Analytical skills, Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving and Systems Thinking

Importance of Analytical Skills, Critical Thinking, Problem-solving and Systems Thinking:

We are all aware of the importance of analytical skills, critical thinking, problem-solving and systems thinking in today's globalized world. 

We are in a cognitive age where cognitive skills and qualities distinguish a healthy, dynamic economy from a less dynamic one, an individual who has wide economic opportunities, from one with limited ones.

The world values people who have good analytical and critical thinking skills, who can see the big picture from the details, and who can think in terms of multi-disciplinary combinations. According to Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat, it’s "interdisciplinary combinations - design and technology, mathematics and art - that produce YouTube and Google."

In this age of overflowing information, in which the number of words on the Internet is close to surpassing the total number of words spoken in the history of humanity, we must know how to analyze and deal with information; to know what are good sources of information, to be able to access it and use discrimination to make effective use of it. 

There is no shortage of problems that need solving in families, communities, businesses and countries. Finding effective solutions to environmental, economic and social challenges at all scales - from the global to the local – will require adept problem-solvers.

Education systems throughout the world can do a lot more to help students develop these skills. For example: 

• A US study indicates that “by any measure whatsoever, most students are not learning to reason well.” Many teachers do not understand how to devise assignments that require critical thinking skills, or how to analyze and evaluate reasoning objectively. 
• Learning environments often fail to explore the relationship and links between different topics and fields of knowledge, or the relationship between the student's personal and social development and his academic development.  
• Many educational systems do not encourage the child to examine and question knowledge in his own terms and from his own pont of view, and so this makes it impossible for the student to develop these cognitive skills to their full scope. In many classrooms, there are limited opportunities or a low level of tolerance for such questioning and examination.

Realizing Analytical Skills, Critical Thinking, Problem-solving and Systems Thinking as Educational Outcomes:

Analytical skills, critical thinking, problem-solving and systems thinking can be realized as educational outcomes when they are consciously built into a learning environment organized around how children learn and develop. This makes teaching easier and more effective, as the following examples illustrate: 

1. Relationship is the foundation for development - An open teacher-student relationship helps the student become a good reasoner and notice the inferences they are making and the assumptions they are based on. It's difficult for the student to do this if he is not engaged or open to what the teacher has to say.  
2. The child learns in an integrated way - A teacher who understands that children learn in integrated ways and that cognitive experience is inseparable from any other aspect of experience helps the student to integrate knowledge, understand the connections and logic of things, rather than merely memorize content.  
3. Children are natural learners - A learning environment that acknowledges that each student learns in their own way, has different logical systems, opinions and ways of reasoning naturally encourages students to develop their analytical and critical thinking skills.  
4. Each child learns in his her own way - Teaching that takes into account how the student learns and develops makes the student more responsive and engaged in school, and this leads to better educational outcomes, including creativity and initiative. 

The benefits of an education that works - of a learning environment based on how children learn and develop - for developing analytical skills, critical thinking, problem solving and systems thinking are obvious.