Part One: Expanding the Scope of Perception: Breadth

This section helps direct thinking toward connecting problems with solutions, alternatives, and objectives, instead of relying on emotional reactions or becoming biased toward one's own ideas. This develops social intelligence and improves interaction among different parties.

It includes the following ten tools:

Tool 1: PMI — Plus / Minus / Interesting

Students learn to examine three aspects:

First: Positive — the benefits resulting from the idea.

Second: Negative — the disadvantages resulting from the idea.

Third: Interesting — the attractive or intriguing aspects of the idea.

This prevents immediate acceptance or rejection and hasty decision-making. It helps students avoid bias or impulsive acceptance/rejection of ideas and move away from emotion-driven thinking.

As a result, students become less rigid or biased in acceptance and rejection. It trains them in flexible thinking and helps them avoid intolerance and extremism.

Example: Traveling to Sinai for recreation one week before exams.

• Positive: Recreation before the pressure of exams may open the mind and improve readiness for studying.

• Negative: The trip may reduce the amount of time available for studying.

• Interesting: Sinai is a historical land associated with important religious and historical events, and it would be a new experience.

Exercise 1: Identify the positive, negative, and interesting aspects of learning a programming language.

Exercise 2: Identify the positive, negative, and interesting aspects of traveling to Paris for a summer vacation.

Exercise 3: Identify the positive, negative, and interesting aspects of learning a sport such as swimming or karate.

Tool 2: CAF — Consider All Factors

Students learn to explore every new situation by examining all factors, rather than focusing only on the obvious factors that first appear.

This encourages students to pause and reflect on the underlying factors within a phenomenon or problem they are trying to solve, rather than considering only what is visible. Matters are often more complex than they initially appear; otherwise, discoveries and inventions would be available to everyone without the need for observation and reflection.

Example: Liking the color of a particular pair of trousers without considering its quality, size, price, or suitability to social norms.

Exercise 1: List all factors that should be considered when buying a new game.

Exercise 2: List all factors teachers should consider when explaining lessons in the classroom.

Exercise 3: List all factors that should be considered when choosing a color to paint the house.

Tool 3: Rules

Students use the two previous skills to examine laws and factors and take them into consideration when establishing rules that help them implement their ideas.

Before creating rules, it is necessary to consider their advantages and disadvantages while taking into account all factors that may influence the formulation of the rule.

Example: Suppose we are considering how to ensure students' discipline in the classroom. What rules and regulations should be established to ensure that students remain disciplined and do not cause disruption?

Examples might include:

• Prohibiting entry after the teacher has arrived.

• Escalating repeated behavioral issues to the social worker for follow-up.

• Preventing attendance for two consecutive classes in cases of disruptive behavior and notifying the parents.

Exercise 1: What rule would you establish for the family to maintain a clean home?

Exercise 2: What rule would you establish for managing the family's weekend?

Exercise 3: What rule would you propose to organize traffic in your neighborhood?

Tool 4: C&S — Consequences and Sequels

Explanation

This tool directs students' attention to the immediate, short-term, medium-term, and long-term consequences of any action, plan, or decision.

It is important to understand when results are expected to materialize. We should not judge a solution as a failure simply because it has not produced results immediately. Instead, results should be considered over the short, medium, and long term.

In addition, as we continue along a particular path, the idea may require complementary actions or supporting elements. We need to recognize these in advance before moving forward and encountering them unexpectedly.

Example: Buying a new house in a quiet, remote area.

Consequences:

• Short-term: The children may need to use a school bus.

• Medium-term: The children's schools may need to be changed, and there may be a need to find employment in the same region.

• Long-term: Long-term implications should also be considered, such as effects on education, career, and lifestyle.

Sequels / complementary requirements:

• Painting the house.

• Buying a car to facilitate transportation.

Exercise 1: What are the immediate, medium-term, and long-term consequences of not maintaining a healthy diet?

Exercise 2: What are the immediate, medium-term, and long-term consequences of being constantly nervous or irritable?

Exercise 3: What are the immediate, medium-term, and long-term consequences of not adhering to religious teachings?

Tool 5: AGO — Aims, Goals, Objectives

Explanation

This tool helps students clarify their own goals and the goals of others.

The search for ideas should be goal-oriented, rather than open-ended without a clear understanding of the desired outcome. It also helps students distinguish between actions that arise from a clear objective and mere reactions.

Example: The goal is to prevent disruption in the classroom so that class time is used effectively and students' academic achievement improves. Therefore, all proposed ideas and rules should be connected to this objective.

Exercise 1: Clarify the objectives of teamwork within the school.

Exercise 2: Clarify the parents' objective in encouraging their children to participate in sports.

Exercise 3: Clarify the objective of going to school every day.

Tool 6: Planning

Explanation

In this tool, students learn how to establish practical steps.

The purpose is not merely to create a timetable for implementing ideas, but to develop a practical plan based on the previous tools that enables the student to achieve the desired objectives.

