Teaching Critical Thinking Dialogue and Dialectic

This book, first published in 1990, takes a critical look at the major assumptions which support critical thinking programs and discovers many unresolved questions which threaten their viability. John McPeck argues that some of these assumptions are incoherent or run counter to common sense, while others are unsupported by the available empirical evidence. This title will be of interest to students of the philosophy of education.

Foreword by Michael Scriven; Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I: The Position; 1. What kind of knowledge will transfer? 2. Three competing conceptions of critical thinking 3. Teaching critical thinking through the disciplines 4. Some practical guidelines for teaching critical thinking 5. Problems of evaluating critical thinking programs; Part II: Critiques of the Position; 6. Thinking about critical thinking: philosophers can’t go it alone Stephen P. Norris 7. McPeck, informal logic, and the nature of critical thinking Harvey Siegel 8. Response to Stephen Norris and Harvey Seigel on the analysis of ‘Critical Thinking and Education’ John E. McPeck 9. McPeck’s mistakes Richard Paul 10. Richard Paul’s critique of ‘Critical Thinking and Education’ John E. McPeck; Notes; Index