Product Description
Learning how to be critical and think for one's self are key development steps in the education process. Developing critical thinking is vital for supporting children to become independent learners.

This fun, practical book is very easy to use in the classroom and is designed to help children:

• Understand key critical thinking concepts.
• Develop critical thinking skills.
• Understand different types of reasoning and knowledge in all areas of the curriculum.
• Draw on their natural wonder and curiosity to engage in philosophical discussion.
• Develop reasoning skills in relation to moral dilemmas and the choices of every day life.

The activities and resources include both subject specific and cross-curricular links and are differentiated for Key Stage 1 and 2. There are also extension activities for enthusiastic, gifted and talented children. ... Read more

Product Description
By introducing current debates in the field of critical thinking and posing new questions from contributing scholars, Critical Thinking and Learning examines the received wisdom in the field of critical thinking and learning.

• Examines the different perspectives in the field of critical thinking and learning
• Provides insights into critical thinking by posing new questions from contributing authors
• Introduces cross-cultural viewpoints into the dominant 'western'-based educational viewpoint
• Highlights differences among a variety of thinkers in the field

Product Description
The concepts of autonomy and of critical thinking play a central role in many contemporary accounts of the aims of education. This book analyses their relationship to each other and to education, exploring their roles in mortality and politics before examining the role of critical thinking in fulfilling the educational aim of preparing young people for autonomy. The author analyses different senses of the terms 'autonomy' and 'critical thinking' and the implications for education. Implications of the discussion for contemporary practice are also considered. ... Read more

Product Description
This book will familiarize the reader with the basics of critical thinking and informal logic — deductive and inductive arguments, form and content, fallacies, and complex arguments.
Following a brief introduction, Chapter 1 outlines the basic concepts and principles of informal logic. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on deductive and inductive reasoning (analogical and statistical) and include a discussion of validity, soundness and cogency. Chapter 4 presents rhetorical devices and informal fallacies. Chapter 5 discusses strategies and tactics for the evaluation of complex argumentation. Chapter 6 provides an overview that includes a guide to good critical thinking habits, a discussion of the composition and development of argumentative essays, and an introduction to information literacy. Appendices include a synopsis of categorical logic and resources for additional study. The book includes diagrams and external hyperlinks.
Tim Crews-Anderson, took his BA at the Florida State University and his MA at Georgia State University, where he also taught as a Visiting Instructor. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"In a succinct and precise manner, Crews-Anderson's Critical Thinking faithfully renders topics traditionally found in informal logic- deductive and inductive arguments, form and content, fallacies, complex arguments, and others. What is not traditional is Crews-Anderson's innovative approach- by treating thought as a kind of action, and by explaining argument evaluation as a combination of analysis and interpretation, it is made exceptionally clear to introductory level students how and why they need to apply critical thinking to their everyday lives."--Dr. Sandra Dwyer, Georgia State University
... Read more

Product Description
According to John Hick's model of religious pluralism, all the world's great religions are equally valid ways of understanding and responding to the ultimate spiritual reality. This book offers an exposition of, and critical response to, John Hick's model. Introducing the various interpretations of religious diversity being discussed today, the book presents constructive suggestions as to how current ideas could be further developed to offer a more accurate presentation of the various options in the theology of religions. The standard threefold typology of responses to religious diversity - exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism - are explained and defended. Hick's pluralist interpretation of religious diversity is traced, culminating in a critical assessment of Hick's pluralistic model and a summary of a variety of critiques directed toward Hick's proposal. Paul Rhodes Eddy concludes that Hick's present model is ultimately unsuccessful in overcoming the pluralist's most difficult conceptual problem - providing an adequate account of the fact that the world's religions understand the divine in often contradictory ways.Ultimately, Hick's own solution threatens two of his long-cherished goals: a robust religious realism and a consistent religious pluralism. ... Read more

Product Description

Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide is a much-needed guide to argument analysis and a clear introduction to thinking clearly and rationally for oneself. Through precise and accessible discussion this book equips students with the essential skills required to tell a good argument from a bad one.

Key features of the book are:

• Clear, jargon-free discussion of key concepts in argumentation
• How to avoid common confusions surrounding words such as ‘truth’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘opinion’
• How to identify and evaluate the most common types of argument
• How to spot fallacies in arguments and tell good reasoning from bad
• Chapter summaries, glossaries and useful exercises

This third edition has been revised and updated throughout, with new exercises, and up-to-date topical examples, including: ‘real-world’ arguments; practical reasoning; understanding quantitative data, statistics, and the rhetoric used about them; scientific reasoning; and expanded discussion of conditionals, ambiguity, vagueness, slippery slope arguments, and arguments by analogy.

