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Recommended Reading for the 44th Conference


Recommended Reading for
The 44th Annual International Conference
on Critical Thinking


Entirely Online


 Pre-Conference: July 21
Main Conference: July 22 - 26, 2024

Registration Closed

Please note that the video and audio feeds in all sessions are recorded. The Foundation for Critical Thinking reserves the right to publish the resulting footage in whole or in part for any purpose. By attending the event, you agree to said recording and publication.



Thinker's Guides used during the conference will be supplied via the partial copies available through the Center for Critical Thinking Community Online, to which all registrants will have complimentary access. However, we recommend purchasing full copies of the following titles prior to the conference, as they will greatly improve your ability to internalize the concepts covered at the event:





The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools

This powerful book introduces core critical thinking concepts and principles as an empowering problem-solving framework for every profession, course of study, and indeed every area of life. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools distills the groundbreaking work of Richard Paul and Linda Elder, targeting how to deconstruct thinking through the elements of reasoning and how to assess the quality of our thinking.






The Thinker's Guide to the Human Mind

Since all human thoughts are controlled by the mind, understanding our thoughts is essential to personal and societal advancement. The Thinker’s Guide to the Human Mind delves into the core functions of the human mind to allow readers to take charge of their intellect and emotions more effectively.

Richard Paul and Linda Elder explore the basic impulses that influence our thoughts and can distract us from logical or ethical action. Exploring the dangers of egocentric and sociocentric thinking, this guide presents strategies for strengthening emotional intelligence and developing critical thinking virtues.




The Thinker's Guide to Analytic Thinking

Linda Elder and Richard Paul’s The Thinker’s Guide to Analytic Thinking explores the practice of analyzing problems and opportunities, providing a framework for finding common denominators, inconsistencies, biases, and underlying causes. It helps readers learn to think within the logic of subjects and professions. By offering proper tools for analysis and assessment of thought, it empowers readers to address any decision with confidence.








The Thinker's Guide to How on Study & Learn a Discipline

In this guide, Richard Paul and Linda Elder empower students to take control of their own learning by asking questions, challenging assumptions, drawing upon reliable information, and exploring alternative opinions. Making intellectual work more accessible, practical, and engaging, this book fosters minds that question, probe, and can master a variety of forms of knowledge through intellectual perseverance and regular use of critical thinking skills.









The Thinker's Guide to Socratic Questioning

The Thinker’s Guide to the Art of Socratic Questioning introduces readers to powerful methods for questioning that pinpoint underlying beliefs and systems of logic. It brings together the principles of critical thinking with Socratic questioning.

Richard Paul and Linda Elder illuminate the practicality and accessibility of Socratic questioning for revealing and solving problems in thought. Teachers, students and professionals will find in this book essential questioning strategies for reasoning within any field of study or endeavor.








The Nature and Functions of Critical & Creative Thinking

While creativity and criticality may seem contrary to one another, they are in fact intimately interconnected. In The Nature and Functions of Critical and Creative Thinking, Richard Paul and Linda Elder promote the simultaneous teaching of different types of thinking and explore their interrelationships as essential understandings in learning. This guide serves a useful resource for teachers and school administrators at every level, especially as they integrate critical and creative thinking into existing curricula.







How to Improve Student Learning

In How to Improve Student Learning , critical thinking pioneer Richard Paul and educational psychologist Linda Elder distill decades of teaching experience into thirty methods to increase student comprehension and engagement in any area of study. Teachers and faculty at all levels will find these strategies easy to integrate into their teaching and learning process, and, when integrated, will see students begin to take ownership of their learning.












Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.