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Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.

"resources/teachers-manual.shtml" not found

Sorry the page you are looking for is not found.


Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.

Teachers Manual

Teachers Manual: The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children

by
Linda Elder

 

The Teacher's manual is designed to provide teachers with strategies for using The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children. It includes the following:

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1. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools, a resource that briefly introduces teachers to the critical thinking concepts and theory they need to effectively teach children to improve their thinking and learning.

2. One copy of The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children.

3. Suggestions for using The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children and teaching basic critical thinking concepts.

4. "Think for Yourself" activities for children to help students internalize critical thinking ideas. These exercises are indicated by the symbol TFY in the Table of Contents. If your children are at the k-2 level or have reading difficulties, you can use the exercises as idea generators for verbally teaching the concepts.

All of the ideas in this manual have been used in demonstration classes with young children. In the ideal classroom, all children have their own copy of The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children. As you use this mini-guide on a daily basis in your classes, you are giving your children a beginning place for developing their critical thinking and reasoning abilities.

Included in the Teacher's manual are strategies for using the masks of Fairminded Fran, Naïve Nancy and Selfish Sam. These characters can be used in helping children distinguish between skilled and unskilled thinking, as well as fair and unfair thinking. They are introduced in The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children. To obtain these masks, contact us at (800) 833-3645. The size of the Teacher's Manual is 8 1/2" x 11". It is 61 pages in length.


Table of Contents

Introduction

Thirty-Five Dimensions of Critical Thought Formally Named
Thirty-Five Dimensions of Critical Thought Informally Characterized
Thirty-Five Dimensions of Critical Thought as Explained by Fairminded Fran

Part One: Fictional Characters That Help Children Understand Critical Thinking

Introduction: Meet Naïve Nancy, Selfish Sam, and Fairminded Fran

A Critical Reading Format

Role Playing Naïve Nancy, Selfish Sam, Fairminded Fran

Think For Yourself Activities For Children:

TFY#1: Describe Naïve Nancy, Selfish Sam and Fairminded Fran in Your Own Words

TFY#2: Who are You Most Like? Naïve Nancy, Selfish Sam and or Fairminded Fran


Part Two: Fair and Unfair Thinking

Introduction: Helping Children be Fair

Introducing Fair/Unfair Thinking

Using Journal Entries

Think For Yourself Activities For Children:

TFY#3: When Are You Fair? When Are You Unfair?

TFY#4: Thinking About When I Am Fair and Unfair: Journal Entry Format

Part Three: The Intellectual Standards
Introduction: Helping Children Evaluate Thinking
Clarity
Accuracy
Relevance
Logic
Fairness


Part Four: The Parts of Thinking

Introduction: Helping Children Analyze Thinking

Focusing on the Parts of Thinking as a Whole

§ A Checklist for Reasoning

§ Questions We Can Ask When We Understand the Parts of Thinking

Think For Yourself Activities For Children:

TFY#5: Analyze the Parts of Your Thinking When You Are Solving a Problem

TFY#6: Analyze the Parts of Thinking Of a Character in a Story

TFY#7: Working With Inferences

TFY#8: Understanding the Difference Between Inferences and Assumptions

TFY#9: Correcting for Faulty Inferences

TFY#10: Understanding Inferences

TFY#11: Faulty Assumptions People Sometimes Make Which Lead to Prejudices

Helping Children Think Critically About Ideas and Concepts

Leading a Socratic Question Dialog Focusing on Key Concepts

Think For Yourself Activities For Children:

TFY#12: Understanding the Concept of Greed

TFY#13: Understanding the Concept of Prejudice

TFY#14: Understanding the Concept of Cooperation

Part Four: The Intellectual Virtues

Introduction: Helping Children Develop Character and Internal Motivation

Think For Yourself Activities For Children:

TFY#15: Understanding Intellectual Perseverance

TFY#16: Understanding Intellectual Independence

Reviews

I am using the teacher's guide book based on the children's mini guide. I'm finding it so complete and rich, there's not a lot else I need to refer to. Of course I DO use all the resources I can.

We are working on Concepts this quarter. I have papers the 7/8 graders wrote on Cooperation. I want to pass them on to you. This week they are writing about Democracy. Very relevant, as we stumble toward war with Iraq. The Socratic dialogs in these classes I think would amaze and please you. Please consider a guest appearance sometime this year if your time allows.

The intellectual standards are getting grounded within the understanding of the elements of thought. When the kids have this even a little, it gets interesting, creative and fun. And it is great to see them light-up when they realize they have some power over their own minds. I feel that critical thinking helps to put a face on freedom.

Teja Bell,
Petaluma Charter School

Go to top


Critical Thinking

"resources/teachers-manual.shtml" not found

Sorry the page you are looking for is not found.


Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.

"resources/teachers-manual.shtml" not found

Sorry the page you are looking for is not found.


Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.