1. Deep Thinking & Deep Learning: Implications for Education
Garry Jacobs
CEO, World Academy of Art & Science
Chairman of the Board & CEO, World University Consortium
Vice-President, The Mother's Service Society

2. Deep Thinking
The creative process involved in changing conceptual systems. Also known as insight.
The capacity to move from one conceptual system to another is a key in the evolution of knowledge, characteristics of great discoveries and works of intellectual genius.
It is stimulated by incompatible and contradictory elements that do not fit within the existing framework.
It leads to development of new conceptual systems which reconcile the contradictions as complementary aspects of a wider truth.

3. Inherent Obstacles Mind’s quest for certainty
Centripetal force of security and inertia
Rational bias toward consistent facts and arguments
Implicit values and premises unquestionably accepted
Mind’s propensity to view reality from one perspective
Mistaking mental conceptions for reality

4. Deep Learning
We can and do learn how to change conceptual systems throughout our lives
Deep learning is person-centered, not subject-centered
Deep learning is only possible by independent thinking
Independent thinking is an expression of mental individuality
Individuality can only develop in freedom
Studying great intellectual discoveries and the resistance to them reveals the process of creative thinking

5. Steps in Deep Learning
Creation – constructing a conceptual system (CS)
Conflict – recognizing conflict
Consciousness – Making explicit underlying values and premises
Escape – moving beyond the boundaries of the CS
Ambiguity – embracing the tensions of uncertainty and ambiguity
Reconciliation – conceiving of alternatives that resolves conflict and embraces contradictions
Construction -- assembling elements of a new conceptual representation of the whole
Self-referencing – making explicit the values & premises of the new conception