More than 12 years ago, I began exploring thinking, prompted by some questions that kept resonating in my head: What is thinking? How can the capacity to think be broken down? What skills or abilities should we develop to think effectively? What are the consequences of not developing thinking skills? (mental rigidity, impulsive thinking, conformism and intellectual dependence, superficiality, egocentrism, cognitive distortions and biases, or superstitious thinking, among many others). What limiting and/or empowering factors exist in the thinking process? How can we teach thinking?

In my early years as a teacher, I focused my inquiry on the very definition of thinking and the identification of different types of thinking. There are several theories and authors who study this, long lists, differing definitions and classifications. Thanks to this passionate (and endless) exploration, I discovered wonderful programs and educational resources committed to and focused on teaching how to think, such as Philosophy for Children, Project Zero (Harvard), TBL (Thinking Based Learning), Visible Thinking… And authors like Robert J. Swartz, Arthur L. Costa, David Perkins, Rebecca Reagan, Robert H. Ennis, Matthew Lipman, Ann Sharp, Bena Kallick, and Paul Ritchard, among others, became constant references and sources of inspiration in my daily practice.

I trained to become a TBL teacher and coach and also took several courses on Philosophy for children. Although these trainings were highly satisfying and interesting, I still needed a more complete, specific, and precise pedagogical program to teach my students how to think and to provide them with what education should truly offer: a deep, well-structured plan to develop, explicitly and systematically, productive and reflective thinking from an early age.

THE TEACHER AS A MIRROR

As teachers, we ask and demand students to think far more often than we actually teach them to. Every classroom activity requires thinking, but who takes responsibility for teaching them how to think effectively? For teaching them which thinking skill or ability to use in each context? Of course, to avoid teacher hypocrisy, it would be dishonest to teach thinking if we ourselves, as educators, are not fully committed to training and improving our own thinking capacity. We must embody virtues related to thinking dispositions, strategies, and skills. We must explicitly share our thinking processes with students (the strengths and the weaknesses) with the closeness, transparency, and honesty they deserve. We must reflect on our own learning and thinking processes alongside them, becoming a mirror in which they can see themselves reflected. From there, through self-assessment and constant metacognitive reflection (on the effectiveness of our mental processes), we can model and guide our students toward deeper and more effective thinking processes.

To raise awareness among those interested in this field and to share resources and personalized training, my colleague Viridiana Barbán (one of the key references in Thinking-Based Learning, TBL) and I founded OneTwoThink and the framework of the Pedagogy of Thinking. This project was born about six years ago, with the goal of asserting the importance and necessity of teaching and learning to think, to ensure that future generations are not only capable of understanding and consuming knowledge, but above all, of constructing it. And furthermore, that they do so in a committed, collaborative, and responsible way, contributing to the improvement of both the world around them and their own.

THE METHOD

The pedagogy of thinking is grounded in developing thinking dispositions and skills through their direct teaching and their integration into the official curriculum via meaningful and efficient methodological and didactic strategies. By thinking dispositions and skills we mean such abilities as analysis, questioning and critical thinking, creativity, philosophical-scientific inquiry, entrepreneurial thinking, ethics, collaboration, effective communication, and above all, metacognitive reflection. The foundation of pedagogy of thinking is built on three essential pillars: BEING, KNOWING, and KNOWING HOW TO DO.

Over these years, we have trained more than 600 teachers from different countries and created a complete program with specific teaching materials, such as the student book The Adventure of Learning to Think (La aventura de aprender a pensar), the teacher book The Challenge of Teaching to Think (El reto de enseñar a pensar), and a set of card decks designed to train each thinking skill.

We are enormously proud to see how more and more schools are embracing the pedagogy of thinking and implementing the full program in their classrooms, thanks to the teaching resources and training we provide.

GAMIFICATION FOR LEARNING

Students learn to think thanks to eight characters we have designed. In the book, each represents an intellectual disposition and is intended to model and guide awareness and the development of certain tendencies toward effective, reflective, and conscious thinking. Each character is assigned a particular approach, disposition, and defining traits: What represents and stimulates them? What do students connect with? What capacities do they develop?

For example, one of the characters, Sophis, represents philosophical thinking and curiosity. They respond with wonder and interest to the world around us, formulate relevant, creative, and transformative philosophical and scientific questions; they investigate and inquire into different subjects and disciplines, showing openness to new knowledge and lifelong learning.

Another example is Logos, who represents the virtue of logical thinking and has a strong capacity for analysis. They show ambition and precision in seeking information and organizing it in a logical and reasoned way. They pursue deep, conceptual understanding of facts and ideas; and to do so, they identify components, similarities and differences, causes, consequences, patterns, relationships, and implications. They explore multiple perspectives.

Teaching experience over the years shows us how students develop their problem-solving abilities, creativity and divergent thinking, commitment to inquiry and lifelong learning, decision-making, and the depth with which they approach any topic, whether daily or disciplinary. And all of this through collaboration, reflection, and ethical commitment, recognizing that effective thinking must be used to improve the world.

Teaching how to think is not an add-on; it is the very heart of learning. It is not optional; it is a duty. The pedagogy of thinking not only helps develop cognitive skills, but also cultivates curious, ethical, and autonomous minds capable of facing the complexity of the world with judgment, creativity, and responsibility. To commit to it is to commit to a transformative and deeply human education.

This is our way of contributing to the education sector and to the community at large. Who’s in?