Since its first notable appearance in the "Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning," the phrase productive struggle has garnered support from a few, yet very influential, educational researchers. However, since the phrase was popularized by Hiroko Warshauer in 2011, examinations of the productive struggle have…

While many business schools may want their graduates to pursue social, environmental and economic opportunity, few schools are in fact developing leaders who have the skills, knowledge, and passion to do so. The reasons for this shortcoming have been highlighted by both educators and practitioners. On the one hand, this problem is rooted in how…

This paper proposes that given today's "wicked" problems (Malhotra, 1997), where there are complex issues with no clear answers, where boundaries are fuzzy and the outcome is usually never known and unexpected, creativity can be enhanced, at appropriate moments, by making modes of thinking explicit. Using a particular heuristic approach…

Students need tools, thinking skills, to help them think actively and in depth about biological phenomena. They need to know what kind of questions to ask and how to find answers to those questions. In this article we present a toolkit with 12 "thinking tools" for asking and answering questions about biological phenomena from different…

The CoRT (Cognitive Research Trust) is a five-step program in direct instruction of thinking skills which increase the number and diversity of ideas as well as help the individual establish goals, set priorities, improve interactions with others, and incorporate feeling into thinking. (DB)

We can revive the spirit of inventiveness by allowing students the freedom to consider the unconventional and probe the possibilities of the "impossible." (Author)

A description is given of a reading program for first grade students that encouraged children to move to higher-level thinking skills by removing the constraints of basal readers and involving them in the creative and analytical reading of fairy tales. (JD)

This paper describes how secondary teachers can use the Purdue Three-Stage Model as a framework for instruction that facilitates talent development in both heterogenous and homogenous classrooms. In the first two stages, students master the core content of a discipline and practice thinking creatively and critically about the content. In the third…

In the early twentieth century, Alexander Meiklejohn believed the undergraduate college must teach students how to think. He aspired to make students into thinking, caring, active citizens with the intellectual skills to participate in a democratic society. In 1927, with the founding of the Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin, he…

Any consideration of basic skills must at some point achieve the realization that a fundamental skill is the ability of the mind to create, produce, and utilize meaning. The purpose of productive and creative thinking is to know and understand, to produce and utilize meaning that serves to guide and direct mental and physical behavior. The overall…

Current syllabi and textbooks, in trying to cover every important idea, trivialize them all. The Coalition of Essential Schools believes that students will learn more if teachers are allowed to cover less. The advantages of a slower, thought-provoking curriculum, and recommendations for designing one, are provided. (BJV)

In modern society, a company's competitive advantage is directly related to its capacity for product development. This paper describes the use of a Model Integrated Factory to simulate product development business processes for the education of engineers. (WRM)

Well-known questioning strategies, built on question classification systems, are examined. Types of question classification systems are identified as: "hierarchical," which are sequential and cumulative; "non-hierarchical," which are based on elements which should not be rank ordered; systems which are "context-bound" to specifics; and…

An Alabama school district implemented a thinking skills instruction program called Talents Unlimited through inservice education. Both workshop ratings by teachers and pretest-posttest scores by middle school and high school students suggested that Talents Unlimited can change teachers' understandings about higher order thinking skills and…

Demonstrates how to promote the transference of concepts and principles developed in other curricula to enhance a student's subject matter mastery in soil classification. Describes course format, critical thinking techniques, and a course evaluation. A conclusion and references are included. (Author/RT)