Critical Thinking for Effective Teaching and Learning
Publisher: Research Publishing Services
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Singapore
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9789810848927
Description: This book will be very useful for anyone who is interested in the area of thinking skills, critical thinking skills, and various issues pertaining to the development of such cognitive processes. The book is organised into two distinct yet interconnected parts.

The first part of the book, Conceptualisation, explores the definitions of various big issues, as well as the inter-connection of various knowledge constructs within the scope of developing and teaching thinking skills. For example, I seek to address the question such as: “Are thinking skills and critical thinking skills teachable?” “How are thinking skills related to the construct of intelligence and learning?” “What does it mean to be a thinking/thoughtful teacher?” “What approaches can a teacher (or anyone who see themselves as teacher) adopt in order to bring thoughtfulness into their instructional environment?” etc. I have attempted to bring together the gems of thoughts from the thinking Gurus of the past 20 years or so. These ideas will help you, the readers, to form a comprehensive perspective on “thinking” and “thinking instruction”.

The second part of the book, Developing Thoughtfulness, revolves around a research project investigating the effect of a thinking programme, the Cognitive Infusion Module, on critical thinking skills and dispositions of a group of pre-service teachers. The theoretical framework and principles underpinning the programme are carefully spelled out in this second part of the book. Although the research was done on adult participants, the implication of the findings can be far-reaching; as in turn, the student teachers were working with young children. Observations were made on the latter and the impacts of infusing thinking skills from the onset of the teacher-as-the-learner to teacher-as-the-educator are explored.