The Thinkers Guide Library
Rowman & Littlefield is the proud distributor of the Thinkers Guide Library developed by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. Please visit www.rowman.com or call 1-800-462-640 for more information. Bulk order discounts available.
For Everyone
The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools, Eighth Edition
Paperback 9781538134948
eBook 9781538134955
The Thinkers Guide to Ethical Reasoning
Paperback 9780944583173
eBook 9781538133781
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies
Paperback 9780944583272
eBook 9781538133774
The Art of Asking Essential Questions
Paperback 9780944583166
eBook 9781538133804
The Thinkers Guide for Conscientious Citizens on How to Detect Media Bias and Propaganda in National and World News, Fourth Edition
Paperback 9780944583203
eBook 9781538133897
The Thinkers Guide to Engineering Reasoning
Paperback 9780944583333
eBook 9781538133798
The Thinkers Guide to Analytic Thinking
Paperback 9780944583197
eBook 9781538133750
The Thinkers Guide to Socratic Questioning
Paperback 9780944583319
eBook 9781538133842
The Nature and Functions of Critical & Creative Thinking
Paperback 9780944583265
eBook 9781538133958
Thinkers Guide to the Human Mind
Paperback 9780944583586
eBook 9781538133880
The Thinkers Guide to Scientific Thinking
Paperback 9780985754426
eBook 9781538133811
The Thinkers Guide to Clinical Reasoning
Paperback 9780944583425
eBook 9781538133873
For Students
The Aspiring Thinkers Guide to Critical Thinking
Paperback 9780944583418
eBook 9781538133767
The Thinkers Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn a Discipline, Second Edition
Paperback 9781632340009
eBook 9781538133835
The International Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test, Second Edition
Paperback 9780944583326
eBook 9781538133965
The Student Guide to Historical Thinking
Paperback 9780944583463
eBook 9781538133941
How to Read a Paragraph, second edition
Paperback 9780944583494
eBook 9781538133828
How to Write a Paragraph
Paperback 9780944583227
eBook 9781538133866
For Educators
The Miniature Guide to Practical Ways for Promoting Active and Cooperative Learning, Third Edition
Paperback 9780944583135
eBook 9781538133903
A Critical Thinkers Guide to Educational Fads
Paperback 9780944583340
eBook 9781538133910
A Guide for Educators to Critical Thinking Competency Standards
Paperback 9780944583302
eBook 9781538133934
How to Improve Student Learning: 30 Practical Ideas
Paperback 9780944583555
eBook 9781538133859
The Thinkers Guide to Intellectual Standards
Paperback 9780944583395
eBook 9781538133927
Originally published by
The Foundation for Critical Thinking
P.O. Box 196
Tomales, California 94971
www.criticalthinking.org
Reissued in 2019 by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
Copyright 2016 by Linda Elder
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Is Available
ISBN 978-0-944583-16-6 (pbk: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-5381-3380-4 (electronic)
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
The Foundation for Critical Thinking and the Thinkers Guide Library
Founded by Dr. Richard Paul, the Foundation for Critical Thinking is the longest-running non-profit organization dedicated to critical thinking. Through seminars and conferences, online courses and resources, and a wide range of publications, the Foundation promotes critical societies by cultivating essential intellectual abilities and virtues in every field of study and professional area. Learn more at www.criticalthinking.org and visit the Center for Critical Thinking Community Online (criticalthinkingcommunity.org).
The Thinkers Guide Library introduces the Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking and contextualizes critical thinking across subject areas and audience levels to foster fairminded critical reasoning throughout the world.
- The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools, Eighth Edition
- The Thinkers Guide to Analytic Thinking
- The Thinkers Guide to Ethical Reasoning
- The Thinkers Guide to Socratic Questioning
- The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies
- The Nature and Functions of Critical & Creative Thinking
- The Art of Asking Essential Questions, Fiffh Edition
- The Thinkers Guide to the Human Mind
- The Thinkers Guide for Conscientious Citizens on How to Detect Media Bias and Propaganda in National and World News, Fourth Edition
- The Thinkers Guide to Scientific Thinking
- The Thinkers Guide to Engineering Reasoning
- The Thinkers Guide to Clinical Reasoning
- The Aspiring Thinkers Guide to Critical Thinking
- The Student Guide to Historical Thinking
- The Thinkers Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn a Discipline, Second Edition
- How to Read a Paragraph: The Art of Close Reading, Second Edition
- How to Write a Paragraph: The Art of Substantive Writing
- The International Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test, Second Edition
- The Miniature Guide to Practical Ways for Promoting Active and Cooperative Learning, Third Edition
- How to Improve Student Learning: 30 Practical Ideas
- A Critical Thinkers Guide to Educational Fads
- The Thinkers Guide to Intellectual Standards
- A Guide for Educators to Critical Thinking Competency Standards
Dear Reader:
This miniature guide introduces the art of asking essential questions. It is best used in conjunction with The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking and The Miniature Guide to How to Study and Learn .
The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our thinking. The quality of our thinking, in turn, is determined by the quality of our questions, for questions are the engine, the driving force behind thinking. Without questions, we have nothing to think about. Without essential questions, we often fail to focus our thinking on the significant and substantive.
When we ask essential questions, we deal with what is necessary, relevant, and indispensable to a matter at hand. We recognize what is at the heart of the matter. Our thinking is grounded and disciplined. We are ready to learn. We are intellectually able to find our way about.
To be successful in life, one needs to ask essential questions: essential questions when reading, writing, and speaking; when shopping, working, and parenting; when forming friendships, choosing life-partners, and interacting with the mass media and the Internet.