We welcomed author, tech philosopher and educator Dr Tom Chatfield to Sevenoaks this week to give a series of talks. Dr Chatfield is a writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher with an interest in AI ethics, critical thinking and future skills.
The first talk to Lower Sixth students, ‘What is Critical Thinking and Why does it matter?’ introduced the problems of not thinking critically and the need for students to develop sophisticated meta-learning capabilities: experiment, iterate, share and debate – the ability to adapt, change and evolve their thinking as the world transforms around them.
The after-school workshop focused on ‘Three tools to make you think’:
1. ‘Unless you pause, you can’t think twice’ – if it’s complex or new, seek cognitive reinforcements.
2. Stress test ideas or risk falling into the confirmation trap.
3. Look for the best questions and frames of reference.
The keynote talk, ‘Being human in age of intelligent machines’, was attended by over 350 students, staff, parents and members of the public. This talk asked three more questions:
1. What do you love and why?
2. What is worth asking? (‘It’s never been easier to make a bad idea look good.’)
3. What will help us thrive in an age of intelligent machines?
In turn, we took three key takeaways from Dr Chatfield’s talks: critical thinking is ‘quality control for the mind’; sometimes the process is the purpose; and the ultimate measures of our success are (still) wholly human.
