edward-de-bono

list of people who have contributed to our understanding of learning through practical hands-on activities:

Bruner, Jerome

De Bono, Edward

Froebel, Friedrich
Gregory, Richard
Khanna, Sudarshan

Malaguzzi, Loris

Papert, Seymour
Reggio Emelia Atelier

Thring, M W

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name

Edward De Bono b.1933

working life

1960 - present day

essentials

De Bono is an author, researcher, and consultant lecturer specialising in the area of how people think. He believes thinking as a learnable skill, separate from intelligence.

He originated the now widely used term "lateral thinking" and developed techniques for use in solving problems and coming up with new ideas. These are now more commonly referred to as "brainstorming" or "thinking outside the box".

Edward de Bono's key concept is that logical, linear and critical thinking has limitations which encourages the continuation of traditional ideas. If new solutions and innovation are required, people need to think outside their usual thinking patterns.

He developed a number of thinking techniques (sometimes presented as a game) which he gave names to: "random words", "escape", "new stimuli", and "reversal". These were designed to shift perceptional assumptions to allow new observations, and insights to develop.

Many of his speculative models from the 1960's about how the brain works have been supported by later brain research.

info

His book ‘The Dog Exercising Machine - A Study of Children as Inventors’ (publ. 1970) is of particular interest as it consists almost entirely of diagrammatic illustrations of design ideas created by children. These were the results of a challenge to invent a machine for exercising dogs and show how varied and individualistic inventive thinking can be. It is particularly interesting to note how the ideas can only really be expressed visually, through drawing - a skill required in communication and design. There are actually very few books which show a good range of children's drawings.

De Bono outlines some of the thinking behind these drawings based on his theories - his book is full of interesting observations. For example:

De Bono outlines some of the thinking behind the drawings based on his theories.

It is particularly interesting to note how the ideas can only really be expressed visually through drawing - a skill required in communication and design. There are actually very few books which show a good range of children's drawings.

His book is full of observations. For example:

"Children tend to draw the idea of a thing rather than the thing as one might see it ... most of the dogs were shown at rest even if they were standing on a moving conveyor belt. It was the idea of the dog that was being shown, not a picture of the dog running.... It must be remembered, however, that the children were asked to design a dog-exercising machine and in a design one tends to draw ideas rather than action pictures."

"Black boxes - a 'black box' is called a black box because you cannot see what goes on inside. But you can see how the box behaves so you can make use of it without having to know what is happening inside. To most people a motor car is a black box. You can get into a car, drive it about and use it without having the faintest idea about what goes on inside ... When a child draws a round shape and labels it 'motor' he is using the idea of a motor as a black box ... The ability to use black boxes is one of the fundamental characteristics of human thinking and also one of the most useful .... With a shape and a label a child creates a black box because he knows what effect he wants to produce and he knows that his black box is capable of producing that effect."

"Silly ideas - the judgement of the silliness of and idea is a practical one based on wide experience... [In first stage thinking] what matters is producing ideas. It is only after we have got some ideas that we can be critical and selective .... If an idea is silly an adult will throw it out. But because a child does not throw it out it can become useful. The idea itself may still remain a silly as ever but it can set off new ideas."

books

Teach Your Child How To Think (publ. 1992)

This is a different kind of book from the one above, and more typical of De Bono. Intended for children and their parents, it consists of a series of proposed ideas and problems for discussion, using specific "thinking tools". It is a much more verbal activity - a bit like a debating society or a philosophy group for kids. The abreviated acronyms he names for each thinking tool might be problematic for some people as there are at least 25 different ones, so it is very much a book to dip in and out of. Try selecting a few that seem interesting and apply these methods to some of your own ideas - ones that might benefit from lateral thinking input.

• Edward De Bono: Teach Your Child How To Think

publ. 1992 - Viking - ISBN-10: 0670830135

see more:

• The wikipedia entry for Edward DeBono
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Bono

• The wikipedia entry for "lateral thinking"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_thinking

• The wikipedia entry for "thinking outside the box"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_outside_the_box

• The De Bono website
http://www.debono.com