This requires integrating the previous elements together rather than leaving them as scattered ideas, while establishing priorities and coordinating them.

Example: A student identifies the steps required to prepare for a trip, including selecting the destination, estimating the cost, preparing suitable clothing, and completing the necessary arrangements until returning home.

Exercise 1: What is the school's plan for developing low-performing students?

Exercise 2: What is the national team's plan for preparing to qualify for the World Cup?

Exercise 3: What is your plan to achieve academic excellence during the current or coming academic year?

Tool 7: FIP — First Important Priorities

Explanation

In this tool, students learn how to organize the different priorities among the ideas they generate, determine the best sequence, and identify the most appropriate criteria for prioritization.

This protects individuals, students, employees, and managers from moving in a particular direction without understanding its consequences or from allowing less important matters to take precedence over more important ones.

The same principle applies to companies when deciding implementation priorities. For example: should the company first reduce product cost by lowering the price, improve quality, or expand the product into other countries to overcome challenges in the current market?

Example: What should a student prioritize when studying?

• Theoretical or practical subjects?

• Subjects in which the student is weak, in order to improve them?

• Or subjects in which the student is strong, in order to complete them quickly?

• Subjects with the highest weighting in the final grade or those with lower weighting?

Exercise 1: What are your priorities among the subjects you need to study for your final exams?

Exercise 2: What are the family's priorities when spending the monthly income?

Exercise 3: Determine your priorities when establishing a small school-based food-preparation business.

Tool 8: Alternatives, Possibilities and Choices

Explanation

In this tool, students attempt to identify different alternatives to the ideas they initially developed for solving problems.

This develops the habit of avoiding rushed decisions and encourages the search for different alternatives. Sometimes the correct solution is among the alternatives that were not the first idea to come to mind.

New ideas may emerge by combining alternatives, eliminating elements, strengthening one option, or reducing another. This strongly contributes to expanding perception and moving deliberately toward achieving the objective.

Example: How can we travel to Alexandria?

• Private car

• Taxi

• Private transport

• Train

• Airplane

The choice among these alternatives should be based on the tools used previously. We examine the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative from different perspectives, including:

• Speed

• Cost

• Risk

• Convenience

• Ability to achieve the objective

The chosen means must actually take us to the desired destination, as the selected transportation option may not reach the exact location required.

Exercise 1: What alternatives are available for balancing exercise and school, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Exercise 2: What alternatives are available for moving to a new home, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Exercise 3: What alternatives are available for spending the weekend, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Tool 9: Decisions

Results and Decisions

Explanation

Here, students summarize the ideas they have reached and formulate them as decisions that guide them toward taking action rather than pursuing other alternatives.

These decisions can then be divided into:

• Short-term

• Medium-term

• Long-term

At this stage, students should establish criteria for comparing the alternatives identified in the previous tool, so that they can reach the most appropriate decision and move closer to implementation.

Example: In the previous example, the criteria for comparison might be:

1. Cost

2. Comfort and speed

3. Ability to move around locally

These criteria may lead to choosing a private car because it meets most or all of these requirements.

Exercise 1: Which option would you choose to balance exercise and school, and why?

Exercise 2: Which option would you choose for moving to a new home, and why?

Exercise 3: Which option would you choose for spending the weekend, and why?

Tool 10: Other People's Views

Explanation

This tool differs from considering alternatives. Here, the focus is on understanding the views of other relevant parties involved in an issue or problem, such as colleagues, managers, ministries, or other countries.

This prevents us from becoming trapped in one-sided thinking or relying solely on our own perspective, which may lead to self-centered thinking.

It promotes integrated thinking that increases the chances of success and completeness by examining the idea from different perspectives and involving the relevant people. This also opens opportunities for teamwork and encourages a collaborative spirit in problem-solving and research.

However, involving people who are not relevant to the issue may waste time. Therefore, consideration should be given primarily to the views of relevant stakeholders, so that time is not wasted and the objective is not lost.

Example:

Parents may believe that students should work hard and study diligently to achieve a better future. Some children, however, may believe that studying has little value and that developing a skill such as football could eventually provide opportunities comparable to those achieved through academic excellence.

Exercise 1: Explore the parents' views on balancing exercise and school, identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each approach while considering all factors that contribute to achieving the objective.

Exercise 2: Explore your siblings' views on moving to a new home, identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each while considering all factors that contribute to achieving the objective.

Exercise 3: Explore the views of colleagues and friends on how to spend the weekend, identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each while considering all factors that contribute to achieving the objective.

Summary of the Ten Tools

We should give ourselves enough time for each of the following:

• Explanation

• Examples

• Thinking through the exercises

This should be done individually and together with our sons and daughters.

This is the real intended outcome of the course: learning the principles of thinking, practicing them, and then practicing them again and again.

Exercise 1: What additional tools could be added?

Exercise 2: Which tools have little or no value?

Exercise 3: Which tools could be combined?

Exercise 4: Which tools should be separated from one another?