Critical thinking skills are necessary for professional nurses to be effective in making clinical practice decisions and provide safe care. Nurse educators must incorporate innovative strategies to instill critical thinking behaviors in nursing students. Rubenfeld and Schef fer' s (1995) T . H . I . N . K. Model of Critical Thinking is the organizing framework for the study. The model identified 10 habits of the mind as affective components and cognitive components. The purpose of this study is to describe teaching strategies used by nurse educators to develop critical thinking skills in nursing students. Six nursing programs will be invited to participate in the study. A sample of six faculty members from each of the schools is anticipated. This study is voluntary and all information will be kept confidential. An open-ended questionnaire based on the habits of the mind (Rubenfeld & Scheffer, 1995) will be given to participating faculty. Focus group interviews will be conducted at each school to verify and expand the data. Demographic information regarding type and length of teaching experience will also be collected from participants. This study is significant because findings will provide information for faculty teaching in schools of nursing regarding strategies to use in the promotion of critical thinking skills among students.