Critical Thinking for Better Learning shifts the focus from teaching to learning and from presenting information to creating challenges that teach students how to think in your discipline. The shift derives from three new insights from cognitive science: that we think by analogy, that we learn best when we process clear, focused sources and develop our own theories about our findings, and that there are key threshold concepts that define the discipline and make it attractive to young practitioners. This book explains each of these insights in direct, clear language, with examples of how to implement them in your own classroom.

By Carole Hamilton

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Section I:How Students Learn Best
Chapter 1: We Learn through Analogies
Section II:Why Much of Our Teaching is Ineffective
Chapter 2: How We Should (and Should Not) Teach
Section III: Teaching to the Student's Natural Learning Style
Chapter 3: Where to Focus: Identify Threshold Concepts
Chapter 4:What to Teach: Choose Topics and Texts that Exemplify Threshold Concepts
Chapter 5:How to Teach: Design Lessons that Compel Students to Confront their Misconceptions
Chapter 6:How to Assess: Design Ways to Gauge Students' Critical Thinking
Conclusion
Appendix A: How People Learn
Appendix B: Analogy as the Core of Cognition
Appendix C: Student Retention with Schemas and Analogies
Appendix D: Threshold Concepts
Appendix E: Sample Threshold Concepts and Skills
Appendix F: Sample Student Challenges
Appendix G: How to Assess Critical Thinking
Recommended Reading/Viewing
References