Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004.

This study of almost a hundred college teachers from a variety of fields provides insight and some inspiration.

Hugo Bedau and Sylvan Barnett, Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument, Bedford, Freeman, and Worth, 2004.

This is a good non-technical introductory text on critical thinking, analytic writing, and argumentation.

Stephen S. Carey, A Beginner’s Guide to Scientific Method, Thomson Wadworth, 2004

This is a clear introduction to the basic methods for good scientific research that assumes no previous background in the sciences.

Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film, Longman2004.

This short, practical guide to thinking critically and writing about film is a good resource in courses that incorporate films.

A. K. Dewdney, Yes We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science, John Wiley and Sons, 1997.

Dewdney examines a collection of scientific “blunders”, including cold fusion, Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the Biosphere, the Bell Curve, and the search for extra-terrestrial life. He looks at the common characteristics of these episodes in “bad science”. Written with a sense of humor.

David Hackett Fischer, Historians’ Fallacies, Toward a Logic of Historical Thought, Harper and Row, 1970.

Fischer argues that history writing is not story telling but problem solving, though a solution may take the form of a story. His view is that teachers of history should teach the logic of historical thought, and he examines a collection of fallacies committed in historical scholarship.

Martin Gardner, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, Dover, 1957.

Martin Gardner has written a number of books debunking bad science. His books and essays explore a variety of pseudo-scientific theories and fads in a witty way. Gardner also writes a regular column for Skeptical Inquirer.

Ronald Giere, Understanding Scientific Reasoning, Harcourt Brace, 1997.

This is one of the best books on the topic. It is written for the introductory student, and helps readers acquire the skills needed for understanding and evaluating scientific material. A clear presentation with lots of good examples.

Darrell Huff, How to Lie with Statistics, Norton, 1954.

Although the examples are a bit dated, the advice in this classic is still good.

David Perkins, The Intelligent Eye: Learning to Think by Looking at Art, The Getty Education Institute for the Arts, 1994

Perkins, of Harvard’s Project Zero, explains why and how looking at art requires thinking. An argument for the value of arts education.

Thomas F. Pettigrew, How to Think Like a Social Scientist, Longman, 1996.

This covers topics of concern to the social scientist, and includes a section on thinking about causality.

Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn, How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, Mayfield, 1995.

This is a clearly written book that distinguishes science from its impostors by giving a step-by-step procedure for evaluating claims about paranormal phenomena and other New Age oddities. It is full of nice examples and I recommend it highly.

Michael Shermer and Stephen Jay Gould, Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstitions, and Other Confusions of Our Time, Owl Books, 2002.

Shermer dissects creationism, Holocaust denial, Satanism, near-death experiences, and alien abduction in this critical examination of bad science and bad history. He discusses the fallacies that lead to wrong-headed conclusions. A good debunking of bad thinking.

Brian Skyrms, Choice and Chance: An Introduction to Inductive Logic, Wadsworth, 3rd edition, 1986.

Skyrms is a philosopher of science and this is an excellent introduction to some classic philosophical problems in inductive logic. He also talks about probability and statistical analysis.

E. Bright Wilson, Jr., An Introduction to Scientific Research, Dover, 1952.

A well-written, practical guide to research. Wilson is a chemist.

Web sites

http://www.stats.org
This is the web page for the Statistical Assessment Service, which examines the way in which research is presented by the media. The site and the associated monthly publication Vital Stats, which you can view online, is ripe with great examples of flawed analyses of data. The organization also works with journalists to help them convey material accurately and effectively.

http://www.improb.com
This is the web page for the Annals of Improbable Research, which is a kind of science humor magazine that actually succeeds in being funny a fair amount of the time, and is a good source of examples for those teaching principles of scientific reasoning and research. The site has archives of past editions of AIR.

http://www.csicop.org
This is the web page for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation for Claims of the Paranormal’s journal, The Skeptical Inquirer. It includes a selection of articles from past issues of the magazine, which you might find of interest and fun to read.

http://www.skepdic.com
This is the Skeptic’s Dictionary and Guide to the New Millennium, which has entries concerning a huge variety of phenomena from Abracadabra, Abductions, and Ancient Astronauts, to Zombis, p-Zombis. A valuable reference.

http://reason.com
This is a good resource for contemporary debates on a variety of subjects.