Thinking in Education

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Summary: Thinking in Education
Review: "Critical thinking" has become an educational buzzword with many diverse and sometimes conflicting definitions and teaching approaches. Educators - at all levels - need to understand definitions of "critical thinking" that clearly indicate just what critical thinking is, what a significant improvement of thinking is, how its improvement can be made operational, and how critical thinking can be effectively taught. Mathew Lipman's second edition of Thinking in Education proposes constructive and creative guidance without pretending to be the final definitive word on this complex and challenging matter.

Matthew Lipman is not an armchair educational philosopher, but one who has been in the "trenches" for many years. He began over thirty years ago at Montclair State University the Philosophy for Children program, which is now an international movement. The pedagogy of a community of inquiry, developed in the Philosophy for Children program, is proposed as a social context within which to teach critical, creative, and caring thinking. It encourages exploration, curiosity, and organization, and gives back to students some of the natural incentives to venture they experienced after their own birth and began exploring and figuring out their world. Thinking in Education is a theoretical work, sprinkled with some practical suggestions, based on the author's experience and research in this program, and on his reflections on thinking in general.

Though Matthew Lipman does not give applications of his ideas to specific disciplines, and though some might take issue with his emphasis on philosophy for children, Thinking in Education will provide some important theoretical guidance for all levels of education: the state departments of education, higher education, teacher training, and professional development.
Claude Gratton, Antelope Valley College