Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching for Intellectual Virtues - Softcover

Baehr, Jason

Softcover

ISBN 10: 168253670X ISBN 13: 9781682536704

Publisher: Harvard Education Press, 2021

Synopsis

Deep in Thought provides an introduction to intellectual virtues—the personal qualities and character strengths of good thinkers and learners—and outlines a pragmatic approach for teachers to reinforce them in the classroom.

With a combination of theoretical expertise and practical experience, philosopher Jason Baehr endorses intellectual virtues as a rich, meaningful way to think about and understand the purpose of education. He makes a persuasive case for prioritizing intellectual virtues in the classroom to facilitate deeper learning, encourage lifelong learning, and enrich teacher practice.

Baehr profiles nine key virtues that enable learners to initiate the process of learning, maintain forward momentum, and overcome common obstacles. With engaging anecdotes and concrete examples, he presents a wealth of principles, postures, and practices that educators can employ in promoting essential habits of mind such as curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual courage. Baehr illustrates how opportunities to practice these intellectual habits can be integrated into the classroom in ways that align with current teaching practices. In addition, he shows how educators can adapt these practices to accommodate students’ identities, developmental abilities, and interests.

This thought-provoking book supports all educators, especially middle and high school teachers, in teaching for intellectual virtues. Deep in Thought is a philosophical and yet practical guide to one of the most important aims of education: helping students become skilled thinkers and learners.

About this title

About the Author

Jason Baehr is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles (LMU), where he has been teaching since 2003. From 2012 to 2015, he directed the Intellectual Virtues and Education Project at LMU, which was sponsored by a grant of more than $1 million from the John Templeton Foundation. This project involved, among other activities, the founding of the Intellectual Virtues Academy of Long Beach, a charter middle school in Long Beach, California, designed to help students make progress in intellectual virtues like curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual courage in the context of academic teaching and learning. Baehr continues to work at the intersection of philosophy and education, writing about intellectual virtues, speaking at conferences, and doing professional development work with secondary and postsecondary educators. His other books include The Inquiring Mind: On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology (2012) and Intellectual Virtues and Education: Essays in Applied Virtue Epistemology (editor) (2016). He lives with his family in Long Beach.

From the Back Cover

Deep in Thought is a philosophical and yet practical guide to one of the most important aims of education: helping students become skilled thinkers and learners.

With a combination of theoretical expertise and practical experience, philosopher Jason Baehr endorses intellectual virtues as a rich, meaningful way to think about and understand the purpose of education. He makes a persuasive case for prioritizing intellectual virtues in the classroom to facilitate deeper learning, encourage lifelong learning, and enrich teacher practice.

“For teachers who yearn to guide students toward meaningful, thoughtful lives, rather than cramming them with marketable skills, Jason Baehr’s book is water to the thirsty. They will find in these pages an ennobling road map for teaching children what really matters: the capacity to think deeply about the problems and challenges that matter most. By the time they’ve finished the book, readers will have a new sense of purpose about education and a clear idea of how to proceed.”
—Susan Engel, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Williams College

“Jason Baehr is an anomaly and a pioneer. He is an accomplished philosopher who saw a practical problem and decided to leverage his scholarly knowledge of intellectual virtue to create a middle school designed to promote intellectual virtue development in students. This book introduces us to the theory and practice of that remarkable accomplishment and provides a practical framework for others to follow.”
—Marvin W. Berkowitz, Sanford N. McDonnell Endowed Professor of Character Education, University of Missouri–St. Louis

“In Deep in Thought, philosopher Jason Baehr impressively weaves together philosophy, social science, and his own on-the-ground work in schools to offer invaluable guidance to educators for nurturing their students’ intellectual virtues.”
—Scott Seider, Associate Professor of Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology, Boston College

Jason Baehr is a professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Education Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 168253670X
• ISBN 13: 9781682536704
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256