Robert Swartz received his B.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard and studied as part of a Fulbright Scholarship in universities in Oxford and Cambridge in England. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Massachusetts. He is the director of the National Center for Teaching Thinking. Through the Center, he provides staff development to educators across the country on restructuring curriculum by infusing critical and creative thinking into content instruction. He has authored numerous articles and books on critical thinking and has acted as a testing consultant for the National Assessment of Educational Progress.