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Developing Critical Thinkers: Challenging Adults to Explore Alternative Ways of Thinking and Acting
1989 Winner of the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature inAdult Education This award-winning book offers a practical, straightforwardguide to helping adults develop their critical thinking skills infour key arenas of adult life: in their personal relationships, intheir workplaces, in their political involvements, and in theirresponses to the media.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 9, 2026
About a year ago, I had received my laboratory results. While everything else was normal, I had an elevated LDL-C in my lipid profile. I thought that diet would have improved it, as I already do regular exercise. Sadly, even with my decrease of latte drinking and donut consumption, and even despite my fiber intake, it had only gone slightly lower.
I had initially thought that I could have done without statins, or cholesterol-lowering drugs, but upon conferring with my endocrinologist friend and after repeat laboratories for ApoB (the more specific assessor of long-term risk), I chose to start statins despite my aversion to maintenance medications.
Brookfield establishes that the primary component of critical thinking is identifying and challenging assumptions, which was what I did. I ate a decent diet and exercised a bit, so I thought that was enough. More importantly, critical thinkers try to imagine and explore alternatives: after doing research, I realized that I could no longer do away with it, so I started maintenance medications.
Simply because exercise and a decent diet were enough before didn't make me rest on that previous assumption. Brookfield calls it reflective skepticism: in the same paragraph where he introduces this concept, he also wrote: "Just because a chief executive officer, executive director, prime minister, president, religious leader, or parent says something is right or good does not make it so." In short, "we do not take for granted the universal truth of some statement, policy, or justification simply because of the authority ascribed to the source of this supposed truth." (p. 21)
Sadly, this isn't the case here.
Admirably, Brookfield also continued that critical thinkers can "still hold passionately to certain beliefs, actions, and causes. However, [that] commitment is not slavish or uninformed ... Instead, it is arrived at after skeptical scrutiny and after being repeatedly tested against reality."
Critical thinking, thus, is a continuous process composed of alternating phases of reflecting on a problem or theme, testing new solutions, strategies, or methods on the basis of that reflection, and then further honing, refining, and adapting these actions according to alternative contexts. This reality testing is important, and the ability to reflect on the basis of verified information is definitively necessary.
Overall, while informative, the book veers too much into the didactic nature of teaching critical thinking (which, to be fair, is its point) but detracts from the central tenets of critical thought. It is nevertheless a wonderful resource, especially its chapter on media literacy, that would help many Filipinos navigate against fake news dissemination.
I had initially thought that I could have done without statins, or cholesterol-lowering drugs, but upon conferring with my endocrinologist friend and after repeat laboratories for ApoB (the more specific assessor of long-term risk), I chose to start statins despite my aversion to maintenance medications.
Brookfield establishes that the primary component of critical thinking is identifying and challenging assumptions, which was what I did. I ate a decent diet and exercised a bit, so I thought that was enough. More importantly, critical thinkers try to imagine and explore alternatives: after doing research, I realized that I could no longer do away with it, so I started maintenance medications.
Simply because exercise and a decent diet were enough before didn't make me rest on that previous assumption. Brookfield calls it reflective skepticism: in the same paragraph where he introduces this concept, he also wrote: "Just because a chief executive officer, executive director, prime minister, president, religious leader, or parent says something is right or good does not make it so." In short, "we do not take for granted the universal truth of some statement, policy, or justification simply because of the authority ascribed to the source of this supposed truth." (p. 21)
Sadly, this isn't the case here.
Admirably, Brookfield also continued that critical thinkers can "still hold passionately to certain beliefs, actions, and causes. However, [that] commitment is not slavish or uninformed ... Instead, it is arrived at after skeptical scrutiny and after being repeatedly tested against reality."
Critical thinking, thus, is a continuous process composed of alternating phases of reflecting on a problem or theme, testing new solutions, strategies, or methods on the basis of that reflection, and then further honing, refining, and adapting these actions according to alternative contexts. This reality testing is important, and the ability to reflect on the basis of verified information is definitively necessary.
Overall, while informative, the book veers too much into the didactic nature of teaching critical thinking (which, to be fair, is its point) but detracts from the central tenets of critical thought. It is nevertheless a wonderful resource, especially its chapter on media literacy, that would help many Filipinos navigate against fake news dissemination.
April 2, 2014
Disappointing. After the first chapter I skimmed to see if there would be a deeper development of this important process, but sadly no. Unfortunately this book chiefly focuses on skepticism and aspects of doubt encouraging the reader to 'challenge assumptions and contexts, and image and explore alternatives leading to reflective skepticism'. While those are a part of critical thinking, they are not the key points.
As part of an education framework, c.t. is "the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action."
Too bad there was none of that in the book.
As part of an education framework, c.t. is "the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action."
Too bad there was none of that in the book.
January 14, 2024
I couldn’t really get into this book. It was a bit informative. However, some of the material focused in this book I already knew about. I’m giving this three starts because although I had a hard time finding my own interest in this book I did find some interesting ideas and concepts.
January 1, 2009
Brookfield takes the most broad and best view of critical thinking; few dashing insights, but thorough and well-written--few wasted sentences, all seeming important.
June 11, 2009
Many quotes from books included in the bibliography which is extensive.
December 23, 2010
A little dry, but useful
November 14, 2011
There wasn't too much here I didn't already know. There were some interesting points on applying Critical Thinking to your personal life. Worth the read if you are interested in the topic.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews