Teaching and Learning Strategies for the Thinking Classroom

The most successful classrooms are those that encourage students to think for themselves and engage in critical thinking.

Teaching and Learning Strategies for the Thinking Classroom is a practical guide to lively teaching that results in reading and writing for critical thinking. It explains and demonstrates a well-organized set of strategies for teaching that invites and supports learning. At the same time it helps educators form judgments about teaching so that they can adjust their practices to subjects they teach and the needs of their students. A series of core lessons explains and demonstrates teaching methods in action and shows educators how they can use related teaching methods to achieve similar goals.

Teaching and Learning also includes general ideas about assessment and lesson planning as well as classroom management techniques and assessment rubrics. Strategies can be used from upper primary school through secondary school and across the curriculum.

Alan N. Crawford is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Los Angeles, where he was recognized as Outstanding Professor.  He is an authority on reading and language instruction for multilingual students and has served as Senior Literacy Specialist at UNESCO (Paris).

E. Wendy Saul is the Dr. Allen B. and Helen S. Shopmaker Endowed Professor of Education and International Studies at the University of Missouri- St Louis. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Sam Mathews is associate professor of psychology at The University of West Florida. He has 25 years of teaching experience in higher education with specializations in educational psychology, child and adolescent development, psychology of gender, and research design.

Jim Makinster is assistant professor of education at Hobart and William Smith colleges, where he teaches courses in science education, technology, and environmental education.