This short, inexpensive guide is designed to help readers learn to think critically about any subject-matter. A combination of instruction and exercises shows how to use critical thinking to more fully to appreciate what they read, to see the connections of what they read to their day-to-day lives, and to become active readers rather than passive recipients of information. Using a fresh, lively approach, this book covers the definition of critical thinking; critical thinking within fields of study such as philosophy, biology, and sociology; the elements of reasoning; standards of critical thinking; and thinking through important critical-thinking questions. An excellent guide for those who want to improve their learning skills.
Dr. Gerald Nosich is a Professor at the University of New Orleans. He has given more than 150 national and international workshops on all aspects of teaching for critical thinking. He's also worked for the U.S. Department of Education on a project for a National Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills, served as the Assistant Director at the Center for Critical Thinking at Sonoma State University, and been featured as a Noted Scholar at the University of British Columbia.
On a more personal note, he has at times exercised and not exercised good judgment: he has ridden a motorcycle to Baghdad (and to Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham); he has worked as an immigrant ditch-digger in Switzerland; been imprisoned by Communist authorities in Czechoslovakia; stowed away on a Sicilian ship to Algeria; sailed up the Nile with his family in a felucca; and lived with Maasai warriors in central Africa and in a Yurt in Mongolia. He currently lives in New Orleans with his son.