Critical Thinking for Helping Professionals: A Skills-Based Workbook / Edition 4

by Eileen Gambrill, Leonard Gibbs

Overview

Critical thinking values, skills, and knowledge are integral to evidence-based practice in the helping professions. Inflated claims of knowledge, both in the media as well as in the peer-reviewed literature, show critical thinking to be ever more important to decrease the influence of marketing in the guise of scholarship. Practitioners must be able and willing to think critically about decisions that affect clients' lives. This requires minimizing the influence of cognitive and affective biases, such as hindsight bias, and avoiding misleading framing of problems that may harm clients but contribute to the profit of involved industries (e.g. ignoring environmental sources of distress and focusing on client characteristics). This book continues to focus on engaging students as active participants in exercises designed to hone their critical thinking skills, drawing on related research and theory in a variety of related areas, including judgement and decision making. Exercises are included to help students enhance their skills in the process of evidence-based practice, including posing clear, relevant questions and locating and critically appraising related research. This fourth edition of Critical Thinking for Helping Professionals is for students of helping professions including social work, nursing, counseling, and psychology. Decision-making skills guided by an ethical compass are vital in all helping professions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190297305
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/23/2017
Edition description:	Workbook
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Eileen Gambrill, PhD, is Professor of the Graduate school and Emerita Hutto-Patterson Professor of Child and Family Studies, University of Caliornia at Berkeley.

Leonard Gibbs, PhD (1943 - 2008), was Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

Table of Contents

PART 1: CRITICAL THINKING AS A GUIDE TO DECISION MAKING
Exercise 1 Making Decisions About Intervention
Exercise 2 Reviewing Your Beliefs About Knowledge
Exercise 3 Controversy: Invaluable for Problem Solving and Learning
Exercise 4 Critical Thinking and Advocacy

PART 2: RECOGNIZING PROPAGANDA IN HUMAN SERVICE ADVERTISEMENTS
Exercise 5 Critically Appraising Human-Services Advertisements
Exercise 6 Does Scaring Youth Help Them "Go Straight"?
Exercise 7 Detecting Misleading Problem Framing
Exercise 8 Following the Money
Exercise 9 The Language of Propaganda

PART 3: INCREASING YOUR SKILL IN AVOIDING FALLACIES, BIASES AND PITFALLS IN DECISION MAKING
Exercise 10 Using the Professional Thinking Form
Exercise 11 Reasoning-in-Practice Game A: Common Practice Fallacies and Biases
Exercise 12 Reasoning-in- Practice Game B: Group and Interpersonal Dynamics
Exercise 13 Reasoning-in-Practice Game C: More Cognitive and Affective Biases
Exercise 14 Preparing Fallacy/Bias Festival
Exercise 15 Fallacy Spotting in Professional Contexts
Exercise 16 Avoiding Group Think

PART 4: EVIDENCE-INFORMED DECISION MAKING
Exercise 17 Applying the Steps in Evidence-Based Practice
Exercise 18 Working in Interdisciplinary Evidence-Informed Teams
Exercise 19 Preparing Critically Appraised Topics
Exercise 20 Involving Clients as Informed Participants
Exercise 21 Asking Hard Questions: Enhancing Assertive Skills
Exercise 22 Evaluating Service Outcomes
Exercise 23 Reviewing Your Expertise.

PART 5: CRITICALLY APPRAISING DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESEARCH
Exercise 24 Evaluating Effectiveness Studies: How Good Is the Evidence?
Exercise 25 Critically Appraising Research Reviews and Practice Guidelines
Exercise 26 Critically Appraising Self-Report Measures
Exercise 27 Estimating Risk and Making Predictions
Exercise 28 Critically Appraising Diagnostic Tests
Exercise 29 Evaluating Research Regarding Causes

PART 6: REVIEWING DECISIONS
Exercise 30 Critically Appraising Arguments
Exercise 31 Critical Thinking as a Guide to Making Ethical Decisions
Exercise 32 Reviewing Intervention Plans

PART 7: IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL AND PRACTICE ENVIRONMENTS
Exercise 33 Encouraging a Culture of Thoughtfulness
Exercise 34 Evaluating the Teaching of Critical Thinking Skills
Exercise 35 Forming a Journal Club
Exercise 36 Encouraging Continued Self-Development Regarding the Process of Evidence-Informed Practice and Policy
Exercise 37 Increasing Self-Awareness of Personal Obstacles to Critical Thinking.

References
Index