By Judy Willis MD
In today’s world, the skillsets of cognitive flexibility are more critical and valuable than ever before. These skillsets include:
- Open-minded evaluation of different opinions, perspectives, and points of view
- Willingness to risk mistakes
- Consideration of multiple ways to solve problems
- Engagement in learning, discovery, and problem solving with innovative creativity
My previous posts in this series described strategies to build students’ executive functions of organization, prioritizing, judgment, and critical analysis. In this post, I’ll suggest ways to activate your students’ developing neural networks of skillsets for cognitive flexibility. Students with these skillsets will be prepared to achieve their highest potentials for cognitive flexibility and the creative cognition to embrace the as-yet-unknown opportunities awaiting them in the 21st century.