Teachability and Learnability: Can Thinking Be Taught? [Hardcover]

Deep disagreements exist regarding what thinking and critical thinking are and to what extent they are teachable. Thinking is learned in some measure by all, but not everything that is learnable is also teachable in an institutional setting. In questioning the relationship between teachability and learnability, Fairfield investigates the implications of thinking as inquiry, education as the cultivation of agency, and self-education. By challenging some of the standard conceptions of thinking, the author explores the limits of teachability and advances critiques of standardized tests, digital learning technologies, and managerialism in education.

1. Introduction 2. Teachability, Learnability, and Agency 3. What Is Education? 4. The Promise and Limits of Educational Technology 5. Thinking as Inquiry 6. From Reflective to Meditative and Critical Thinking 7. The Educated Mind 8. Self-Education 9. Conclusion

This book takes up questions of the teachability of thinking as well as thinking as inquiry, philosophical conceptions rooted in logic, and self-education to challenge understandings of thinking and teachability. Arguing that not everything that is learnable is also teachable, this book examines the limits of teachability alongside scepticism in managerialism in education and digital learning technologies.

Paul Fairfield is Professor of Philosophy at Queens University, Canada.