In 2018 the Pisa tests, which compare teenagers' ability in reading, maths and science, are for the first time going to test "global competence", to assess education as a challenge to intolerance and extremism – the very things that our programme was set up to address.

Given our work on Tolerance Day 2017 on fake news, religious tolerance and the fact that we’re developing a research project on the development of bias, the news that the initial tests by the OECD will take place in about 80 countries next year provides greater impetus to our work.
 
One of the most challenging things will be what this ‘global competence’ will mean. According to the OECD it means finding out how well young people can understand other people's views and cultures, how they can look beyond the partisan echo chamber of social media and distinguish reliable evidence from fake news.
 
Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's director of education, says that international promises about the right to "quality education for all" now have to mean more than the "foundation knowledge" of maths, reading and science, it also needs to be about "learning to live together".
 
Mr Schleicher says young people need to navigate a globalised economy and to communicate and empathise with people from different countries and backgrounds. There's also a stronger  underlying message of internationalism and cultural openness.  The tests, run every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, are among the most widely used measures for global education standards.
 
These new criteria provide a new level of support for our approach and we are planning a pilot project in 2018 to explore the extent to which embedding critical thinking skills within the everyday curriculum can have an impact on bias and perspective.  
 
The programme has largely been developed from work we have done with primary schools on religious tolerance and diversity, as well as understanding knowledge and learning how to disagree and move forward.  The materials were developed with a team of teachers, researchers, psychologists and academics.
 
The programme is built on the work of SAPERE’s Philosophy for Children but we are interested in discovering the extent to which the practice of critical thinking and empathy building within the curriculum can impact children -rather than schools having to devote extra resources to the practice.
 
We are focused on the transition ages of 9 to 12 as this seems to be when prejudice and otherisation are developing.
 
If you or your school are interested in taking part in either focus groups or our pilot project, please do get in touch by calling 07958 923 182.

Teaching children to think for themselves is something our society needs. This is not simply something which is part of a curriculum, but should be the overarching goal of our educational system. The world our children face is beyond our understanding – in twenty years much of what they’ve learned will be out of date or transformed beyond recognition.

We need to equip them with different skills but children’s awareness of what matters in life is remarkable. As part of the marking of this year’s Tolerance Day, Learn2Think has just awarded prizes in its Young Journalist Award competition, in partnership with the Guardian Foundation and The Week Junior. The calibre of entries was extraordinary, especially coming from children so young.

There were of course entries on the environment, bullying, recycling, electric cars and fast fashion, but there were also entries on the relative notion of poverty, the importance of dialogue and protest in achieving piece, blending society to address the challenge of dementia. One child’s piece on sexism spoke as clearly as national newspaper leaders on its insidious nature.

Young children have awareness and passion and their voices need to be developed. Author Ellen Galinsky explains the importance of teaching children critical thinking skills: 'A child’s natural curiosity helps lay the foundation for critical thinking. Critical thinking requires us to take in information, analyse it and make judgements about it, and that type of active engagement requires imagination and inquisitiveness.’ These come naturally to children and should be encouraged.

Critical thinking clearly fosters resilience, empathy, flexibility of thinking and self confidence. Such skills offer the best immunisation against the main demons of social media: misinformation, bullying and indoctrination. There has certainly been much debate this year about media literacy and how to help children understand what they face, to support them in learning how to assess, analyse,  evaluate and create information.  Our experience with the competition and some of the conversations that arose from the entries led us to ask some questions however.
In order to understand media literacy, we need to understand more about children’s complex relationship with media.  Today’s primary school children are growing up with a deluge of information that is difficult for the pre-internet generation to even comprehend.

That being the case, we are looking to run some focus groups with children between 7 and 13 years old, the time when the social and emotional development of children is at its stronger.  These will explore media consumption and understanding, as well as more complex issues relatingto media exposure, such as uses and gratifications offered by new media, information overload, the main concerns related to internet safety and social media exposure (bullying, hate speech, peer pressure, stigma etc.)

Only by understanding this web of complex issues can we really hope to define the issue that we need to address. For any reader prepared to allow the Foundation to run a focus group at your school, please email info@learn2think.org.uk and let’s get the conversation started.
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If you missed out on the free lesson plans, books and other materials on religious tolerance and diversity, as well as understanding the nature of belief and knowledge with the Truth Detectives, you can still sign up at www.toleranceday.org and use them any time of year.