Robert Marzano Having been a professor throughout his career at Universities, such as the University of Colorado, he had an epiphany that he must apply his research to change and help grow education and the educational system to create positive momentum.
Marzano's Theory and Philosophy
Robert J. Marzano, PhD, is cofounder and CEO of Marzano Research Laboratory in Centennial, Colorado. A leading researcher in education, he is a speaker, trainer, and author of more than 30 books and 150 articles on topics such as instruction, assessment, writing and implementing standards, cognition, effective leadership, and school intervention. His books include Designing & Teaching Learning Goals & Objectives, The Highly Engaged Classroom, Formative Assessment & Standards-Based Grading, On Excellence in Teaching, District Leadership That Works, and The Art and Science of Teaching. His practical translations of the most current research and theory into classroom strategies are internationally known and widely practiced by both teachers and administrators. (""About Dr. Marzano"", 2009)
Marzano points out that critical thinking encompasses several different challenges, and notes specifically the following in a 1993 article he published:
Engaging extensively in tasks, even when answers are not immediately apparent;
Generating, trusting and maintaining ones own standards of evaluation;
Generating non-conventional ways of viewing issues and problems, as well as solutions;
"As important as they are, the mental habits of self-regulation, and critical and creative thinking are not commonly reinforced in the classroom," according to Mazano (1993). However, he sites, that they ARE the very foundation for a healthy society. Manzano typically applauds the application of practical approaches to teaching, such as the use of reasoning and critical thinking, while he questions and disapproves of less useful teaching methods that simply drill and promote rote behaviors in the student population.
References
Marzano, R. J. (1993). How classroom teachers approach the teaching of thinking. Theory Into Practice, 32(3), 154.