In the last three columns, the authors introduced the idea of ethical reasoning, discussed its importance to education, and briefly dealt with a number of understandings essential to skilled ethical reasoning. In this column, the authors continue this discussion. They distinguish between simple and complex ethical questions and reason through an…

In the last two columns we emphasized the importance of teaching so that students learn to think within and take command of content. We discussed the need to design instructional strategies for fostering deep learning, offering seven strategies as examples. In this column, we provide five additional strategies. As we maintain in all of our…

In the last column we focused (as a primary goal of instruction) on the importance of teaching so that students learn to think their way into and through content. We stressed the need for well-designed daily structures and tactics for fostering deep learning, offering three strategies as examples. In this column, we provide four additional…

In the last two articles, the authors introduced the concept of Socratic questioning and its relationship to critical thinking. They illuminated how understanding the concepts embedded in critical thinking naturally generates questions. For example, a thinker who understands the elements of thought asks questions which probe the parts of thinking.…

Stresses the importance of questioning as a key element in the art of learning. Defines three types of questions: (1) multisystem, which considers more than one relevant viewpoint in thinking through a problem, issue, or question; (2) one-system, which can be tested with a multiple-choice format; and (3) no-system, which are matters of sheer…

Asserts that becoming adept at understanding the logic of subjects, issues, and questions is a competency that, once learned, becomes a foundation for highly skilled and practical teaching and learning. Promotes the model of teaching students to seek the logic of things through the logic of science. (VWC)

Provides the example of writing as a subject in which an educator might design instruction so that students think their way through the logic of the subject rather than memorize bits and pieces of someone else's thought (never grasping its logic). Presents four instructional steps: prethinking the course, student orientation, initial practice, and…

Advocates teaching critical thinking through showing students the logic of a subject. Uses one example of instruction in history that allows students to think their way through the logic of the subject rather than memorize bits and pieces of someone else's thought (never grasping its logic). (VWC)