Is a broken down car parked?

I’ve just finished reading “Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google?” by Ian Gilbert. I’ve been a big fan of Ian’s work and writing for a while. To me he has mastered the mix of common since, intelligence and humor and uses stories really well to explain his thinking and education arguments.

There is lots to talk about from the book and I would definitely recommend reading it to anyone who is interested in the idea of learning schools rather than teaching schools.

Ian is also a real advocate for getting children to think deeply and develop higher order thinking skills. One techniques that I absolutely loved from his books was the concept of ‘Thunks’.

“ ‘Thunks’ are deceptively tricky little questions that ‘make your brain go ouch!’ “

 

Ian's examples of ‘Thunks’ include:

• ‘Is a broken down car parked?’
• ‘If you read a newspaper in the newsagents without paying for it, is it stealing?’
• ‘Do all polo’s taste the same?’
• ‘Can you be proud of someone you have never met?’
• ‘Is a hole a thing?’

Loads more examples of 'thunks' on the Independent Thinking website and at www.thunks.co.uk and to see Ian talking about them in a lot better detail than I ever could have a look at his TEDx Dubai talk (embedded below).

Comments

[Juliet @CreativeSTAR]

Delighted you've flagged up this book, education consultancy and the founder, Ian Gilbert.

He was also mentioned by Alan Parkinson @Geoblogs at the recent TeachMeet Beyond as Mission Explore has used some of Ian's work as a theoretical basis for their work.

The world's just a global village. Small place in so many ways.