作者：Gary Malmon
翻译：倪民杰
人类面临的最大挑战，要求我们必须回答一个关键问题：应如何教孩子正确地思考、学习？这个问题，挑战着全世界的教育工作者和家长。
在本栏目以前讨论过的一项内容（《是全面发展，还是一枝独秀？》）中，本人论证了：在人健康、成功的发展方面，追求宽知识面和各种技艺，要比执念于某一领域明智的原因。
这次，我将“非聚焦式发展”的镜头，转向学习与思考，以及：当今世界，孩子们面对的，是个前景不明的未来，我们应如何培养孩子，使之较好地应对这种局面。全世界的那些教育体制（尤其是高教体制），很大程度上是在鼓励青少年在某个领域有所专长。有些人认为，人生要想成功，就得专注于一技之长。这种观念，是错误的。
《纽约客》撰稿人、畅销书作家马尔科姆•格拉德威尔所撰写的《异类：“非常”成功启示录》等超级畅销书，使我们茅塞顿开——成功，往往是“领域交叉式”的，光靠个聪明脑袋不行。另一方面，格拉德威尔也使我们相信：成功，在很大程度上也取决于能否有一技之长（如：他所提出、如今广为人知的“1万小时定律”：无论何人，从事何种工作，只要练习1万小时，都能成为专家）。对本栏目的教育思想颇有启发的，是另一本书——畅销书作家戴维·爱泼斯坦所写的《眼界：专门化世界中的通识制胜之原因》。格拉德威尔对该书的评论，让我吃惊不小。
格拉德威尔是这么写的：“我被告知：就某事/某种情况，我全想错了——不知为何，戴维·爱泼斯坦成功地使我完全享受这种告知体验。对《眼界：专门化世界中的通识制胜之原因》这本书，我相当喜欢。”
爱泼斯坦告诉我们，通过全面发展的准备，就是要出类拔萃。既建立相关领域和学科间的联系，又能进行批判性思维、抽象思维和横向思维（打破纵向式的逻辑思维局限，将思维往宽广领域拓展的前进式、创新性思考。不限制任何范畴，以偶然性概念来逃离逻辑思维，进而创造出各种匪夷所思的新想法，新观点，新事物。横向思维一般深度不够。——译者）——正是借助于这种能力，我们才能在当今这个复杂、易变的世界里蓬勃发展。
那么，培育创造性、批判性思维的最佳途径是什么？孩子通过整体性学习，能很好地应对日益快速演化的世界。那么，真正整体性学习的模式又是什么样的？这方面，有两个非常关键的要点。
第一点，其实古希腊着名思想家、哲学家、教育家苏格拉底数千年前就已教给我们：对任何问题，都要千方百计地努力，提出自己的答案，即便是个错误答案。强迫自己深入思考，批判地思考，以锻炼学习能力。自信，有利于学生健康发展。人们注重培育自信的谈论，我们时有耳闻。这种理念并没错，但我们也应考虑：真正的自信，需要一种开阔的胸怀——愿意接纳出错，将其视为强健自己学习“肌肉”的机会；愿意接纳失利，将其视为培养坚韧不拔的最佳途径，而坚韧不拔是成功、幸福者的一个标志。
其背后的含义，就是加州大学洛杉矶分校心理学研究者内特•康奈尔所称的“难度合理的困难”（desirable difficulties） ——挑战增大（甚至令人沮丧），学习放慢，但长期而言，这些障碍的克服，使所学更为牢固。关于学习策略，哪些确有科学性，哪些没有，美国教育部于发布过专门的研究报告。
该项研究的一个子课题是：以美国空军学院一万多名新生为研究对象，在内，将其随机分配给近百位教授，学习微积分。学完之后，又随机安排他们进行数学、工程高级课程的学习。
研究发现，那些根据学生自感学习难度而相应调整进度的教师，学生评价高，但长远而言，这种做法不利于学生的学业表现。换句话说，初期学习过程中，通过考试所体现的良好学业表现，知识看似得到掌握，但这种成绩其实往往意味着快学、快忘的“进步”。
真正整体性学习的另一要素，与德国杰出天文学家开普勒和英国进化论者达尔文的睿智有关。这两位科坛巨星突破性的发现，源于他们的一个重要习惯——跳出所在领域、学科的标准思维，另辟蹊径。
开普勒
二人均“痴迷类比”：注重一种“行外经验”的横向思维。他们将自己的领域/专业与其它领域/专业多方联系起来，从而将自己的见解提升到新的高度，实现那些的确属于“另类”的突破。
这里，有许多方面值得深思，但最重要的领悟可能是：对落后或失利，无需担忧。当然，专注于某个领域，只要情况合适，那就无可指摘。大发明家爱迪生（发明了灯泡、留声机等等）一生专利逾千（大部分为“雕虫小技”），专利被拒的，则远超千项。
带来成功和幸福的终身学习，日益取决于能否灵活、探索地思考。
请拓展思维，建立各种创意性的联系，将每次挫折视为一种迈向最终进展的机会而加以珍惜。使学习既有趣，又富有成果的，正是那些旁门左道和“山穷水尽”。
对各种“侧生旁出”，域外风光，请享受之，充分利用之：一旦时机对头，要返回“主路”，那还不是易如反掌？
Broad Before Deep
The most important challenge facing humanity mandates a key question facing educators and parents around the world: How shall we teach children to think and learn? In a previous column (Wide Rangers Vs. Single Gamers) I presented arguments for why seeking range of knowledge and expertise is better than focusing too much within a domain, in realizing healthy and successful human development. Here I turn the lens of “non focused” development to learning and thinking, and how we must prepare the world’s children living into an unknown future.
