Leading Edge Articles

Showing 6 to 10 of 15 results

Why Critical Thinking Is the Most Important Skill You’ll Ever Learn.

Andrew Badham - 2021-06-03 10:58:58

Is critical thinking the most important skill you’ll ever learn? To put any one skill into that prestigious position would take quite a sound argument. After all, there are so many skills that you rely on daily to get through work and life, how could you possibly pick anyone above another? My simple reason is that critical thinking influences everything we do. Have you ever wondered why people believe things that seem blatantly crazy or get sucked into business ideas that are clearly a... Read more

What your brain scan says about your problem solving style.

Andrew Badham - 2019-02-15 11:35:44

Any crime thriller or detective show enthusiast knows that there are two main kinds of detective: the methodical one who processes and puzzles over information, connecting dots and formulating opinions from there, and the insightful one who has the sudden moments of revelation. A classic example of the former is Sherlock Holmes: “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Holmes’ methods are exhaustive and focuse... Read more

In Defense of Lucky Underpants: making use of the placebo effect

Andrew Badham - 2018-06-01 10:51:37

The Placebo Effect is certainly one of life’s stranger quirks. The fact that you can take a sugar pill and feel better simply because you thought you would is strange to most of us, and yet, it gets stranger still. Apparently, even if you know you’re receiving a placebo, you will experience similar effects to if you had been deceived into thinking it was real. A research article published in December 2017 in the concisely named Journal, Pain, detailed this phenomenon. The research... Read more

Devil's Advocate

Andrew Badham - 2018-04-17 13:55:09

There’s a game I like to play with my classes. It’s based on the concept of playing Devil’s Advocate. Simply put, it’s all about taking the opposing view of an argument even if you don’t really agree with it. First off, we try to find a couple of controversial topics, ones that really split the room, but hopefully, don’t elicit too much of an emotional response. A little bit of controversy ups the engagement level, but too much spirals the class into emotio... Read more

Ideological Inoculation

Andrew Badham - 2018-04-17 12:02:40

When I was still in school, I remember being taken on a field trip to the Cradle of Humankind, to Maropeng. We were taken through the Sterkfontein caves to see the dig sites where archaeological treasures such as Mrs Ples were found, and then through the educational centre not far from that. In the educational centre, we were treated to the sight of the fossil remains of long extinct rodents, sabre-toothed cats, and of course, early hominids. It is impossible to discuss hominids witho... Read more