More . . .
ABOUT THE
SPEAKER

| Conference Information | Pre-Conference Workshop Descriptions | Registration Instructions |
| The Speaker | Conference Paper Abstracts | Accommodations & Attractions | Contact Us |

A Faculty Member's Reaction to Engaging Ideas

     "Engaging Ideas surprised me. I didn't expect to like it, but I really did. I didn't expect to find so much in it that would cause me to pause and reflect on my own practices as a teacher, but this is exactly what happened repeatedly. I didn't expect to find the writing so sprightly and attention-holding, but it was. And id didn't expect that I would decide to change the nature of the writing assignments I give students as a result of this book, but I have.
     An excellent resource for faculty across all disciplines who long for ways of improving student writing and thinking skills. "
     -- Howard B. Altman, director, Linguistics Program, University of Louisville

Critical Thinking - and indeed all significant learning - originates in the learner's grappling with problems. Consequently, designing interesting problems is one of the teacher's chief tasks. In this book, John C. Bean integrates the critical thinking movement with the writing-across-the-curriculum movement to create a practical nuts-and-bolts guide to designing interest-provoking writing and critical thinking activities. He shows how teachers from any discipline can incorporate these activities into their courses in a way that encourages inquiry, exploration, discussion, and debate.
     The book presents a wide variety of strategies for stimulating active learning and for coaching writing and critical thinking, offering teachers concrete advice on how to design courses, structure assignments, use class time, critique student performance, and model critical thinking themselves. Treating writing assignments as only one of many ways to present critical thinking problems to students, Engaging Ideas also shows how writing can easily be integrated with such other critical thinking activities as inquiry discussions, simulation games, classroom debates, and interactive lectures. Throughout this book, Bean shows how these and other activities can transform students from passive to active learners, deepening their understanding of the subject matter while helping them learn the thinking process of discipline.

The Author
John C. Bean is professor of English at Seattle University, where he directs the writing program and chairs the University Task Force on Teaching and Learning. Active in the writing-across-the-curriculum movement since 1975, he has conducted numerous faculty workshops at institutions across the United States and Canada. Bean is coauthor of Writing Arguments (3rd edition, 1995) and Form and Surprise in Composition (1986).

From the backside of the jacket of Engaging Ideas
Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, California

This conference was made possible by and funded in part by
a USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant.

| Conference Information | Pre-Conference Workshop Descriptions | Conference Paper Abstracts |
| The Speaker | Registration Instructions | Accommodations & Attractions | Contact Us |

Copyright © 2002 University of Wyoming College of Agriculture.
This page was last updated on January 15, 2003.