Teaching for Critical Thinking Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions

by Brookfield, Stephen D.

• ISBN13: 9780470889343
• ISBN10: 0470889349
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-11-15
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

In Teaching for Critical Thinking, Stephen Brookfield builds on his last three decades of experience running workshops and teaching courses on critical thinking to explore how student learn to think this way, and what teachers can do the help students develop this capacity. He outlines a basic protocol of critical thinking as a learning process that focuses on uncovering and checking assumptions, exploring alternative perspectives, and taking informed actions as a result. Written to address the broad range of disciplines, this book fosters a shared understanding of critical thinking and helps to various constituencies adapt general principles to specific disciplinary contexts.

Author Biography

Stephen D. Brookfield is Distinguished University Professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For forty years he has taught in the United States and abroad. A four-time winner of the Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education, he is the author of numerous books on teaching, including The Skillful Teacher and Developing Critical Thinkers.

Table of Contents

Preface vii
About the Author	p. xvii
What Is Critical Thinking?	p. 1
Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines	p. 27
How Critical Thinking Is Learned	p. 53
Introducing Basic Protocols of Critical Thinking	p. 77
Developing Critical Complexity: Intermediate and Advanced Protocols	p. 105
Reading and Writing Critically	p. 129
Integrating Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum	p. 155
Making Discussions Critical	p. 179
Misunderstandings, Challenges, and Risks	p. 205
Modeling Critical Thinking	p. 233
References	p. 261
Index	p. 269
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