ABSTRACT
Thinking aloud is a slow, noisy process that makes thinking easy to see, easy to detect
and easy to shoot down. But do we want thinking that can be shot down? One might think
that we want only good examples, examples students can imitate and learn from. Many
teachers worry that bad examples will only confuse students. If this is how you feel, you
will not be happy with this book. We believe that bad examples are as critical to serious
learning as are good examples. Learning from good examples may help you get to your
goal quickly, but an experience that contains nothing but good examples cannot prepare
you for those times when you are lost. Flawless exemplars cannot teach how to escape a
bad situation. Thinking is not a simple, straightforward process that can be learned in one
uniquely correct manner. Thinking is always a matter of balancing alternatives and select-
ing between options with incomplete information. Thinking involves going beyond the tried and
proven paths to investigate possibilities that may go where no mind has ever gone before.
