Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking across the Curriculum, fourth edition, by Gerald Nosich, professor, Philosophy and Humanities, has just been published by Prentice-Hall (2011). The new edition has been extensively revised; the first edition was published in 2001.

“Over the years,” Nosich said, “it has been translated into Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese.”

Nosich has been in demand for his expertise in developing critical-thinking skills since he published his first book, Reasons and Arguments, in 1982. At the time, he was an associate professor of philosophy at the University of New Orleans.

“I was teaching philosophy to students,” said Nosich. “I wanted to teach them how to think philosophically.” That desire led him to work on critical thinking within disciplines, and he has become an international expert who has presented more than 250 workshops over the years at universities, professional conferences, and departments of education across the United States and Canada, as well as in Germany, Austria, Mexico, Thailand, Singapore, and Lithuania.

Nosich said that critical thinking can be defined in different ways, but all of them focus on reflection and reasonableness. “Robert Ennis says that critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do,” said Nosich. “Being reflective means thinking about your thinking.”

In elaborating on this definition, Nosich referred to the eight elements of thought, a model of critical thinking presented by Richard Paul at the Foundation for Critical Thinking. Nosich, who is a fellow of the Foundation, will present at the International Conference on Critical Thinking for the 26th time this summer.

Learning to Think Things Through addresses Nosich’s interest in developing critical thinking skills across the curriculum. He has conducted workshops about critical thinking as it applies to disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the arts, the humanities, and professional programs, as well as in administration and business.

“At all levels, including college, teachers are teaching content,” he said. “Students are rarely encouraged to process that content themselves, to integrate it with other content, or to question assumptions or conclusions or evidence. Critical thinking is necessary to master content.”

Most people employ critical thinking skills in routine decisions, according to Nosich. “When you cross a street, you observe, interpret, and weigh evidence before you decide what to do,” he said. However, to make better use of such skills, it is necessary to engage, explicitly and consciously, in critical thinking. “The degree of depth and explicitness depends on the importance of the decision at hand,” he said. “It’s not very important which soap you buy, but when you’re considering marriage, it’s important to know whether your future spouse’s characteristics of being caring and affectionate are evidence-based facts or wishful interpretations.”

Nosich, who is a professor emeritus of philosophy with the University of New Orleans, came to Buffalo State as a visiting professor of Intellectual Foundations in 2006. “I decided to accept a faculty position here,” he said, “because Buffalo State has a deep commitment to its students and places a great emphasis on teaching.”