To prepare students for a tech-intensive future, educators cannot hold on to 20th-century learning practices. They must reimagine education and cultivate an updated skill set. Lessons led by caring educators will continue to help students be strong learners and critical thinkers; but "human" skills will equip them to handle an uncertain…

At the root of problem solving, Tishman and Clapp assert, is a sense of agency. The impetus to engage with a problem starts with a sense that it's possible to reshape something by directing one's actions purposefully. The authors--who participated in a long-term project observing how the "maker movement" is being implemented in…

In some math classrooms, students are taught to follow and memorize procedures to arrive at the correct solution to problems. In this article, author Mike Flynn suggests a way to move beyond answer-getting to true problem solving. He describes an instructional approach called three-act tasks in which students solve an engaging math problem in…

Since 2002, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has been the leading advocacy organization in the United States focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. Its "Framework for 21st Century Learning," the result of a consensus among hundreds of stakeholders, describes the skills, knowledge, and expertise students need to…

A structural arithmetic curriculum is designed to help students develop their own powers of thought. (Author/MLF)

Summarizes the work of "information processing" psychologists who study cognition and contends that intelligence consists of a set of developed thinking and learning skills that can, to some degree, be taught. Nine such skills are listed including problem identification and strategy selection. (Author/MLF)

Research in cognitive science is providing an increasingly detailed understanding of human cognition. Teachers can help students become conscious of their own reasoning processes and then learn to compare, contrast, interrelate, or coordinate various ways in which they think in order to refine their problem-solving methods. (Author/MLF)

A question-answer format on how specific teacher behaviors influence students' acquisition of information, ability to make information meaningful, and application of meaning to new situations. (Author/MLF)

Explores the similarities and differences among three thinking skills programs that help students analyze and evaluate their own problem-solving skills. (MLF)

A recent study in Baltimore shows that the inclusion of a structured cognitive skills program in the language arts curriculum significantly improved student verbal performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). (MD)

Describes an assessment center that not only identifies strong candidates for administrative positions but also helps participants improve weak skills. (Author/JM)

Constructivist theory recognizes the student's value as thinker. Thinking ability hinges on the capacity to ask and consider important questions. Teachers need question-driven problem-solving strategies that are comprehensive, adaptable, discriminating, productive, and transferable. This article explains four types of situations and accompanying…

Presents research on cognitive skills demanded by elementary and secondary school mathematics textbooks, based on an original 10-level classification of thinking activities; reports a general decline both in the amount of material demanding student involvement and in the percentage of that material requiring higher-order thinking. (MCG)

In April 2000, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics will release "Principles and Standards in School Mathematics," a revised document stressing conceptual understanding and reasoning. NCTM standards specify that curricula should emphasize five mathematical processes: problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication,…