The Routledge Critical Thinking companion website, features a wealth of further resources, including examples and case studies, sample questions, practice questions and answers, and student activities.

Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide is essential reading for anyone, student or professional, at work or in the classroom, seeking to improve their reasoning and arguing skills.

Customer Reviews (4)

The Book the Illuminati Does Not Want You To Read
There is a certain ironic reason for why I term this book 'the book the Illuminati does not want you to read'.
This is a truly wonderful piece of work - and it is aiding me extremely much in my spiritual development and not just in that area but most importantly my social life and what is going on in the material world around me. People like the authors of this book are blessed with the power to affect change on a global scale.
I wish I could call this book a miracle - but I think that'd be an overstatement. This book does not only belong to every modern day philosopher's shelf but also to every shelf of a practicing magician who wishes to embrace the concept of the sinister. For it is there where we find the true state of our being and where each one of us must go in the end to reach further.

Excellent Introduction to an essential topic
As a student returning to school after a long absence, I felt I needed to brush up on some essential skills. Chief among these is critical thinking, as its use impacts everything we read, hear, and see to some extent. This book is an excellent introduction; it is clearly written, with each successive idea built firmly upon the previous ones. The authors use a minimum of jargon, and make no assumptions as to the reader's prior knowledge of logic or argument theory.
I now have a command of the basic principles and terminology, and find myself making better arguments. More importantly, I can now spot flawed arguments as well as fallacies and rhetorical ploys that make up so much of public and political discourse. I expect to refer back to it many times in coming years.

Clear explanations but a little long- winded
As a student studying philosophy at Glasgow University i found this book well laid out and it gave clear explanations to the topics presented. However, i also found the particular explantions were very long which was simply not needed. The question section was also useful for tutorial work but not for studying because it did not have answers included. This was very unhelpful and it makes the section quite pointless becuase you do not know whether you are correct or not.

Clear and readable
An excellent book: well written, clear, and helpful. I felt I learned quite a lot despite having done a fair amount of prior reading in philosophical logic and rhetoric. ... Read more

Product Description

This book proceeds from CT in everyday life to sophisticated critical thinking in academic fields, with chapters which clearly outline the types of evidence in science, the social sciences, and the humanities. Unlike most other books, it offers a clear description of CT as the comparison of formulas of CT. Chapter topics include issue, conclusion, and reason; how to create alternative arguments; deciding to accept an argument; assumptions and implications; prescriptions; deliberations; experiment, correlation, and speculation; and problem solving by way of review. For a lifetime of thinking critically, reading the good arguments of others, and creating your own—across a wide spectrum of subjects.

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Guide
Connie Missimer's Good Arguments is the best book I know of to teach beginning argumentation to college freshmen and sophomores.It is clear, elegant, and sharp.I especially like the way she outlines the skeleton ofan argument, using thesis, evidence, and implications as crucial aspects ofthe structure.

I have used the book on several occasions as a collegetextbook and it has proved its worth.Although it is quite expensive,every page is smart and clear, and students really learn from it.

I wishthat there was just a little bit more humor in the book, and perhaps someillustrations.It is quite dry for young people who have short attentionspans.I have to push them through it, and use the book with othermaterials such as comic strips and jokes to lighten up the rigorous andsustained ideas which Missimer presents.

-- Kirby Olson, Ph.D. ... Read more

Product Description
In this book, Alec Fisher aims to teach directly an important range of thinking skills. The skills are fundamental critical (and creative) thinking skills, and they are taught in a way which expressly aims to facilitate their transfer to other subjects and other contexts. The method is to use 'thinking maps' which help improve thinking by asking key questions of students when they are faced with different types of problems. Alec Fisher explains the language of reasoning, how to understand different kinds of arguments and how to ask the right question. Other topics include: different patterns of reasoning and standards which apply in different contexts, how to clarify and interpret ideas, how to judge the credibility of claims, and how to decide whether a person really justifies their conclusions, given their audience. Particular attention is given to understanding casual explanations and evaluating decisions. THe book includes many examples and exercises which give extensive practice in developing critico-creative thinking skills. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Useful resource for sharpening your thinking
Easy to understand with fun exercises. It's even more enjoyable if read aloud with a friend. The format is a little awkward (turning to the back of the book for certain examples and passages, and yet another section for suggested answers to exercises.) Worth a read.

