Product Description

1996 Winner of the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education

"[Brookfield] gently demystifies critically reflective learning and teaching with dozens of practical examples from the classroom in different scholarly fields. Lucid, wise, jargon–free, personal and fluently written. Required reading for educators of adults everywhere and for all faculty development programs."
–– Jack Mezirow, emeritus professor of adult education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Building on the insights of his highly acclaimed earlier work, The Skillful Teacher, and applying the principles of adult learning, Brookfield thoughtfully guides teachers through the processes of becoming critically reflective about teaching, confronting the contradictions involved in creating democratic classrooms, and using critical reflection as a tool for ongoing personal and professional development.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73675 in Books
• Published on: 1995-09-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
"Brookfield, a leading adult educator, has written by far the most compelling, informed perceptive, and sensible book available on how faculty in higher education may develop themselves as educators and foster transformative learning by their students through the use of critical reflection, He gently demystifies critically reflective learning and teaching with dozens of practical examples from the classroom in different scholarly fields. Lucid, wise, jargon–free, personal and fluently written. Required Reading for educators of adults everywhere and for all faculty development programs." ––?Jack Mezirow, emeritus professor of adult education, Teachers College, Columbia University

"Brookfield takes a fresh look at the application of critical reflection to teaching....The reader will find both the familiar and the new covered in this storehouse of insightful, innovative, and practical critically reflective techniques....Most appealing is Brookfield′s openness to how the various techniques may be individually tailored by educators to fit unique situations. This makes for a book that is not only richly theory–based, but one that is also critically important for the educator′s personal and professional development." ––Adult Learning

"Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher encourages faculty to question academic posturing, accept students′ challenges, and face the textured reality of the teaching/learning relationship.... Brookfield provides a colorful map to guide those faculty who enjoy critical reflection. His own story makes for lively reading." ––Laura L.B. Border, director, Graduate Teacher Program and the Colorado Preparing Future Faculty Network, University of Colorado, Boulder, J. Staff, Program, & Organization Development

From the Inside Flap
Building on the insights of his highly acclaimed earlier work, The Skillful Teacher, Stephen D. Brookfield offers a very personal and accessible guide to how faculty at any level and across all disciplines can improve their teaching. Applying the principles of adult learning, Brookfield thoughtfully guides teachers through the processes of becoming critically reflective about teaching, confronting the contradictions involved in creating democratic classrooms and using critical reflection as a tool for ongoing personal and professional development.Using numerous examples, Brookfield describes what critical reflection is and why it is so important. He tells how teachers can reframe their teaching by viewing their practice through four distinctive lenses: their autobiographies as teachers and learners, their students′ eyes, their colleagues′ perceptions, and theoretical literature. He includes specific advice on using practical approaches to critical reflection such as teaching diaries, role model profiles, participant learning portfolios, structured critical conversation. the Critical Incident Classroom Questionnaire, the Good Practices Audit, and more. He explains how the literature of educational research and philosophy can be used as an aid to, rather than an inhibitor of, critical reflection. And he discusses how to create a campus culture that supports critically reflective teaching.

From the Back Cover
Building on the insights of his highly accalimed earlier work, The Skillful Teacher, Stephen D. Brookfield offers a very personal and accessible guide to how faculty at any level and across all disciplines can improve their teaching abilities. Applying the principles of adult learning, Brookfield thoughtfully guides teachers through the processes of becoming critically reflective about teaching, confronting the contradictions involved in creating democratic classrooms and using critical reflection as a tool for ongoing personal and professional development. Using numerous examples, Brookfield describes what critical reflection is and why it is so important.

Customer Reviews

An instant classic in adult education.
Brookfield has done it again. An instant classic in adult education. In accessible language and with an uncanny ability to relate humorous and telling anecdotes, Brookfield provides the best available overview of reflective teaching, especially with adults. His notion that we learn to become reflective teachers through the four key lenses of self, students, colleagues, and theory is an important contribution. But what he does to explain how we learn through these four lenses is revealing and insightful. A good read. A lasting contribution.