Friday, July 8, 2011

Reviewing Paul and Elder's The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking-Concepts and Tools

This 20-page mini-book was assigned reading for a grad class I recently took at Columbia International University. The booklet serves as an introductory guide to the concepts and tools of critical thinking and is by no means an in-depth study of critical thinking. The mini-guide should be used to supplement other books related to the topic. Written by two critical thinking experts, this book can be used by professors and teachers to develop instructional activities, enhance teaching techniques, design creative classwork, and simply improve overall learning. The contents of the book briefly include the importance of critical thinking, the elements of thought, a checklist and criteria for evaluating reasoning, the problem with egocentric thinking, universal intellectual standards, a template for analyzing the logic of articles and textbooks and for problem-solving, essential intellectual traits, analyzing and assessing research, and the stages of critical thinking development. Several charts and diagrams are provided to help us better understand abstract ideas. Although the font is tiny, the content is well organized and easy to read. Bold numbers and letters are regularly used to highlight key information. This review pertains to the fourth edition which came out in 2006.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Some Recent Articles About Books IX

Crossway's Digital Bible Resources - Numerous online Bible tools are provided (many for free).

The Clarity of God's Word - By Faith, PCA's online magazine, has a conversation with Kathleen Nielson about her new book, Bible Study: Following the Ways of the Word.

Youth Reads - Breakpoint has a new page focusing on Young Adult books. It's designed to help parents and educators find good books for preteens and teens to read as well as to provide a Christian perspective on Young Adult books.

Cherish the Book Publishers—You'll Miss Them When They're Gone by Eric Felten - "The e-book era promises us all the pleasure of wading through the slush pile ourselves, even as the pile grows exponentially."

Being a Historian and Reading Bonhoeffer by Michael A.G. Haykin - Is Eric Metaxas' biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer good history?

Scholar Defends New NIV Bible; Says Critics Have Been Unfair by Lillian Kwon - The updated NIV continues to receive many negative reviews.

House of Shelves by Gilbert Mohtes-Chan - Check out this ingenious piece of Japanese architecture that can hold ten tons of books!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Some Recent Articles About Books VIII

John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock by Travis Allen - This is a 240-page biography from Iain Murray that has received great reviews.

June Book Briefs by Kevin DeYoung - "Ah, summer sabbatical - more time to breathe and more time to read."

How to Write a Great Book Review (Or at Least How Not to Write a Bad One) by John Starke - Answer the question everyone is asking, show the consequences of an idea, ...