Critical Thinking
I would not recommend this book to anyone.I wanted to learn about critical thinking.I am a non-traditional college student working on a Masters Degree.I thought this subject would help me in my approach to school and getting an education.I was hoping it would help me in thinking deeper, reasoning, debate, and decision making in each subject I student in Human Resource Management.However, I found the author to be biased and unable to convey the subject in an educational format.Instead, he appears to attempt to inflect his own biased philosophical opinions in this book which I found do not reflect this subject of critical thinking.

Why oh, why? So little doing Critical Thinking itself
I expected a clear book, with many examples explaining how to think critically.
Instead this is written like a book for teachers who already have a background in the subject. Seriously I just did not find this book so useful.
The 'thinking maps' were good, the beginning section and explaining structures of arguments.
The rest I really find useless.
There are not many 'full on' Questions which train you.
I would like to see more analytical work, less time spent on long definitions.
I suggest you look some where else for a more serious and clear book about critical thinking.

I really liked this one.
I've been educating myself with a number of books on Critical Thinking in order to improve my overall thinking, and by applying the techniques and principles to other areas of study - to utimately become a more effective learner. I enjoyed this book for several reasons - the book is very well written, it follows the curriculum of the AS level Critical thinking. The examples and exercises in the book where engaging, well chosen and modern. The skills are highly transferable to other areas, and are taught explicitly. I'm using this book in conjunction with Thinking Skills by J Butterworth and the Art of Reasoning by David Kelly. I'm still absorbing the skills of Critical thinking, since it is a highly practical skill- and hopefully I'll reap the benefits in due course. The journey to becoming a more effective critical thinker is most enjoyable when you encounter a book like this.

A Must-Read for Anyone Invovled in Decision-Making
This book is a real eye-opener, and delves into practical matters regarding how to "reason." It leaves out, technicalities and reduces the ideas to the level an everyday person can comprehend.
(Nwankama Nwankama, Intelligence Analyst) ... Read more

Product Description
The Vocabulary of Critical Thinking offers an innovative way to improve students' thinking skills. It begins at a practical level by helping students master the crucial terms that are the building blocks of critical thinking--terms such as "generalization," "inferring," "to confirm," "justifying," "assumption," and others. The book provides hundreds of short, accessible readings that illustrate the concepts and related thinking skills. It explains in a step-by-step fashion how students can perform the specific skills themselves.

Organized around nine basic skills--including comparing, generalizing, inferring, judging sources, experimenting, making value judgments, defining terms, assuming, and thinking creatively--The Vocabulary of Critical Thinking walks students through definitions, explanations, and applications of 108 words. Each chapter is comprised of four parts. The first part establishes a solid foundation by defining six or seven words related to one skill. The second part gives interesting real-world examples (from books and newspapers) that illustrate the concepts. The third part includes exercises allowing students to analyze a writer's arguments and thinking. Finally, each chapter ends with writing exercises that help students use a particular skill in their own writing.

As students learn specific definitions of such terms as "analogy," "sample," and "hypothesis," they will gain a better understanding of how writers use the terms. By studying the words in context, along with author Phil Washburn's commentary and questions, they will come to understand such vital types of thinking as assessing sources, determining causes, and recognizing fallacies. Students will improve their competence gradually, without being intimidated by abstract rules and technical terms.

Enhanced by numerous study questions, exercises, arguments for analysis, and writing tasks, The Vocabulary of Critical Thinking also features drawings, photographs, and an annotated bibliography. Ideal for courses in critical thinking and reasoning, it can also be used in a variety of courses on writing, the humanities, interdisciplinary topics, study skills, and college preparation. ... Read more

Product Description
This clear, learner-friendly text helps today's students bridge the gap between everyday culture and critical thinking. The text covers all the basics of critical thinking, beginning where students are, not where we think they should be. Its comprehensiveness allows instructors to tailor the material to their individual teaching styles, resulting in an exceptionally versatile text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Indespensible for students of all disciplines
The text "Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction", is critical for CRE101.It is indespensible for the American college student and a valuable reference for anyone who wishes to communicate and solve problems with others.

More For Your $
I know people who paid about 90 bucks for their copy, so I saved a good amount! ... Read more