The Future of Thinking: Rhetoric and Liberal Arts Teaching - Softcover

Jeff Mason; Peter Washington

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415073197 ISBN 13: 9780415073196

Publisher: Routledge, 1992

Synopsis

Adapts rhetorical exercises such as paraphrase and precis to give students a range of strategies for making sense of texts, and encourages the development of practical, critical skills in a wide range of humanities students.

About this title

Synopsis:

Learning to think is a complex process made up of reading, writing, listening, speaking and remembering textual materials. The humanities subjects are based on texts and their interpretation, analysis and evaluation. The aim of this topical book is to encourage practical educational reform by shifting the emphasis from the reception to the production of texts. The authors show how to adapt rhetorical skills to give students a versatile range of strategies for making sense of texts. By learning to work with language, students learn to think, a process which requires the active participation of the students themselves. The authors argue that this approach encourages the development of practical and transferable critical skills in a wide range of humanities students: short written and spoken exercises are given as much weight as the formal essay, and the emphasis is always on the learning activities of the students themselves, rather than on the passive reception of information. These methods have been employed successfully in trial runs, and the book includes the first exercises used, plus student feedback on this method of learning.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0415073197
• ISBN 13: 9780415073196
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 140