This handbook presents course information, reading materials, and application research projects for a distance education course that focuses on helping inservice teachers of all grades and subject areas develop a useful set of concepts for fostering their students' critical reading and reasoning abilities. The course described in the handbook is designed to help teachers hone their own thinking skills while providing the basis for planning stimulating learning experiences. Special sections in the handbook provide resources for the high speed travel of the information superhighway and for drawing on specific teaching strategies especially conducive to students' constructive critical thinking. The course aims to engage the student (already a teacher) in constructive learning, which means that the course content includes developed and shared ideas derived from the course's major concepts. "Starting with What We Know" is Part I of the handbook; "Information Literacy" is Part II. Part III is "Conceptualizing Critical Reading and Thinking," while Part IV is "Teaching Strategies: A Resource." The final part, Part V, contains applications across grades and subjects and serves as a "teachers' think tank." (NKA)