To succeed in higher education today, college students need
to develop the all-important skill of critical thinking.
In this innovative new volume Judy Daniel lays out a blueprint
for success in the college classroom.
This is an interactive book to be used throughout a single
semester. The journal format allows students to assess daily
their intellectual progress in several areas of critical
thinking. Students answer questions, record their thoughts, and
compare their ideas to those of many successful thinkers
throughout history. This format also allows teachers to provide
to students their own reading prompts from newspapers,
magazines, or even scholarly journals from a variety of
disciplines.
The book is divided into twelve sections - corresponding
to a like number of weeks - with each one addressing a
different critical thinking skill. Daniel asks students to
analyze their own motivations and preparations in learning.
She then offers various strategies for different learning
situations.
The heart of the book is the five sections, or weeks,
devoted to critical thinking about scholarly writing. These
chapters take the students through an intellectual process
dubbed by Daniel as the "TASKS" system. This acronym stands
for Thesis, Audience/Approach, Subtopics, Knowledge, and
Summary. Each week, students can explore questions that
help them analyze what they read with these concepts in mind.
This book is ideal as a supplement in any first-semester
college class, or as a main text in a Freshman Experience
program. Teachers of advanced high school classes also will
find this book of great benefit for preparing their students
for higher education.
_________________________________________________________
JUDY DANIEL teaches English at McMurry University in
Abilene, Texas. She is the director of McMurry's Freshman
Seminar Program, which helps first-year college students
adjust to the academic challenges of the university curriculum.
Other Books Adopted in College Classrooms
