Critical Thinking and the Library: Books

The Critical Thinking about Sources Cookbook provides lesson plans, resources, ideas, and inspiration to empower librarians in helping students develop the crucial critical thinking and information and media literacy skills they need. 96 recipes divided into two parts--Consuming Information and Producing and Distributing Information--explore evaluating information, recognizing scholarly sources, how technology mediates our experiences with information, the economics of information ecosystems, and more, including provocative considerations of issues like copyright and open access and deep dives.

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing is a compact but complete guide to critical thinking and argumentation. Comprising the text portion of the widely adopted Current Issues and Enduring Questions, it draws on the authors' dual expertise in effective persuasive writing and comprehensive rhetorical strategies to help students move from critical thinking to argumentative and researched writing. This extraordinarily versatile text includes comprehensive coverage of classic and contemporary approaches to argument, from Aristotelian to Toulmin, to a new chapter on rhetorical analysis of pop culture texts, as well as 35 readings (including e-Pages that allow students to take advantage of working with multimodal arguments on the Web), and a casebook on the state and the individual.

Reflective dialogue asks us to pause before reacting, to ground ourselves in a sense of compassion for ourselves and others, and to use that grounding to open a space to listen and to speak with the goal of recognizing a shared humanity and appreciating difference. In four sections, Libraries Promoting Reflective Dialogue in a Time of Political Polarization explores the various ways in which librarians experience and respond to political polarization and its effects, both in our everyday work and in our professional communities.

An all-encompassing guide to skeptical thinking from podcast host and academic neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine Steven Novella and his SGU co-hosts, which Richard Wiseman calls "the perfect primer for anyone who wants to separate fact from fiction." It is intimidating to realize that we live in a world overflowing with misinformation, bias, myths, deception, and flawed knowledge. There really are no ultimate authority figures-no one has the secret, and there is no place to look up the definitive answers to our questions (not even Google). Luckily, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is your map through this maze of modern life. Here Dr. Steven Novella-along with Bob Novella, Cara Santa Maria, Jay Novella, and Evan Bernstein-will explain the tenets of skeptical thinking and debunk some of the biggest scientific myths, fallacies, and conspiracy theories-from anti-vaccines to homeopathy, UFO sightings to N- rays. You'll learn the difference between science and pseudoscience, essential critical thinking skills, ways to discuss conspiracy theories with that crazy co- worker of yours, and how to combat sloppy reasoning, bad arguments, and superstitious thinking. So are you ready to join them on an epic scientific quest, one that has taken us from huddling in dark caves to setting foot on the moon? (Yes, we really did that.) DON'T PANIC! With The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, we can do this together. "Thorough, informative, and enlightening, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe inoculates you against the frailties and shortcomings of human cognition. If this book does not become required reading for us all, we may well see modern civilization unravel before our eyes." -- Neil deGrasse Tyson "In this age of real and fake information, your ability to reason, to think in scientifically skeptical fashion, is the most important skill you can have. Read The Skeptics' Guide Universe; get better at reasoning. And if this claim about the importance of reason is wrong, The Skeptics' Guide will help you figure that out, too." -- Bill Nye

Teacher tenure is a problem. Teacher tenure is a solution. Fracking is safe. Fracking causes earthquakes. Our kids are over-tested. Our kids are not tested enough. We read claims like these in the newspaper every day, often with no justification other than 'it feels right'. How can we figure out what is right? Escaping from the clutches of truthiness begins with one simple question: 'what is the evidence?' With his usual verve and flair, Howard Wainer shows how the sceptical mindset of a data scientist can expose truthiness, nonsense, and outright deception. Using the tools of causal inference he evaluates the evidence, or lack thereof, supporting claims in many fields, with special emphasis in education. This wise book is a must-read for anyone who has ever wanted to challenge the pronouncements of authority figures and a lucid and captivating narrative that entertains and educates at the same time.

Crafting Scholarship helps readers improve their writing and publishing success in academia. Framed within the context of the editorial and peer review process, the book explores writing, editing, and reviewing in academic publishing. As such it provides unique coverage of how successful writers work, how they manage criticism, and more. Examples from successful scholars provide helpful tips in writing articles, grants, books, book chapters, and reviews. Each chapter features tools that facilitate learning including Best Practices and Writer's Resource boxes to help maximize success, discussion questions and case studies to stimulate critical thinking, and recommended readings to encourage self exploration. A Facebook page provides an opportunity for readers to post writing updates and for instructors to share materials. Highlights include: -Insights on working with journal boards, reviewers, and contributors drawn from the author's 30 years of experience in editing journal articles and writing books. -Describes writing quantitative and qualitative reports, theory and literature reviews, books and chapters, grants, and book reviews. -Identifies common problems academics face in writing and publishing along with practical solutions. -Explores best practices in writing peer reviews, responding to reviewers and editors, and how to calculate and interpret acceptance rates and impact factors. -Addresses how to write each section of a journal article and select keywords that facilitate digital search engines to help potential readers find an article. -Includes examples of published work and tips on writing research syntheses using meta-analytic techniques or narrative analyses. -Examines the practices of successful writers, the pros and cons of collaborations, what publishers look for, and managing criticism. -Reviews pertinent empirical literature on the core topics of writing, reviewing, and editing. Intended for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses in professional development, writing in an academic field, or research methods taught in psychology, education, human development and family studies, sociology, communication, and other social sciences, this practical guide also appeals to those interested in pursuing an academic career and new and seasoned researchers.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science's report on Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education suggests that instructors "can no longer rely solely on trying to cover a syllabus packed with topics" but rather should "introduce fewer concepts but present them ingreater depth." They further suggest that the principles embodied in a set of core concepts and competencies should be the basis for all undergraduate biology courses, including those designed for nonmajors.The theme of Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology will be the first and most fundamental of these competencies: the ability to apply the process of science. Biology courses and curricula must engage students in how scientific inquiry is conducted, including evaluating and interpreting scientificexplanations of the natural world. The book uses diverse examples to illustrate how experiments work, how hypotheses can be tested by systematic and comparative observations when experiments aren't possible, how models are useful in science, and how sound decisions can be based on the weight ofevidence even when uncertainty remains. These are fundamental issues in the process of science that are important for everyone to understand, whether they pursue careers in science or not. Where other introductory biology textbooks are organized by scientific concepts, Tools for Critical Thinking inBiology will instead show how methods can be used to test hypotheses in fields as different as ecology and medicine, using contemporary case studies.The book will provide students with a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of such methods for answering new questions, and will thereby change the way they think about the fundamentals of biology.

The Political Science Student Writer's Manual is a practical guide to research and writing in political science.   Designed to improve students' critical thinking and writing skills, this hands-on manual includes effective style and grammar guides alongside clear coverage of argumentation, research, and citation to explain and illustrate the purpose and characteristics of papers across political science subfields.

Critical thinking and writing is central to effective nursing practice. Written specifically for nursing students, this book offers practical guidance on what it means to think critically as a nurse and how to apply this to study and practice.  From critically reviewing literature for assessments to evaluating evidence to support decision-making in practice, the book provides a unique framework for developing essential critical skills. Key features A new chapter on ′Writing the Clinical Case Study′, along with new guidance on how to become a successful independent learner, advice on managing information overload, and many more updates and enhancements on the previous edition. Each chapter is mapped to the 2018 NMC standards             Filled with activities and student case studies demonstrating how to apply critical thinking and reflection in practice Innovative approach that introduces the different levels of critical thinking and reflection required of degree level study