The Miniature Guide to the Art of Asking Essential Questions

by Linda Elder, Richard Paul

The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our thinking. The quality of our thinking, in turn, is determined by the quality of our questions, for questions are the engine, the driving force behind thinking. Without questions, we have nothing to think about. Without essential questions, we often fail to focus our thinking on the significant and substantive. When we ask essential questions, we deal with what is necessary, relevant, and indispensable to a matter at hand. We recognize what is at the heart of the matter. Our thinking is grounded and disciplined. We are ready to learn. We are intellectually able to find our way about.

To be successful in life, one needs to ask essential questions: essential questions when reading, writing, and speaking; when shopping, working, and parenting; when forming friendships, choosing life-partners, and interacting with the mass media and through the internet. This thinker’s guide is a starting place for understanding concepts that, when applied, lead to essential questions.

Genres: Philosophy, Business, Nonfiction

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Dr. Linda Elder is an educational psychologist and a prominent authority on critical thinking. She is President of the Foundation for Critical Thinking and Executive Director of the Center for Critical Thinking. Dr. Elder has taught psychology and critical thinking at the college level and has given presentations to more than 20,000 educators at all levels. She has co-authored four books, including Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life, Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life and Twenty-Five Days to Better Thinking and Better Living. She has co-authored eighteen thinker’s guides on critical thinking and co-authors a quarterly column on critical thinking in the Journal of Developmental Education.

Dr. Elder has also developed an original stage theory of critical thinking development. Concerned with understanding and illuminating the relationship between thinking and affect, and the barriers to critical thinking, Dr. Elder has placed these issues at the center of her thinking and her work.

With experience in both administration and the classroom, Dr. Elder understands firsthand the problems facing educators. She is a dynamic presenter who reaches her audience on a person-to person level.

To contact Dr. Linda Elder, email: elder@criticalthinking.org

Reviews

[Mohammad Reza · Rating 5 out of 5]

این کتاب کامل‌تر و با توضیحات بیشتر و بهتر (شاید هم ترجمه بهتر مفاهیم و اصطلاحات) نسبت به کتاب زیربود:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
از بخش اول، قسمت ابزار های مفهومی برای پرسش های مفهومی و پرسشگری در تصمیم‌گیری و مشکل گشایی خوب بود.
از بخش دوم کتاب قسمت طرح پرسش های اخلاقی و توضیحش در مورد اشتباه گرفتن اخلاق با فرهنگ و هنجار اجتماعی و اعتقادات دینی خیلی خوب بود.
بخش چهارمش برای من بهترین و آموزنده ترین بخش کتاب بود و به نظرم یاد گرفتن پرسشگری در مورد خودمحوری و جامعه‌محوری و فضائل فکری برای همه مفید است.
در کل اگر کتاب مثال‌های بیشتری داشت به واضح تر شدنش کمک می‌کرد(مخصوصا برای بخش سوم) و برای عموم خواندنی تر می‌شد.
و البته خواندن سریع کتاب احتمالا کمک خاصی نمی‌کند و نیاز هست برای هر قسمت هر کسی به مثال های اطرافش و مخصوصا در مورد خودش فکر کند و وقت بگذارد.

[Shantia · Rating 3 out of 5]

تو مقدمه اي كه خود نويسنده اول كتاب نوشته، توصيه كرده اگر ميخواهيد اين كتاب رو بخونيد بهتره كه همراش دو كتاب ديگه ١- تفكر انتقادي: تدابيري براي آگاهانه زيستن و خوب آموختن و ٢- آشنايي با هنر پرسشگري سقراطي رو هم بخونيد. من اين دو كتاب رو تهيه نكردم و نخوندم، و شايد به همين خاطر اين كتاب خيلي نظرم رو جلب نكرد. خيلي كوتاه و خلاصه نوشته شده كه تا مياي موضوع رو بفهمي ميره رو موضوع بعدي. انگار كه سر كلاسي و فقط نكات مهم رو يادداشت ميكني. اينطوريه.

[Amir Salar Pourhasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a practical book not a story teller. It's a handbook, textbook and it's not just explaining some researches.


In this book, Paul and Elder try to show us hot to classify questions and how to ask more comprehensive questions.

It's short and good summarization. I like this book and suggest it. It's so easy to understand.

[Farhang Farvahar · Rating 4 out of 5]

ریچارد پل و لیندا الدر در مجموعه تفکر نقادانه منطق رو برای همه توضیح میدن و راه هایی که از منطقمون برای بهتر زیستن میتونیم استفاده کنیم نشون میدن
لینک طاقچه:
https://taaghche.com/book/126401/%D8%...

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful resource to better understand critical questioning in many different areas. I probably need to read through this another 4 times before it sinks in, as it’s very dense. But it’s a great little reference to sit on my desk.

[سارة ياقوت · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intuitive but interesting.

[Angel Grimalt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a practical guide for critical thinking -it reads as a companion for our day to day. I recommend it to anyone wanting solid ground for framing an inquiry-driven mind using robust conceptual elements, theory, and exercises. A good tool-box for these times, where our thinking becomes a pivotal connector to AI applications.

[Ming · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reflects my personal opinions only.

1) I love how it goes straight to the point - questions are the driving engine for an enriching life. And I feel by adopting this mindset, I tend to be less intimidated by the unknown parts of the world which I don't have answers yet, but more comfortable and interested in it because it can be better understood through questions.

2) How it categorized the elements of thinking into 8 parts: the question that started it, the purpose, the information needed, the inferences made, the concepts and assumptions used, the point of view, and the implications. This is really helpful, especially to scientific researchers, but also applies to general thinking in life.

3) How it analyzed the process of thinking: the elements in bullets 2), the precision and levels of details, it's objective or subjective, and so on.

[Scott Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent primer for a leader or manager

This should be required reading for all managers and leaders. An excellent tool to strengthen and develop supervisors at all levels.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting. There are ideas worth exploring further from this handbook for Socratic inquiry, as only a starting point, though a useful and fertile one.