Stephen D. Brookfield 
Teaching for Critical Thinking 
Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions

While notions of what constitutes critical thinking vary, educators, politicians, and employers
all agree that critical thinking skills are necessary for well-educated citizens and a key capacity
for successful employees. In Teaching for Critical Thinking, Stephen Brookfield explores how
students learn to think critically and what methods teachers can use to help.

In his engaging, conversational style, Brookfield establishes a basic protocol of critical
thinking that focuses on students uncovering and checking assumptions, exploring alternative
perspectives, and taking informed actions. The book fosters a shared understanding of critical
thinking and helps all faculty adapt general principles to specific disciplinary contexts.

Drawing on thousands of student testimonies, the book identifies the teaching methods
and approaches that are most successful when teaching students to think, read, and write
critically. Brookfield explains when to make critical thinking the classroom focus, how
to encourage critical discussions, and ways to reach skeptical students. He outlines the
basic components required when reviewing a text critically and shows how to give highly
specific feedback.

The book also addresses how to foster critical thinking across an institution, beginning
with how it can be explained in syllabi and even integrated into strategic plans and
institutional missions. Brookfield stresses the importance of teachers modeling critical
thinking and demonstrates himself how to do this.

Crammed with activities and techniques, this how-to guide is applicable in face-to-face,
online, and hybrid classrooms of all sizes. Each exercise includes detailed instructions,
examples from different academic disciplines, and guidance for when and how to best
use each activity. Any reader will come away with a pedagogic tool kit of new ideas for
classroom exercises, new approaches to designing course assignments, and new ways to
assess students’ ability to practice critical analysis.

Table of Content

Preface vii

About the Author xvii

1 What is Critical Thinking? 1

2 Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 27

3 How Critical Thinking is Learned 53

4 Introducing Basic Protocols of Critical Thinking 77

5 Developing Critical Complexity: Intermediate and Advanced Protocols 105

6 Reading and Writing Critically 129

7 Integrating Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum 155

8 Making Discussions Critical 179

9 Misunderstandings, Challenges, and Risks 205

10 Modeling Critical Thinking 233

References 261

Index 269

About the author

THE AUTHOR

STEPHEN D. BROOKFIELD is Distinguished University Professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For forty years he has taught in the United States and abroad. A four-time winner of the Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education, he is the author of numerous books on teaching, including The Skillful Teacher and Developing Critical Thinkers.