Describes the "Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking Project" which has now sent more than 70 volunteer teacher educators into 20 countries across Central Europe and Central Asia to help teachers to try out methods that foster active learning and critical thinking. Discusses support for the project, teaching strategies introduced,…

Describes a whole language learning unit based on group investigation. The task is an authentic task and includes a problem that requires solving as well as step-by-step guidelines for collecting, organizing, and presenting data. The sample unit is developed around the topic of animals. (Author/VWL)

Describes and evaluates a package of measures designed to introduce a collaborative problem-solving (CPS) approach to learning tutorials of a second-year university macroeconomics subject. Presents findings related to the influence of CPS on tutors' teaching experiences, students' attitudes attendance and hours of study, and academic achievement.…

Examines quantitative models in school physics, looking particularly at the degree to which they match the real world. Explores the positive aspects of a mismatch between models and real world conditions. (DDR)

Describes differences between problems and predicaments. Asserts that top leaders manage predicaments. Describes several paradoxes faced by educational leaders and the predicaments underlying their decision choices that usually result in coping with, rather than resolving the predicaments. Offers suggests for improving educational leaders'…

Describes use of focused prompts with student journals in a college mathematics course at Ohio State University. Students were asked to complete two writing tasks weekly to describe what they had learned from specific topics, and work out one problem in detail, with explanatory notes describing errors and false starts. Students' attitude toward…

The University of Houston (Texas) and its four campuses have adopted a "co-opetition" approach to create a multi-instructional teaching center to deliver educational programs and courses in the Houston metropolitan area. It has been found that citizens, legislators, administrators, faculty, and students all benefit, without sacrificing…

Suggests ways directors can create a climate to reduce and resolve conflict, including assessing the work environment, improving communication, understanding different personalities involved, and understanding the negotiation process. Applies the process to particular scenarios of early childhood staff conflict. Asserts that how directors deal…

This article summarizes the important ideas and research findings of DISCOVER, an on-going program of research and development concerning the problem solving abilities of children and youth. It identifies five problem types and reviews the DISCOVER assessment model, including research on its reliability and validity and the DISCOVER curriculum…

Looks at a cross-curriculum innovation in which students engage in reading, writing, problem solving, interaction with simulations and databases, and performing various hands-on activities. Describes a project that provides students with the opportunity to participate in many of the new literacies while teachers learn new skills using these same…

This paper describes how eighth-grade students in a remedial math class were able to match the problem solving performance of comparison students in a pre-algebra class. It discusses the use of video-based anchored instruction linked to applied problems to develop students' understanding and skills. (Contains references.) (DB)

The NIMH Healthy Living Project (HLP), a randomized behavioral intervention trial for people living with HIV, enrolled 943 individuals, including women, heterosexual men, injection drug users, and men who have sex with men from Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, and San Francisco. The intervention, which is based on qualitative formative research…

The main aim of this paper is to describe a working protocol which can offer practising educational psychologists a rational framework within which to investigate and understand the complex problems of children and young people in school and to provide appropriate advice to teachers, parents/carers and LEA decision makers on how they can best…

This article describes an activity where children develop reasoning skills by using mathematical clues to decide whether there is one, more than one, or no solutions to a problem. (Contains 4 figures.)

In this article, the author shares a very successful 50-minute inquiry-based physics lesson that uses only small metal cans, a bit of string, and the inquiring minds of middle schoolers. The topic of the lesson is wave motion and energy transfer. The intent of this article is to show that tests of student-generated hypotheses can be simple, quick,…