March 29, 2019

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Podcast Recap (March 2019): Closing the Critical Thinking Gap and Igniting Your Character Strengths

The Psychology Podcast recap for March 2019

By Scott Barry Kaufman

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

This month at The Psychology Podcast we discussed how to close the critical thinking gap with Colin Seale and how to ignite your character strengths with Ryan Niemiec and Robert McGrath.

Closing the Critical Thinking Gap

“At a certain point, the outcome is the opportunity. We have to focus on the bottom line: what is it going to take to get kids ready?”— Colin Seale

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Colin Seale was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York to a single mother and an incarcerated father. He has always had a passion for educational equity. Tracked early into gifted and talented programs, Colin was afforded opportunities his neighborhood peers were not. He founded thinkLaw (www.thinkLaw.us), an award-winning organization to help educators leverage inquiry-based instructional strategies to close the critical thinking gap and ensure they teach and REACH all students, regardless of race, zipcode or what side of the poverty line they are born into. When he’s not serving as the world’s most fervent critical thinking advocate, Colin proudly serves as the world’s greatest entertainer to his two little kiddos and a loving husband to his wife Carrie.

In this episode we discuss:

  • Colin’s pragmatic approach to solving educational inequalities

  • The main goals of ThinkLaw

  • The benefit of people of different races talking about their common humanity

  • How we can have high expectations for every child

  • The twice exceptional movement

  • How we continuously lead genius on the table

  • The excellence gap in gifted education

  • Equality of opportunity vs. equality of outcome

  • The right kind of love

  • How the victory is in the struggle

  • Giving children a reason to have grit

  • Why we need to recognize disruptors as innovators

  • Creating the space for divergent thinkers

Ignite Your Character Strengths with Ryan Niemiec and Robert McGrath

Ryan Niemiec is an author or co-author of nine books, an award-winning psychologist, international keynoter, and education director of the VIA Institute on Character. Robert MGrath is Professor of Psychology at Farleigh Dickinson University, senior scientist at the VIA Institute, and has published extensively on the topic of character and virtue. Together, they are author of the new book, The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality. Find our your character strengths at viacharacter.org.

In this episode, we discuss the following:

  • What is a positive personality?

  • The measurement of character strengths

  • Why are so many people interested in learning about their character strengths?

  • How self-knowledge can impact people positively in their lives

  • The difference between virtue and character

  • The three main sources of a good character

  • Is it possible to have a perfect character?

  • Does the perfectly virtuous person exist?

  • Is enlightenment actually possible?

  • The developmental trajectory of character strengths

  • Is the development of character strengths for everybody, including those experiencing adversity?

Rights & Permissions

Scott Barry Kaufman is a humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential. He has taught courses on intelligence, creativity and well-being at Columbia University, N.Y.U., the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. He hosts the Psychology Podcast and is author and/or editor of nine books, including Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (with Carolyn Gregoire), and Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. Find out more at http://ScottBarryKaufman.com. In 2015 he was named one of "50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world" by Business Insider. He wrote the extremely popular Beautiful Minds blog for Scientific American for close to a decade. Follow him on X.

More by Scott Barry Kaufman

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