A Comparative Study on Teaching Thinking from Two Perspectives: Farid ud-Din Attar and Mathew Lipman

The present study was an attempt to investigate whether the Iranian influential scholars who cultivated the culture of the country have practiced teaching thinking through dialogic technique or have overlooked it. By comparing Farid ud-Din Attar’s dialogic style in Mantiqu ''t-Tayr، (The Conference of the Birds) with Mathew Lipman’s teaching thinking components، it was perceived that Attar’s teaching technique in the seventh century was very close to that of Lipman’s. It is worth mentioning that the definition of child in the universal convention which asserts that a child is a human less than 18 years of age was adopted in this comparative study; however، from mystics’ perspective، a child is defined as an immature and inexperienced person، the definition which is closer to that of the p4c child. Attar and Lipman، as the study signified، not only shared ideas about teaching (philosophy) and its objectives (enhancing thinking ability and free decision making)، but also had common preferences for teaching styles; they both used story and dialogue as techniques in teaching. Additionally، the study revealed that teaching thinking and philosophy could result in change of behavior.