Colin Seale

This book can be approached from a couple of different perspectives – depending on the needs and strengths of the reader. The primary thrust regards how critical thinking can be taught to students. Unfortunately, other than the ability to barely make it through any courses in grade school, high school, and college, I don’t have a lot of experience on the student education side, so can’t really weigh in on that perspective.

However, I do spend a lot of my time working with professionals, helping them develop critical thinking skills. Relatedly, I do work around what it really means to be a critical thinker. Coming from those perspectives, I found valuable insights and ideas in this book.

There are good insights in how people critically think, including tools and examples that show various aspects of critical thinking. However, one of the things that really stood out to me was an emphasis on an often-overlooked aspect of critical thinking (and one that few of us thought about when we were learning, and one I have not seen anyone really focus on in training.) That is the idea that, more often than any of us want to admit, “right” answers do not exist. For most of the situations where we are asked to critically think, there can be any number of good answers with none of them being more “right” than the other. With this in mind, the book emphasizes that how the answered is arrived at is much more important than the answer itself. (This is where the whole “Think like a lawyer” thing really comes forward.)

My primary work is with internal auditors. And it is evident that new auditors suffer from the “there has to be one answer” syndrome. And, while my answer when confronted by some problem a new auditor is facing is generally “it depends”, I don’t think I ever realized this is the result of “only one right answer” thinking.

I picked up a lot of good ideas and techniques, as well as some new concepts. Here’s a big one. This book, while not saying it explicitly, helped me realize why the humanities are so important in a college curriculum. I come from an accounting degree background and such students are constantly hammered by the fact that there is only one answer. If these same people would pay a little more attention to those humanities classes, they would see that the black and white world they so love is a fools’ dream.

For anyone interested in critical thinking, it is a book worth reading. It is a different perspective and provides a fresh look at the subject. And, while I know nothing about teaching, I’d bet this is worth it for any teacher who wants to expand his or her students beyond “teach to the answers”… (mais)

High school math teacher turned attorney, Colin Seale's Thinking Like A Lawyer is a 'how-to' guide for all “teacher leaders, including those at the one-room school house, juvenile detention centers, and the 'we've got everything' magnet schools.” (p.3)

Part One is “evangelical” in that Seale talks about his own experience and testimony as a “recovering underachiever” in school, defines critical thinking and talks about why it is so hard to teach, and gives examples illustrating why the critical thinking gap is the most crucial equity issue facing educators.

Part Two provides “thinkLaw” (Seale's short-hand term for 'Thinking Like A Lawyer') guidance for leveraging students' inherent sense of justice and fairness as a hook for unleashing their critical thinking potential. Examples of critical thinking derive from real-life legal cases utilizing “analysis from multiple perspectives, “mistake analysis”, and legal investigation and discovery. These methods, or strategies are applicable to all K-12 grade levels and subject areas.

Part Three discusses implication plans and strategies for making critical thinking work in schools, in classrooms, to include classroom management and standardized examinations.… (mais)