Learning to Think: Disciplinary Perspectives

In colleges and universities, there is increasing demand to help students learn how to conceptualize, analyze, and reason. Learning to Think presents a model of learning that takes into account the different ways learning occurs in different academic disciplines and explores the relationship between knowledge and thinking processes. Janet Donald––a leading researcher in the field of postsecondary teaching and learning––presents a framework for learning that goes beyond the acquisition of knowledge to encompass ways of constructing and utilizing it within and across disciplines. The author discusses how learning occurs in different academic disciplines and reveals how educators can improve the teaching and learning process in their classrooms and programs.

Preface The Author 1. Learning to Think: A Cross–Disciplinary Perspective 1 2. Orderly Thinking: Learning in a Structured Discipline 31 3. Hard Thinking: Applying Structured Knowledge to Unstructured Problems 62 4. Inductive Thinking: Knowledge–Intensive Learning 96 5. Multifaceted Thinking: Learning in a Social Science 131 6. Precedent and Reason: Case Versus Logic 167 7. Organizing Instruction and Understanding Learners 196 8. Criticism and Creativity: Thinking in the Humanities 232 9. Learning, Understanding, and Meaning 271 References 301 Name Index 319 Subject Index 323

Janet Donald is professor in the Centre for University Teaching and Learning at the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at McGill University. Her research has focused on the quality of postsecondary learning and teaching, particularly on fostering higher–order learning. She has received numerous awards for her work and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2001.