In order to help society prepare for this future, our Vision is: "Thinking at Every Desk". We founded ThinkWorks because we saw a need to develop thinking skills. We saw it all around us. In society at-large, in our own university students, and in our research. As research scientists, we know that our students are better prepared for an uncertain future if we focus more on "how to think" than "what to think".

Four Universal Patterns of Thinking Underlie 21st Century Thinking Skills

The demands of the 21st Century point to the need for a kind of “amphibious” thinker. Someone who is: as cognitive as they are emotionally capable, as analytical as they are creative, and as specialized as they are interdisciplinary. 21st Century Thinking™ skills include:

• Critical Thinking: to analyze, deconstruct, and evaluate ideas,
• Creative Thinking: to construct new ideas and lines of thought,
• Systems Thinking: to understand complex patterns in context,
• Scientific Thinking: to observe, hypothesize, predict,and validate with evidence,
• Interdisciplinary Thinking: to unify, transfer, synthesize, and integrate, and
• Prosocial/Emotional Thinking: to build relationships through compassion, concern, and shared experience.

Research in education and cognitive science shows that we don't "get" knowledge from other people like one computer transfers a file from another. Instead, we actively "build" knowledge. Even when we are being taught by an expert, we are constructing new knowledge independently. This is the difference between the old paradigm of thinking and learning, called instruction, and the new paradigm, called construction. Our products and trainings are informed by our scientific research in cognitive science, psychology, and education that reveals four universal patterns that underlie the construction of all ideas. In order to develop 21st Century Thinkers, educators must focus on these four universal thinking processes called the Patterns of Thinking™ Method: 

• Make Distinctions: Compare and contrast between similarities and opposites and test boundaries and meanings,
• Construct Systems: Sort, nest, and categorize using part-whole thinking,
• Recognize Relationships: Make connections, interactions, associations, and cause & effect explicit, and
• Take Perspectives: See new possibilities from different points-of-view.

People who can think will thrive.

ThinkWorks is the leading provider of educational products and training services for teaching thinking skills in schools and organizations. All of our products and services are based on scientific research developed at Cornell University by Dr. Derek Cabrera. Our customers include K-12 teachers, college professors, corporate leaders, teams, and specialists in a variety of industries ranging from schools to management consulting firms.

At ThinkWorks, our motto is "cogito ergo vigeo!". It means "Think and Thrive." We've been busy developing new products, new workshops, and new ideas that will transform your ability to teach thinking skills. From Pre K to PhD, from classrooms to corporations, those who learn to think, will thrive.