Critical Thinking for Administrators: The Cookbook Mentality Syndrome.

This paper explores the concept of critical thinking as it applies to school administrators and offers ideas for incorporating it into their operative skills. Following a review of pertinent literature, recommendations are made to: (1) develop an assessment process in educational administration programs to ensure that future school leaders have a capacity for critical thinking; and (2) redesign general education instruction at the college level. The need to challenge the critical thinking skills of administrators is based on the belief that principals can made a difference only if they abandon the "cookbook mentality" whereby administrators want to be able to have an answer to every problem faced rather than processing the information to make valid and responsible individual decisions. The ability to apply critical thinking to the school setting is the essence of improving instructional leadership and academic performance. Educational administration must move from the cookbook mentality to one that fosters critical thinking. (Contains 19 references.) (LMI)