For the most part, education systems around the world (particularly higher education) are encouraging young people to specialize within a field of study, and there is a mistaken notion that success in life is cultivated through focus within a narrow domain.
Wildly popular books like Malcome Gladwell’s “Outliers” enlightened us to see that success is more often circumstantial than sheer talent-based. Yet Gladwell let us to believe that success is also very much determined by mastering a particular skill (e.g. the now well-known 10,000 hour rule). It is quite a shock then to read Gladwell’s review of the book which informs this column.
In his review of “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a World of Specialization”, by David Epstein, he writes “For reasons I cannot explain, David Epstein manages to make me thoroughly enjoy the experience of being told that everything I thought about something was wrong. I loved Range.”
Generalists we learn from Epstein,are primed to excel. It is the ability to think critically, abstractly, and laterally while making connections across domains and disciplines which equips us to thrive in a world that is complex and unpredictable. How then can we best cultivate this creative and critical thinking, and what is the model of true holistic learning which will prepare our children for an increasingly fast evolving world? There are two very key features.
The first main point is something that Socrates taught us millenia ago--struggling to generate an answer on your own, even a wrong one, enhances future learning by forcing one to think deeply and critically. We often hear people emphasize the importance of self-confidence for healthy student development. This is true, but we need to consider that true self-confidence includes a willingness to embrace being wrong as an opportunity to strengthen our learning muscles, and failing as the best way to build the tenacity and grit which is one hallmark of successful and happy people.
This is all about something psychologist Nate Kornell calls “desirable difficulties”, obstacles which make learning slower and more challenging (even frustrating) but make lessons stick better in the long term. In , the U.S. Department of Education put out a report on what learning strategies are truly science-based.
The research included a study of over ten thousand incoming Air Force Academy cadets randomly assigned to calculus sections taught by nearly a hundred professors over a ten year period. These students were then again randomly assigned to further advanced math and engineering courses after completion.
The findings are that teachers who guided their students to high achievement in their own course were rated highly, but undermined student performance in the long run. To wit, good performance on a test during the initial learning process can seem to indicate mastery, but such performance will more often index fast and fleeting progress.
The second key feature to true holistic learning has to do with the brilliance of astronomer Johannes Kepler and evolutionist Charles Darwin. The groundbreaking findings of these two luminaries stem from a central habit of thinking outside of the standard domain and discipline they were working in.
They have been called “analogy addicts” for their reliance on a type of lateral, or “outside experience” thinking. By making connections to other fields and domains, they elevated their insights to what could literally be considered “other worldly” breakthroughs.
There is a lot to digest here, but perhaps the best take away is to not worry about falling behind or failing, and there is of course nothing wrong with specializing when the fit is right. Thomas Edison (inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, etc.) had more than one thousand patents, most unimportant, and was rejected for many more.
A life of learning which brings success and happiness increasingly relies on flexible, exploratory thinking. Expand your thinking, make creative connections, and cherish every setback as an opportunity for eventual forward progress. It’s the side roads and dead ends which make learning both interesting and fruitful--enjoy diversions and make the most of them as it’s always easy to come back to the main road when it’s time.
作者│Gary Malmon
哈佛大学教育、人类发展和心理学硕士
威斯康星大学汉语言文学学士
赛酷雅科技有限公司全球市场战略VP
在华从事国际教育工作十余年，曾任北大附中美方校长等职务。
多年来他一直专注语言、文化、教育的融合，对中文教育有着很深刻的理解和独到的见解。
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