We have been delivering workshops and training for over 25 years, working with schools, teachers, and students across more than 100 countries. That experience means we know what works, what teachers actually need, and how to make critical thinking feel relevant and urgent rather than abstract.

Challenging your own assumptions about the world is one of the hardest things you will ever do, but the rewards are profound. Whether you are a high school student, a parent, an educator, or a working professional, developing the habit of thinking more independently and more honestly about the world will change the way you engage with it.

Our approach to critical thinking has been informed by many key thinkers, among them John Stuart Mill, Julia Galef, Alex Edmans, and Sir Ken Robinson. Each has shaped the way we think about what authentic critical thinking means, and what it looks like in practice.

John Stuart Mill’s observation that “he who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that” is the founding principle of ACT. Julia Galef’s distinction between scout and soldier mentalities develops this further, and her insight that scouts are people whose self-worth is not tied to being right is, for us, one of the most important ideas in education.

Alex Edmans (see video) reminds us that critical thinking is not an elite skill reserved for specialists. “We often have the discerning skills already within ourselves,” he argues. “We just need to overcome our biases and deploy them.” Sir Ken Robinson’s insistence that education must be personalised rather than standardised underpins our entire approach to ACT as a framework for developing genuinely independent minds.

All of these thinkers feature directly in our full-length courses and mini-lessons. We believe that if an idea is not engaging enough to share with students, it should not be driving our pedagogy.