Fall 2006

Book Review: Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, 3rd ed.
Diane F. Halpern. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, New Jersey, 1996
Reviewed by Ryan Emanuel, Former TRC Graduate Student Associate, Environmental Sciences

Diane F. Halpern’s text on critical thinking covers a broad range of topics related to the acquisition, retention and translation of knowledge. Although the book is commonly used as a teaching text, Thought and Knowledge is equally suitable as a reflective tool for instructors from many disciplines. Halpern challenges the teacher as well as the student to develop skills necessary for “knowing how to learn and knowing how to think clearly about the rapidly proliferating information with which we will all have to contend” (4). In just under four hundred pages, Halpern presents a well-organized discussion of strategies for meeting this challenge. The book cites the cognitive psychological literature extensively but not superfluously, and in such a way that the general reader is informed rather than overwhelmed.

After surveying the problem at hand — that many of today’s university students lack the fundamental critical thinking skills necessary for classroom and real-world decision making — Halpern embarks on a discussion of cognition and epistemology that is filled with practical examples and interactive puzzles to benefit those of us who have not spent much time thinking about “thinking.” In fact, major topics throughout the book are punctuated by verbal and visual puzzles ranging from classic brainteasers and memory problems to questions of decision-making and experimental design. Many of the exercises would work well as warm-up questions for a variety of classroom situations.

Subsequent chapters expand outward from the fundamentals of cognition and memory to discuss language, logical reasoning, arguments, hypothesis testing and probability. As a teacher, I found several selections from the core of the text to be quite useful. In particular, Halpern includes a previously published table that lists a number of questions classified by the type of thinking skills they stimulate. While the generic questions themselves are universally familiar among teachers (e.g. “What are the implications of ...?” or “Why is ... important?”), the associated cognitive skills which they exercise (e.g. “analysis/inference” or “analysis of significance”) may not be immediately apparent.

Halpern’s chapter on arguments contains another noteworthy selection: “Twenty-one Common Fallacies.” Instructors from many disciplines are likely to recognize some of these mistakes as recurring themes in their students’ writing from semester to semester. Becoming familiar with this list can help teachers spot and avoid fallacies in their own work as well as in the work of their students.

If you do not have time to read Thought and Knowledge cover to cover, individual chapters are fairly self-contained and may be digested independently. Although intended as a textbook rather than a text for teachers, Halpern’s insights into critical thought processes are appropriate for college instructors seeking to help themselves and their students acquire and refine the skills of thinking, remembering and reasoning that are crucial both to the classroom and the world beyond.