He has been thinking about the problem of learning for over three decades, starting with courses in problem solving that he taught at the University of California, Irvine, and then with artificial intelligence systems that Xerox built for the Army to better troubleshoot broken electronics.

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Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa in their great book Academically Adrift have taken data from a respectable indicator of critical thinking and problem solving skills, the Collegiate Learning Assessment, as well as the National Survey of Student Engagement and have concluded, roughly, that typically students neither work very hard nor learn very much.

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They are teaching this in the classroom, and encouraging the application of innovative thinking, experiential learning, and team problem solving to business, technology and social problems and issues.

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For the past 15 years Brown has been on an advisory board to the government of Singapore, which has mandated that schools move from rote learning to group problem solving.

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Living Maths gives young children fun problem-solving activities like bingo, math shows, that form the basis of learning math when they get older.

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