For the first time in its history, BISS is launching an educational project, which is titled "be critical". It is meant to promote critical thinking in the Belarusian society, especially among young people. The project is to include a range of activities (video-lectures, training, textbooks), and its implementation presupposes close collaboration with other educational and expert institutions.
"Critical thinking skills are among the most valuable in business, education, science, medicine, IT etc." - this follows from a number of researches on human capital. In developed countries, the number of textbooks, training seminars and publications on critical thinking is increasingly growing. Along with commanding English and computer literacy, critical thinking is a passport into the XXI century.
How many textbooks or training seminars on critical thinking are there in Belarus? How many times is critical thinking mentioned in the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Education? How many Belarusians know at all what is critical thinking? Unfortunately, Belarus is a 'virgin land' in this respect: training seminars are just a few if any, there are no textbooks, and even scholars tend to confuse critical thinking with critical theories.
Given the strategic importance of critical thinking, BISS took it as its duty to contribute to promoting skills and knowledge in this area. At the moment, we are launching a test version of video lectures. At the same time we continue looking for partners and resources in order to ensure the high quality and sustainability of the project. As we find partners, resources and get feedback, we will be improving educational activities both in technical and methodical terms.
The coordinator of the project is Piotr Rudkouski. He has a strong background in critical thinking, both theoretical and practical, as his PhD thesis was on the theory of argumentation, which is one of the theoretical pillars of critical thinking, and he carried out training seminars on critical thinking at different stages of his carrier.
The first - introductory - video lecture can be found here (in Belarusian).