The use of CoRT thinking in the HK Classroom

Accuracy and fluency are two qualities that we as teachers of English always demand from our students. But we never have anything in our curriculum to teach students how to think, generate ideas and make decisions. What we have are subject content areas which include mostly knowledge – knowledge that is to be memorized and to the best analyzed. For English as a subject, we emphasize grammar, skills, communication, learning through contextualized task completion, depending on the approach the teacher in taking. When we come to the treatment of ideas and thoughts, there seems to be a vacuum. This presentation is therefore an attempt to use CoRT thinking to fill this vacuum. The purpose is to help our students think independently and generate ideas through the use of English. Developed by Edward de Bono, CoRT thinking is in essence a method which tries to focus our attention directly into different aspects of thinking. It crystallizes” these aspects of thinking into different thinking tools which can then be used in different situations. In this session, four thinking tools, namely PMI (Plus, Minus, Interest), CAF (Consider All Factors), C & S (Consequence and Sequel) and AGO (Aims, Goals, Objectives), out of a total of ten, will be presented in explaining CoRT thinking.