Critical Thinking for Helping Professionals: A Skills-Based Workbook

by Eileen Gambrill, Leonard Gibbs

Critical thinking values, knowledge, and skills are integral to evidence-based practice in the helping professions. Practitioners must be able to think clearly, on a daily basis, about decisions that may change their clients' lives. Critical Thinking for Helping Professionals, 3rd Edition , is designed to engage readers as active participants in honing their critical thinking skills, mastering a coherent decision-making process, and integrating the evidence-based practice process into their work with clients.

In this interactive skills-based workbook, 37 hands-on exercises offer rich opportunities for students in professional education programs to learn how to make informed decisions. Unique material exploring the use of propaganda in advertising and discussing the research on judgment and problem solving highlight the connection between critical thinking and evidence-based practice. For students in social work, nursing, counseling, and psychology, this new edition of a unique workbook is a fun and thought-provoking way to sharpen and maximize their decision-making skills so that they can provide their clients with the best care possible.

* Fun, interactive exercises emphasize learning by doing

* Integrates research and practice, practice and policy, and critical thinking and evidence-based practice

* Helps readers to recognize how to recognize propaganda, avoid pitfalls in decision making, critically appraise research, and improve their practice

* Ideal for graduate and undergraduate courses in research and practice

402 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2009

About the author

Eileen Gambrill is professor of the graduate school at the School of Social Welfare. Her research interests include professional ethics and education; evidence-based practice; professional decision making; social learning theory; behavioral methods; evaluation of practice; and social skills training.

Dr. Gambrill is a grantee of the University of Bristol's Benjamin Meeker Fellowship as well as a two-time recipeint of the Pro Humanitate Award, which is bestowed by the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare. She has also served as a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford and Tel Aviv University.

Additionally, Dr. Gambrill has been editor-in-chief of Social Work Research and Abstracts as well as of Journal of Social Work Education, and she currently sits on the editorial boards of several journals. Dr. Gambrill is also a licensed psychologist.