It’s only rational!

Developing rationality, to become wiser

Last week I talked about the elements of ‘rationality’ paralleling the key components of 21st century skills: critical thinking, creativity and collaboration.

These were: inference, insight and caring.

So, how do we develop them?  Through developing them we become more rational, in other words, we become wiser.

Inference is relatively straightforward.  We can develop this through a cognitive style known as Active Open Mindedness (AOM).  This is a specific style designed to avoid the multiple sources of bias that might affect our ability to make valid inferences.  Really, this is akin to the scientific method.

Our ability for insight is strengthened by flexing our ability to pay attention and this can be achieved very effectively through a combination of concentration meditation and mindfulness meditation.

Caring is strengthened through the practice of agape – ‘the love that forms a person’ – which is based on the way we pay attention and how we respond to people.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - La Lecture

To be able to support students as they struggle to develop 21st century skills, these are the sorts of practices that adults need to be adopting.

There is no getting around it, the future requires us to have deeper forms of knowing than just the facts.

And there is no short cut.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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