The mother of all babes

"I think the lovely thing about getting older is that it doesn't really matter any more."
Jane B.

words: needed

"Tudo, absolutamente tudo quanto existe, tudo de que me recordo, tudo quanto os meus confusos pensamentos afloram, me parece significativo. Mesmo o meu próprio espírito pesado, a habitual apatia do meu cérebro me parece ter um sentido; sinto um jogo de forças encantador, pura e simplesmente infinito, em mim e à minha volta, e de entre as matérias com que estas forças jogam, nenhuma há em que possa verter-me. Então parece que o meu corpo se compõe de números puros que tudo me abrem. Ou que poderíamos entrar em novas relações com toda a existência, fecundas de pressentimentos, se começássemos a pensar com o coração. Falte-me porém este estranho encanto e nada sei dizer a respeito disto; tão-pouco me seria possível expressar por palavras sensatas em que consistiria essa harmonia entre mim e o mundo inteiro e de que maneira ela se me tornou sensível, como se pudesse fornecer indicações precisas sobre os movimentos interiores das minhas entranhas ou sobre as paragens de circulação do meu sangue."
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, in A Carta de Lorde Chandos

da real virtualidade

Por que é que as relações humanas me impulsionam para uma [falsa] sensação de proximidade?
[do pensamento 'automático']

O co-fundador das TED


19.20.21

a typographic video

The future of work

still, the thinking eye




If you really want to learn how to study human behavior go to a school of public health. [...] It is all chance and noise. Which suggests you better double replicate every big data finding and then do a randomized controlled experiment to find out if it's right. They have discovered that 60% to 80% of all medical findings are false. They have learned that the gold standard of learning about human beings is the randomized experiment. [...] The main inference that fools make about statistics, is that statistics lie. Frederick Mosteller, the great Harvard statistician, said, "It is easy to lie with statistics, but easier to lie without them."

"Finally, self awareness about what we see. Most medieval castles were made of wood. We think most were made of stone because of survivor bias. The thinking eye asks: 'How do they know that?', 'How do I know that?' and 'How does what I see, come to be seen by me?', 'How did this material get to me?'. For what they show us is what we see. What we find is what we see. What we see is what we see. And what we see may not contain the answer. You know, if we can come to see through the veil of words that cloud our minds, perhaps we can come to realize that the meaning of life is seeing, and that to see well is to live well."

University and Cyberspace: Reshaping Knowledge Institutions for the Networked Age

"We are not learners, we are not pupils, we are not disciples, but we are students"
"The professor is not a teacher. He is not someone who is trying to teach something, but he's someone who is exposing his thinking. The professor makes public his thinking. His attitude is experimental."


Marco Santambrogio, University of Parma, Italy
Colin Maclay, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Maarten Simons, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Jan Masschelein, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Session leader: Juan Carlos De Martin

"Education is not a production process. Research is not a production process. [...] The point of university is precisely to take things out of their usual contexts. To take persons, students, learners and academics out of their usual business and to make them into public figures. That is, in a certain way, to bring them into a space-time which is a space-time where the regular, common, use of words or of things is suspended. It's a kind of place of suspension."
Jan Masschelein

Receita para um herói



Mais, aqui

The Rage to Conclude

"The rage for wanting to conclude is one of the most deadly and most fruitless manias to befall humanity. Each religion and each philosophy has pretended to have God to itself, to measure the infinite, and to know the recipe for happiness. What arrogance and what nonsense! I see, to the contrary, that the greatest geniuses and the greatest works have never concluded."
Flaubert

O futuro do planeta está nos fungos


Sobre Paul Stamets

The thinking eye


"A good practice is to see as artists claim they see. Our only language is vision, they say. To see with vacation eyes, as we arrive in a new place. Bright eyed. To see all kinds of things for a few days, at least. Once you have a point of view, however, almost all you're seeing will back you up. Pre-installed narratives, pictures, categories, stale metaphors, reminiscences, disciplinary deformation, turfy professional chauvinism, all interfere with how and what we see."
Edward Tufte




