thinkers Lipman says that children must be able to think analogically, that is, to recognise layers of meaning in text and speech (Glossary). he believes that critical thinking can be learned through a curriculum which is not constrained by traditional boundaries.

Lipman has also proposed the 'new' educational paradigm to enable children to be educated as more reasonable citizens who demonstrate sound judgement and critical thinking (Glossary). This is called reflective paradigm, as opposed in the standard paradigm which schools do now, which Lipman believes militates against the production of critical thinkers (Glossary).

Lipman developed three labels for thought processes, bridging, transfer and translation. Bridging means making connections between an idea and a different, parallel idea. A Low Road Transfer refers to the adaptation of skills and knowledge to a new, but similar context and high road Transfer refers to being able to see multiple layers of meaning. Lastly, translation is the notion of illustrating ideas through different media. For example the expression of an idea in text might be translated into a sculpture, photograph, video, painting or poem etc. (Glossary) Lipman believes that pictures are inappropriate for the promotion of philosophical ideas because the brain processes visual materials in a different way from text, so that visual material "gets in the way" of processing ideas expressed verbally.

Edward de Bono, thought to be one of the leading authority in the world in the field of creative thinking and direct teaching of thinking as a skill. A de Bonian thinker states, "There are highly intelligent people who are poor thinkers. Intelligent people may use their thinking to simply defend a point of view. The more skilled they are at mounting a convincing defence, the less they see a need to explore that subject, listen to others, or generate alternatives. This is poor thinking" (Wiesendanger, 1991, p. 73).

He is the originator of lateral thinking. His other main ideas or developments are The Six Thinking Hats and the Cognitive Research Trust (CoRT). Lateral (Parallel) thinking is a system of thinking which considers all possibilities resulting in innovative thinking, rather than just the traditional solutions to the problem. The Oxford English Dictionary defines lateral thinking as "a way of thinking which seeks the solution to intractable problems through unorthodox methods or elements which would normally be ignored by logical thinking." It means thinking differently: thinking not only vertically or logically, but sideways too. It means being prepared to put forward unusual ideas to arrive at a new thought. Parallel thinking is designed to help an individual solving a problem, understand all aspects of the problem...it focuses more-so on constructive and co-operative