Be open-minded!

Active Open-Mindedness is not compatible with illegitimate teacherly authority

Active Open-Mindedness (AOM) is a cognitive stance that we need to take to avoid believing or behaving foolishly.  It is the main defence against ‘parasitic processing’ – a negative spiral of thoughts and conclusions that leads us away from the most rational interpretation of events.

To put the concept simply: be ready, willing, and able to change your mind about things by clearly defining what evidence would prove you wrong and actively looking for it.  It is a way to try and avoid the various in-built biases that we have – which are no more than short cuts to allow us to make decisions more quickly and with less cognitive effort – but which can easily trip us up.

AOM forms the basis for critical thinking and supports our ability to solve problems (along with our capacity for insight), two key elements of twenty-first century skills

Where illegitimate teacherly authority prevails, it is hard for a teacher to model AOM as any inquiry testing the validity of what is being taught may easily go beyond what the teacher feels comfortable with, risking a loss of control.

In the case of legitimate teacherly authority, students are deeply engaged in the subject at hand and inquiry is likely to be a means to deepen the learning for both students and teachers.  Thus, AOM can be practiced without risk, indeed with concrete benefits.

In short, if we want to encourage AOM which forms the basis for critical thinking and contributes to problem-solving then we need to be operating in an environment of legitimate teacherly authority.

Yet another argument for rebuilding legitimate teacherly authority.

  

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 concept and practice of teacherly authority.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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