"Estar atento é estar aberto ao mundo, disponível para que algo aconteça; é estar "presente no presente", de forma que ele se faça visível e possa transformar-nos, educar-nos. Segundo Masschelein e Simons (2014), "essa é a atenção que permite a experiência". Assim como Larrosa, o professor belga também aponta o movimento contrário que existe entre atenção e intenção. Estar atento, segundo ele, significa não estar preso a uma intenção, a um projecto, a uma perspectiva, ao contrário do que faz o sujeito do conhecimento ao transformar o presente em objecto e submetê-lo a um regime de verdade e seus tribunais."
Sarah Nery S Chaves, in Encontrar Escola, Cidade e Experiência, de Walter Kohan, et al




















The Hollow Men



I

    We are the hollow men
    We are the stuffed men
    Leaning together
    Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
    Our dried voices, when
    We whisper together
    Are quiet and meaningless
    As wind in dry grass
    Or rats' feet over broken glass
    In our dry cellar
   
    Shape without form, shade without colour,
    Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
   
    Those who have crossed
    With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
    Remember us-if at all-not as lost
    Violent souls, but only
    As the hollow men
    The stuffed men.

   
                              II

    Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
    In death's dream kingdom
    These do not appear:
    There, the eyes are
    Sunlight on a broken column
    There, is a tree swinging
    And voices are
    In the wind's singing
    More distant and more solemn
    Than a fading star.
   
    Let me be no nearer
    In death's dream kingdom
    Let me also wear
    Such deliberate disguises
    Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
    In a field
    Behaving as the wind behaves
    No nearer-
   
    Not that final meeting
    In the twilight kingdom

   
                   III

    This is the dead land
    This is cactus land
    Here the stone images
    Are raised, here they receive
    The supplication of a dead man's hand
    Under the twinkle of a fading star.
   
    Is it like this
    In death's other kingdom
    Waking alone
    At the hour when we are
    Trembling with tenderness
    Lips that would kiss
    Form prayers to broken stone.

   
                     IV

    The eyes are not here
    There are no eyes here
    In this valley of dying stars
    In this hollow valley
    This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
   
    In this last of meeting places
    We grope together
    And avoid speech
    Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
   
    Sightless, unless
    The eyes reappear
    As the perpetual star
    Multifoliate rose
    Of death's twilight kingdom
    The hope only
    Of empty men.

   
                           V

    Here we go round the prickly pear
    Prickly pear prickly pear
    Here we go round the prickly pear
    At five o'clock in the morning.

   
    Between the idea
    And the reality
    Between the motion
    And the act
    Falls the Shadow
                                   For Thine is the Kingdom
   
    Between the conception
    And the creation
    Between the emotion
    And the response
    Falls the Shadow
                                   Life is very long
   
    Between the desire
    And the spasm
    Between the potency
    And the existence
    Between the essence
    And the descent
    Falls the Shadow
                                   For Thine is the Kingdom
   
    For Thine is
    Life is
    For Thine is the
   
    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a whimper.

Um novo Renascimento? / A educação na Finlândia

Símon Rodríguez

A propósito da nova estratégia educativa que está a ser implementada na Finlândia, e que me inclino a subcrever.

"Rodríguez defende que as crianças aprendam a pensar, e quanto antes, porque aprendendo a pensar poderão aprender todas as demais coisas e, em particular, a conviver uns com os outros. [...] Rodríguez é muito mais complexo. Seu método não é bem um método: exige um professor que pense, que invente, que se preocupe com todos e cada um e que não aplique cegamente alguns preceitos para transmitir calmamente um saber, mas que seja um leitor reflexivo, que tenha uma relação pessoal com seus alunos [...] Rodríguez propõe um professor que seja um artesão e um artista do seu trabalho: um mestre inventor. [...] Também por isso aprender a ensinar a falar e a pensar estão antes do aprender e ensinar a ler e a escrever: porque o ensino e a aprendizagem primeiros, mais significativos, não são técnicos, mas críticos, de fundamento, e só podem ser realizados em diálogo com os outros. São, em última instância, a aprendizagem e o ensino de uma vida pensante, cuidadosa, que se examina a si mesma, de uma vida que merece ser vivida por todos os habitantes desta terra."
Walter Omar Kohan, in O Mestre Inventor. Simón Rodríguez

