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Costa, A. L. (Ed.). (2001) Developing minds: A resource book for teaching thinking (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (592 pp., $39.95 paperback, ISBN 0-87120-379-0).
The overarching goal of Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking (3rd ed.) is to "help initiate change, to validate the enhancement of the intellect as a legitimate goal of education, to invite critical assessment of emerging school practices for their contributions to children's intellectual growth, and to foster the expansion of thinking throughout the curriculum, the school, the community, and ultimately the world" (Costa, 2001, p. xi). A thoughtful reader, after carefully examining the content of the volume, might disagree with the editor's (Arthur Costa) modest side comment that this edition is not intended to be comprehensive. Developing Minds, a resource guide for educational leaders -- teachers, administrators, curriculum specialists, staff developers and teacher educators - is clearly the most multifaceted, scholarly, and inclusive text intended to challenge one's notions "about thinking," "of thinking," and "for thinking" (Ron Brandt). The volume's 85 chapters written by "who's who" in cognitive psychology and education (87 authors from several countries, including the US, Canada, Mexico, and Australia) offer a very informative and engaging read. By including 90% of new material accumulated in the decade since the last edition of the text, and retaining only the "classic" chapters of lasting value (such as those by Perkins and Salomon on the issues of transfer), the volume can be trusted to reflect the fast-changing pace of knowledge production in the 21 st century. Developing Minds is a one-of-its-kind text: readers expecting to see a traditional textbook with detailed drawn-out chapters might be disappointed, as the volume is neither a traditional text nor a reader. The volume's chapters, resembling short and to-the-point articles with their varying length (ranging from 5 to 10 pages), changing focus...