Learning to think : disciplinary perspectives / Janet Donald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Donald, Janet Gail, 1940-

Contributor:

James Hosmer Penniman Book Fund.

Series:

Jossey-Bass higher and adult education series

The Jossey-Bass higher and adult education series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Learning, Psychology of.

Education, Higher.

Cognitive styles.

Knowledge, Theory of.

Physical Description:

xix, 330 pages ; 25 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, [2002]

Summary:

In colleges and universities, there is increasing demand to help students learn how to conceptualize, analyze, and reason. This book 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. Learning to think in a discipline is a demanding scholarly task that is not often associated with the development of university students. Although the intellectual development of postsecondary students is gaining increased attention, relating student development to the process of inquiry in different disciplines is unexplored terrain. This book attempts to come to a deeper understanding of thinking processes by exploring the approaches to thinking taken in different disciplines and then considering how these could be applied to student intellectual development.

Drawing on more than twenty-five years of research, Janet Donald shows how knowledge is structured and how professors and students perceive learning in their fields -- and offers strategies for constructing and using knowledge that will help postsecondary institutions to promote students' intellectual development within and across the disciplines. The author first creates a framework for understanding student intellectual development and for learning to think in different disciplines. In succeeding chapters, she describes the principal methods of inquiry in each discipline and their effects on learning to think, examining what this means for students and how we might use it to improve the instructional process. For faculty members, this book provides insight into the representation and development of curricula, courses, and programs to improve teaching and learning processes. Professors of education may find a specific use for the comparisons across disciplines in planning courses on teaching methods, as an aid in providing students with insight into how disciplines or fields of study are constructed, and in refining their own conceptual framework in their field. Administrators, particularly of programs and departments, will find suggestions for policy initiatives that are needed to create a supportive learning environment and for organizing teaching and learning.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-317) and indexes.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the James Hosmer Penniman Book Fund.

ISBN:

0787910325

OCLC:

48177166