in perspective

Francis Bacon, auto-retrato
"Psicoterapia não é fazer interpretações argutas e apropriadas; em geral, trata-se de devolver ao paciente, a longo prazo, aquilo que o paciente traz. É um derivado complexo do rosto que reflete o que há para ser visto. Essa é a forma pela qual me apraz pensar em meu trabalho, tendo em mente que, se o fizer suficientemente bem, o paciente descobrirá seu próprio eu (self) e será capaz de existir sentir-se real. Sentir-se real é mais do que existir como si mesmo, relacionar-se aos objectos como si mesmo e ter um eu (self) para o qual retirar-se, para relaxamento."
D. W. Winnicott, in O Brincar e a Realidade

To be gifted



Mais links:
Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, 2nd Edition (PHCSCS-2)


Human Egocentricity and Critical Thinking






— Can we support the idea that people are largely egocentric, with evidence?

• Egocentricity is self-centered thinking.

— Can we document problems in human life that come from selfishness, self-centeredness?

• Egocentric thought does two things:
 - It is selfish (self-centered, self serving, self protecting in a way that it is disfunctional).
 - The second motivater is its self validating. So that the idea is that my way is the right way. This is the source for rigidity in thinking.

— Egocentric thinking functions at the unconscious level. It cannot stand the light of day. The minute that it starts to come to light, that is, to the conscious level, something magnificent, in the mind, happens, called self-aception [?]:
— "I decieve myself into believing in all of these selfish things that I'm doing are actually perfectly fair for everyone around me. I decieve myself into thinking that I'm telling you the truth, when actually I'm telling you a lie." Or, — "I'm telling you a lie, I might admit it, but I'm doing it for your own good."


CRITICAL THINKING ABILITIES:

� Thinking independently
� Developing insight into egocentricity or sociocentricity
� Exercising fair-mindedness
� Exploring thoughts underlying feelings and feelings underlying thoughts
� Developing intellectual humility and suspending judgment
� Developing intellectual courage
� Developing intellectual good faith or integrity
� Developing intellectual perseverance
� Developing confidence in reason
� Refining generalizations and avoiding oversimplifications
� Comparing analogous situations: transferring insights to new contexts
� Developing one's perspective: creating or exploring beliefs, arguments, or theories
� Clarifying issues, conclusions, or beliefs
� Clarifying and analyzing the meanings of words or phrases
� Developing criteria for evaluation: clarifying values and standards
� Evaluating the credibility of sources of information
� Questioning deeply: raising and pursuing root or significant questions
� Analyzing or evaluating arguments, interpretations, beliefs, or theories
� Generating or assessing solutions
� Analyzing or evaluating actions or policies
� Reading critically: clarifying or critiquing texts
� Listening critically: the art of silent dialogue
� Making interdisciplinary connections
� Practicing Socratic discussion: clarifying and questioning beliefs, theories, or perspectives
� Reasoning dialogically: comparing perspectives, interpretations, or theories
� Reasoning dialectically: evaluating perspectives, interpretations, or theories
� Comparing and contrasting ideals with actual practice
� Thinking precisely about thinking: using critical vocabulary
� Noting significant similarities and differences
� Examining or evaluating assumptions
� Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant facts
� Making plausible inferences, predictions, or interpretations
� Evaluating evidence and alleged facts
� Recognizing contradictions
� Exploring implications and consequences

Intellectual standards to use in thinking:

Clarity:
understandable, the meaning can be grasped:

Could you elaborate further?
Could you give me an example?
Could you illustrate what you mean?
Accuracy:
free from errors or distortions, true:
How could we check on that?
How could we find out if that is true?
How could we verify or test that?
Precision:
exact to the necessary level of detail:
Could you be more specific?
Could you give me more details?
Could you be more exact?
Relevance:
relating to the matter at hand:
How does that relate to the problem?
How does that bear on the question?
How does that help us with the issue?
Depth:
containing complexities and interrelationships:
What factors make this a difficult problem?
What are some of the complexities of this question?
What are some of the difficulties we need to deal with?
Breadth:
encompassing multiple viewpoints:
Do we need to look at this from another perspective?
Do we need to consider another point of view?
Do we need to look at this in other ways?
Logic:
the parts make sense together, no contradictions:
Does all this make sense together?
Does your first paragraph fit in with your last?
Does what you say follow from the evidence?
Significance:
focusing on the important, not trivial:
Is this the most important problem to consider?
Is this the central idea to focus on?
Which of these facts are most important?
Fairness:
Justifiable, not self-serving (or egocentric):
Do I have any vested interest in this issue?
Am I sympathetically representing the viewpoints of others?
Am I putting views I oppose in their strongest form?
Intellectual traits:

