Critical thinking--every scholar in the literature has defined it, but
there is no clearly agreed upon definition. No wonder polls and surveys
reveal that few college-level faculty can define critical thinking or
know how to teach it. Still, critical thinking keeps appearing in
accreditation standards and surveys of the skills employers seek in
college graduates.
The good news is that we do know that critical thinking can be taught.
But the concept cries out for the simplification, translation into
discipline-relevant course outcomes, tangible teaching strategies, and
concrete assessment techniques that this book will provide.
Like a course or a workshop, this book proposes learning outcomes for
the reader--promises of what the reader will be able to do after reading
it. These include:
- explain what critical thinking is in simple terms;
- convincingly explain to students why it is important for them to learn
critical thinking, and, if they tune out, what they stand to lose;
- overcome the challenges that teaching critical thinking presents;
- identify the type of course content to which critical thinking can be
applied and, therefore, that readers can use to teach critical
thinking;
- integrate critical thinking into the design of a new or existing
course in any discipline;
- write assessable critical thinking learning outcomes that are
compatible with and make sense in any discipline;
- select and adapt activities and assignments that will give students
no- or low-stakes practice with feedback in critical thinking using a
variety of questions, tasks, and teaching methods.
