Before We Teach Students to Solve Problems, Should We Teach Them to See the Problem?
My reflections on Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani’s latest Utusan Malaysia article — and why visual thinking matters even more in the age of AI
This week, my friend, partner and mentor Dr Ruzaimi Mat Rani published another thought-provoking article in Utusan Malaysia titled:
“PISA cemerlang: Ajar murid cara memvisualkan masalah.”
At first glance, the article is about education, PISA and how our students approach problem-solving.
But I believe the message goes much further.
It raises a question that applies not only to students, but also to adults, leaders, organisations — and increasingly, anyone working with Artificial Intelligence:
Can we solve a problem effectively if we cannot first make sense of the problem?
Visual is not just about drawing
Mention visual communication and many people immediately think about art.
“I cannot draw.”
“I am not creative.”
“My drawings are ugly.”
But that misses the point.
Visual thinking is not about producing a beautiful drawing.
It is about using simple visual elements to help our brain organise information and understand relationships.
A box.
An arrow.
A stick figure.
A timeline.
A circle around an important idea.
A simple comparison.
None of these requires artistic talent.
What they require is thought.
And that is precisely why drawing can become such a powerful thinking tool.
When the problem becomes visible, our thinking changes
Imagine receiving a complicated problem containing several people, events, numbers, conditions and possible outcomes.
We can keep everything in our heads.
Or we can put it on paper.
The moment we begin drawing the relationships, we may suddenly notice:
“That connects to this.”
“This information is missing.”
“These two things are actually separate problems.”
“This is the real bottleneck.”
“That assumption may be wrong.”
The drawing has not magically solved the problem.
It has helped us think about the problem differently.
That distinction is important.
This matters even more in the age of AI
Today we have another temptation.
Instead of struggling with the problem ourselves, we can simply open ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or another AI platform and type:
“Solve this for me.”
AI may give us an answer.
It may even give us a very convincing answer.
But there is a danger.
If we never understood the problem ourselves, how will we know whether the answer actually makes sense?
This is why I constantly emphasise in my AI training:
Think before prompting.
AI can help us analyse, organise, generate and accelerate.
But humans still need to understand the purpose, context and consequences.
One very practical way of doing this is to make our thinking visible before handing the task to AI.
Sketch the problem.
Map the people.
Draw the process.
Show the relationships.
Identify the desired outcome.
Then prompt.
The quality of the conversation with AI often improves because the quality of our own thinking has improved first.
From information consumers to problem solvers
Education cannot only be about helping students remember more information.
Information is everywhere.
AI can already retrieve, summarise and generate enormous amounts of it.
The more important capability is becoming:
What can you DO with information?
Can you understand it?
Can you connect ideas?
Can you identify what matters?
Can you see patterns?
Can you communicate your thinking?
Can you turn complexity into something understandable?
Can you solve a problem when there is no obvious answer?
These are fundamentally human capabilities.
And visual thinking can help develop them.
We should not wait until adulthood
I therefore agree strongly with the direction highlighted in Dr Ruzaimi’s article.
Imagine children becoming comfortable from an early age with taking a blank piece of paper and saying:
“Let me draw the problem first.”
Not because they want to become artists.
Because they want to become better thinkers.
Imagine that habit continuing into university, the workplace, entrepreneurship and leadership.
Before the meeting: draw the issue.
Before presenting: map the message.
Before making a decision: visualise the choices.
Before prompting AI: structure the problem.
That is a very different relationship with visualisation.
The bigger idea behind Profits from Visuals
This is also one of the ideas behind our book, Profits from Visuals — How Visuals Drive Profits for Individuals and Organisations.
The word profits is deliberately broader than money.
When people communicate more clearly, there is value.
When teams understand each other faster, there is value.
When a complicated idea becomes simple, there is value.
When someone sees a problem differently and discovers a solution, there is value.
And when a student develops the confidence to put an idea on paper and explain their thinking, there is tremendous value.
My takeaway
Perhaps improving education is not only about giving students more information.
Perhaps we also need to give them better ways of thinking about information.
And one of those ways can be surprisingly simple:
Pen. Paper. Think. Draw. See.
Because visual is not merely something we look at.
Visual can be how we think, how we communicate and how we solve problems.
And in a world increasingly powered by AI, I believe that deeply human ability will matter more, not less.
📖 Get a copy of Profits from Visuals
If you would like to explore how visual thinking and visual communication can improve the way we think, communicate, learn and solve problems, get in touch with me for a copy of:
Profits from Visuals — How Visuals Drive Profits for Individuals and Organisations
📩 Send me a DM/message and I’ll share the details.
Think Better → Work Smarter → Create Impact.
#ProfitsFromVisuals #VisualThinking #VisualCommunication #ProblemSolving #Education #FutureOfEducation #FutureOfLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #HumanCentredAI #VisualTeachers #VisualLeaders #ThinkBetter #WorkSmarter #CreateImpact
No comments:
Post a Comment