Cybernetics and precursors of promoting critical thinking - A way to change the school

Abstract

The requirement to assure the teaching of critical thinking put the school in front of its own weaknesses. A profound criticism highlights limitations, hindrances and obstacles that are difficult to pass without the personal efforts of the teachers. Following criticism, one can identify a set of requirements that would allow for improvement and upgrading. This set of requirements builds the specification of a cybernetic system developed to help the training process promoting the critical thinking. The new cybernetic system diminishes the role of the teacher as coordinator in approaching the field of interest, inclusively the building of the recommended bibliographic list and interventions in crises. The main stages of the training sessions coordinated by the cybernetic system aim at a) building a set of problems by the students; b) the classification of all proposed problems according to their opportunity established by the voting group; c) solving the proposed problems by the students; d) evaluating, by vote, all the solutions offered for the proposed problems. Using the formulated specification and the established operating algorithm the operating scheme of the cybernetic system is being built. The proposed scheme is intended to monitor and manage the training process. The results interpretation highlights the absolute novelty of such a system and analyzes how it satisfies the original specification. One observes the generality of the concept, the way it meets the requirement of promoting critical thinking, the fact that the promotion is made gradually and continuously.