Intellectual humility is knowledge of ignorance, sensitivity to what you know and what you do not know. It means being aware of your biases, prejudices, self-deceptive tendencies and the limitations of your viewpoint. Questions that foster intellectual humility include:
  • What do I really know (about myself, about the situation, about another person, about my nation, about what is going on in the world)?
  • To what extent do my prejudices or biases influence my thinking?
  • To what extent have I been indoctrinated into beliefs that may be false?
  • How do the beliefs I have uncritically accepted keep me from seeing things as they are?
Intellectual courage is the disposition to question beliefs you feel strongly about. It includes questioning the beliefs of your culture and the groups to which you belong, and a willingness to express your views even when they are unpopular. Questions that foster intellectual courage include:
  • To what extent have I analyzed the beliefs I hold?
  • To what extent have I questioned my beliefs, many of which I learned in childhood?
  • To what extent have I demonstrated a willingness to give up my beliefs when sufficient evidence is presented against them?
  • To what extent am I willing to stand up against the majority (even though people ridicule me)?
Intellectual empathy is awareness of the need to actively entertain views that differ from our own, especially those we strongly disagree with. It is to accurately reconstruct the viewpoints and reasoning of our opponents and to reason from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than our own. Questions that foster intellectual empathy include:
  • To what extent do I accurately represent viewpoints I disagree with?
  • Can I summarize the views of my opponents to their satisfaction? Can I see insights in the views of others and prejudices in my own?
  • Do I sympathize with the feelings of others in light of their thinking differently than me?
Intellectual integrity consists in holding yourself to the same intellectual standards you expect others to honor (no double standards). Questions that foster intellectual integrity include:
  • Do I behave in accordance with what I say I believe, or do I tend to say one thing and do another?
  • To what extent do I expect the same of myself as I expect of others?
  • To what extent are there contradictions or inconsistencies in my life?
  • To what extent do I strive to recognize and eliminate self-deception in my life?
Intellectual perseverance is the disposition to work your way through intellectual complexities despite the frustration inherent in the task. Questions that foster intellectual perseverance include:
  • Am I willing to work my way through complexities in an issue or do I tend to give up when I experience difficulty?
  • Can I think of a difficult intellectual problem concerning which I have demonstrated patience and determination in working through the difficulties?
  • Do I have strategies for dealing with complex problems?
  • Do I expect learning to be easy or do I recognize the importance of engaging in challenging intellectual work?
Confidence in reason is based on the belief that one's own higher interests and those of humankind at large are best served by giving the freest play to reason. It means using standards of reasonability as the fundamental criteria by which to judge whether to accept or reject any belief or position. Questions that foster confidence in reason include:
  • Am I willing to change my position when the evidence leads to a more reasonable position?
  • Do I adhere to principles of sound reasoning when persuading others of my position or do I distort matters to support my position?
  • Do I deem it more important to "win" an argument, or see the issue from the most reasonable perspective?
  • Do I encourage others to come to their own conclusions or do I try to force my views on them?
Intellectual autonomy is thinking for oneself while adhering to standards of rationality. It means thinking through issues using one's own thinking rather than uncritically accepting the viewpoints of others. Questions that foster intellectual autonomy:
  • To what extent am I a conformist?
  • To what extent do I uncritically accept what I am told by my government, the media, my peers?
  • Do I think through issues on my own or do I merely accept the views of others?
  • Having thought through an issue from a rational perspective, am I willing to stand alone despite the irrational criticisms of others?
Mais aqui.

Sobre Linda Elder

Outros links:
The International Critical Thinking Test
The Watson-Glaser™ Critical Thinking Appraisal
















The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children

















The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking-Concepts and Tools

















Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Personal and Professional Life