Outsmarting IQ by David Perkins

Author:David Perkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Free Press
Published: 2009-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Design

The CoRT program includes six units, each comprising about 10 lessons. The units have different foci. Unit I, called Breadth, emphasizes stretching the mind to find aspects of a situation likely to be neglected. For example, Unit I includes PMI, which urges evenhanded attention to positive, negative, and interesting features of a situation. It also includes CAF (Consider All Factors), which encourages casting a wide net for the many sorts of factors that might figure in a situation; and OPV (Other Points of View), which asks thinkers to consider points of view on the matter other than their own.

To mention some other units, CoRT II is called Organization. In some contrast to CoRT I, its aim is to help the thinker direct attention in a systematic and focused way to the topic at hand. CoRT III, Interaction, deals largely with evidence and argument. CoRT IV, Creativity, emphasizes generating and sifting ideas.

The CoRT lessons require about half an hour to teach. Many of the lessons introduce operations, such as PMI. Others consolidate them and knit them together. Unit I should be taught first, de Bono avers, but the others can be taught in any order. In practice, many applications of CoRT only use CoRT I and sometimes a little more. It is very rare that CoRT is taught through from beginning to end.

As even this brief description shows, CoRT fairly transparently addresses the thinking defaults identified in the previous chapter: hasty, narrow, fuzzy, and sprawling thinking. By providing and encouraging the use of operations, CoRT works against hasty thinking. Because many of the operations broaden thinking, CoRT helps with the problem of narrow thinking. Indeed, this is probably its forte. Because some operations deal with ordering and prioritizing, CoRT helps to some extent with fuzzy thinking. Because some operations and other features help students to organize their thinking better, CoRT addresses sprawling thinking.

Of course, this does not mean that CoRT is a comprehensive program, any more than any other single program is likely to be. The four intelligence traps are vast; they make room for all kinds of mishaps and a diversity of sorts of thinking. Nonetheless, CoRT plainly touches on all four.

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