THE 12TH IACESA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: 22-24 FEBRUARY 2017; LAGOON BEACH HOTEL, MILNERTON, CAPE TOWN.

The teaching of thinking: co-constructing and re-defining pathways to make an impact

~ Mary Grosser ~

The development of critical thinking has been regarded as an important outcome and ideal of

education since the early days of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. This ideal was pursued through the

Middle Ages and the Renaissance with emphasis on the use of reasoning and critiquing thought

processes as central activities to the development of critical thinking. Although the National

Department of Basic Education in South Africa has placed a strong cognitive focus on teaching and

learning since 1997, these ideals appear not to be a reality in all South African classrooms yet. Sadly,

many South African classrooms still appear to be grottos that mirror a closed-minded approach to

knowledge acquisition, where the facts, rules, norms and ethics that were formulated by previous

generations, are not questioned or critiqued. Moreover, the fact that researchers are still

deliberating ways in which critical thinking can be taught and acquired, possibly suggests that this

ideal has not yet been attained.

Following a successful 2015 conference that emphasized the importance of critical thinking as a

cornerstone for 21st century learning, the 2017 IACESA conference aimed to create a platform to

prioritise for future milestones that would promote and scale cognitive education in Southern Africa.

This conference advocated for a multi-dimensional approach to the teaching and assessing of critical

thinking. The development of critical thinking requires a multi professional approach involving all

role players in education in a variety of learning contexts (formal, informal, non-formal) to enable

learners to become sophisticated critical thinkers, who can apply logical and analytic left-brain

thinking skills to solve problems. In addition, sophisticated critical thinkers also need to overcome

life’s challenges by using their intuition, creativity, imagery, and the search for possibility.

The conference presentations were clustered under the following four sub-themes:

Sub-theme 1: Thinking critically about the hidden mechanisms that make cognitive education

interventions work. Prof. Deborah Eyre, the foremost keynote speaker at the conference,

introduced the delegates to the High Performance Learning framework as a pathway to develop

learners’ cognitive resources. In addition, other presentations focused on Philosophy for Children,

social learning, problem-solving and reasoning, the role of self-efficacy, the Learning Power

Approach, the importance of classroom climate and values as well as mediated learning that

highlighted additional pathways for nurturing cognitive potential effectively.

Sub-theme 2: Thinking critically about informal and non-formal learning opportunities to advance

cognitive education. Mr Tope Toogun, keynote speaker for this sub-theme, created awareness

among the delegates about the importance of technology and learning via simulations, as important

informal and non-formal pathways to nurture thinking. Other presentations related to this sub-

theme explored the role of play, sensory processing and turn turtle the classroom as informal/non-

formal pathways to advance the teaching of thinking.

Mr Brent Hutcheson presented a practical workshop demonstrating the role of play for holistic

development of learners by means of the Six Bricks.

Sub-theme 3: Thinking critically about the purpose and process of assessment for thinking. Dr

Celia Booyse, keynote speaker for sub-theme 3, created awareness that teaching for thinking should

align with assessment for thinking.

Sub-theme 4: Thinking critically about optimal health and well-being (physical, social, emotional

health). Sub-theme 4 provided a new angle to the work of IACESA that mainly focuses on formal

classroom teaching and learning. Dr Bernard Brom, keynote speaker for this sub-theme, introduced

the “Art” and “Science” of critical thinking. His presentation was followed by the presentation of

Estelle Brettenny, who illustrated through a personal health issue, the importance of taking good

critical thinking on the journey of life, in order to make good decisions about one’s own health and

well-being. Mrs Eve Dunnell, Chairperson of the University of the 3rd Age in Cape Town, concluded

the conference with a delightful presentation demonstrating how cognitive development could be

pursued even in retirement.

One of the highlights of the very successful conference, was the cocktail function where the launch

of a recently published book, Developing Critical Thinking: A Multi-Dimensional Approach in the

Context of South Africa, was celebrated. This book was co-authored by a number of the IACESA

Board Members and other colleagues in the field of cognitive education.

High Performance Learning: How to

become a World Class School.

Prof. Deborah Eyre

Learning everything

everywhere!

Mr Tope Toogun

Mediated assessment practices: towards a holistic approach in

education.

Dr. Celia Booyse

‘The Art and Science of critical

thinking’

Dr Bernard Brom

Conference delegates at the book launch during the cocktail function

The new IACESA Board for the 2017-2019 term was also announced at the conference. Dr Magda

Kloppers (NWU Vaal Triangle Campus) will be the new President, supported by Prof. Mirna Nel

(Research Professor at Optentia), as Vice President (President Elect). A number of other NWU staff

members will also serve on the new IACESA Board, namely Prof. Mary Grosser, Dr Stef Esterhuizen,

Mrs Viné Petzer, Dr Deon Van Tonder, Mr Byron Bunt, Mr Grantt Gouws, Mr Francois Minnie and

Mrs Marietjie Willemse.

Acquiring critical thinking is a lifelong journey rather than something studied in a module or a

course. It is not enough to learn about critical thinking, one needs to practice critical thinking with

rigorous guidance and feedback. Critical thinking societies will only come into being when critical

thinking becomes a primary interest of the people who live in such societies.

We hope that the 2017 conference was an inspiration to all delegates, to pursue not only the

development of their own critical thinking abilities but also the critical thinking abilities of their

students in academic and real life contexts.

Dr Magda Kloppers Prof. Mirna Nel

To conclude, the Board would like to thank Optentia Research Unit: Prof. Ian Rothmann for financial

support and Lynn Booysen, Marinda Malan and Anjonet Jordaan for assisting in so many ways,

ensuring that this conference was a memorable one. A special word of thanks to Marinda Malan for

being the official photographer at the conference!

Optentia at the IACESA conference