Authored by John Snell, Open Minds Education Expert, & UK Head Teacher and Education...
Open Minds Foundation
Stop Mandated Shunning: announcement
As a board member of the "Open Minds Foundation”, I am co-founding the "Stop Mandated...
Developing critical thinking in primary schools, with the Open Minds Foundation
Victoria Petkovic-Short, Executive Director for the Open Minds Foundation leads a short webinar...
Developing critical thinking through play
In the UK, children aged between 4 and 11 typically spend around 32.5 hours a week in school. Much...
How individuals can avoid sharing mis- and disinformation
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024, misinformation and...
The Martyr Complex and Conspiracy Theorists
A narcissistic martyr is motivated in their excessively sacrificial actions by their desire for praise, admiration, and gratitude.
The global risk of misinformation and disinformation
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024, misinformation and...
How to SCAMPER
A 2017 study published by Stanford found that people typically fall into two groups – vertical...
November news recap
The trending topics in recent weeks put disinformation front and centre, especially in the context...
The importance of debate for critical thinking
Critical thinking is a key skill that should be taught to, and refreshed in, people of all ages....
The impact of social media on critical thinking
Social media can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be a tool used to spread misinformation and...
Inversion: the critical thinking style that can drive fresher idea generation.
Critical thinking is an ever-evolving discipline and inversion is a style of thinking that can...
The Importance of School Values
Authored by John Snell, Open Minds Education Expert, & UK Head Teacher and Education...
Is Meta doing enough to protect WhatsApp users against misinformation?
While credible news posts tend to trickle onto timelines in a steady stream, studies show...
Misinformation Susceptibility Test
Psychologists at the University of Cambridge have developed the first validated “misinformation...
Developing Rules for Positive Behaviour in Primary Schools
Authored by John Snell, Open Minds Education Expert, & UK Head Teacher and Education...
April news recap
AI platforms, the impacts of misinformation, and geopolitical tensions have been the trending...
Open Minds Foundation: progress update
In the last six weeks, we've made two significant leaps in bringing our critical thinking...
Narrative laundering: the new face of disinformation
Narrative laundering has become the latest tool for spreading disinformation, seeking to sow...
Report highlights AI is extremely fallible
A new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has found that AI Chatbots can be...
March news recap
For the last few weeks, fake news, misinformation, and disinformation have been heavily featured...
The power of prebunking against coercive control
In the fight to improve critical thinking, organizations are highlighting the value of...
How to dodge fake news…
Fake news is a problem. It pervades our consumption of media, and we live in a society that...
February News Recap
Technology topped the charts of news in early 2023, with the grand reveal of Artificial...
We all need media literacy, more than ever!
50 years ago, “media” comprised the regular newspapers as well as selected radio and TV...
Thinking outside the box – developing deeper thinking in schools
Authored by John Snell, Open Minds Education Expert, & UK Head Teacher and Education...
Lower ability in the classroom – fact or fiction?
Authored by John Snell, Open Minds Education Expert Having worked in schools for over 25 years,...
Are algorithms affecting how we think?
It is no secret that the majority of modern media platforms exist and operate thanks to...
Art or lies? Does television contribute to misinformation?
One television programme coming under fire currently is The Crown on Netflix, which taps into a...
Is modern media killing critical thinking?
Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, we can now see exactly how many hours and minutes we...
Supporting children with their wellbeing
Authored by John Snell, Open Minds Education Expert There is a wealth of information and data...
Tackling the rising tide of misinformation
In a world where the 2016 Oxford Dictionaries word of the year was “post-truth” pertaining to...
Critical thinking: simple strategies promise significant gains
[Opinion piece] There is growing research supporting not only the personal value of improved...
The power of lateral reading
How we consume and read content has changed, in large part because the way that content is...
A license to kill people socially
Authored by Patrick Haeck [This blog provides an update to Patrick's previous experience in a...
The meaning between the words
When considering our tendency to “Truth Bias”, it is no surprise that what people say, and how the...
The role of “illusory truth” in misinformation
Building on the notion of truth bias, the illusory truth effect (ITE) demonstrates the crucialness...
Why we believe in truth and honesty, even when we shouldn’t
There is a phenomenon called “truth bias” which leads us to believe people are telling us the...
Jehovah’s Witnesses appeal: shunning is a crime
Following success in the courts of Belgium in getting religious shunning recognised as a crime, a...
Critical thinking: is Estonia offering a model education system?
Authored by Educational Leader John Snell, UK Headteacher, & advisor to the Open Minds...
Do you know the signs of gaslighting?
If a friend, colleague, or family member starts to change their behaviour, then it could be a sign...
White Supremacists on Trial: racial radicalisation in the US
On 11 August 2017 the “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally began in Charlottesville,...
That statistic: is it true?
Authored by Victoria Petkovic-Short When you see a claim backed up by statistics, how do you know...
The problem with statistics…
A statistic is defined as “a fact or piece of data obtained from a study of a large quantity of...
The key to eliminating coercion, lies in critical thinking
Author: Richard Kelly | January 2022 The mission for the Open Minds Foundation is “to create...
Critical thinking: a practical group exercise for the classroom
Tackling the challenge of classroom groupthink One of the core challenges of working with young...
Coercion at its Worst: Religious Mandated SHUNNING
By Patrick Haeck | January 2022 One of the most onerous forms of coercive control is mandated...
What is confirmation bias?
Confirmation bias (also referred to as myside bias) is a broad term encompassing a number of...
Combatting misinformation with the rule of five
Hands up who has a favourite news resource that they refer to? It could be a news website, a...
Critical Thinking in Primary Schools
Authored by John Snell Developing critical thinking skills in primary schools can appear to be a...
The power of propaganda and how to fight it
Under scrutiny until at least January 2022, the oldest defendant to stand trial so far will be...
What is groupthink?
Groupthink occurs when a group of people reach full consensus on an issue or decision, without...
Welcome to Open Minds 2.0
Following our very gentle relaunch last week, we’ve been overwhelmed with the response, comments,...