What we do?
At I-Think, we partner with educators to help them advance their practice when it comes to teaching thinking and problem solving. Through training, coaching and co-development of experiences in Integrative Thinking and innovation, we equip teachers with the tools to create rich learning experiences, no matter the grade level and subject, that enable critical thinking, creativity and collaboration in the classroom. These experiences support the building of mindsets conducive to tackling challenges with no single, right answer – the kinds of complex challenges our students face in the real world. We aspire to:
Currently, I-Think is building an annual Real World Problem Challenge Cycle. The I-Think Challenge Cycle will build a mechanism to engage students, educators and the community around issues that are most important to our future. By building the Challenge Cycle as an engine for problem solving, we create a systemic approach to bring real-world problem solving into the classroom. We will engage:
- Thousands of students in real-world learning that connects deep content knowledge while building the skills for the future
- Hundreds of teachers will have classroom-ready challenge kits that deepen their pedagogy
- Non-profit organizations to connect to the real-world challenges that they care about and face
- Tackle issues thematically to bring the challenges that communities care about into the classroom.
Why we do it?
The world of work is changing, and this means the skills we need to learn are changing – the new basic in education is more than reading, writing and arithmetic. We need to support educators to prepare our students with skills to tackle new challenges and problems we have not yet seen. The way we approach education needs to change. Teaching one, right answer – the world of book learning – is no longer enough. We must instead focus on learning where complexity, ambiguity and exploration is the norm. Our students need to build skills to explore the world and the biggest challenges we face with creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.
