This paper is a review of the research literature related to theories of reasoning and teacher thinking. Judgment theory, decision theory, and problem-solving theory are discussed. Reviews are provided for studies from three major research projects on teacher thinking: The Institute for Research on Teaching, Special Study C of the Beginning…

This paper examines the cognitive processes associated with higher-order thinking strategies--i.e., cognitive processes directly associated with the employment of knowledge in the service of problem solving and creativity--in order to more clearly define a prescribed instructional method to improve problem-solving skills. The first section of the…

An analysis of children's narrative composition and art revealed concurrent development at both a general structural level and at a fine-grained detail level. A three-part study investigated whether this general cognitive pattern would be maintained across a different range of tasks: literary composition, scientific reasoning, and working memory.…

A technique for studying how parents think, make decisions, and solve childrearing problems, Computer-Presented Social Interactions (CPSI), is described. Two studies involving CPSI are presented. The first study concerns a common parental cognitive task: causal analysis of an undesired behavior. The task was to diagnose the cause of non-contingent…

This document presents research studies/findings and provides a developing point of view on adolescent thought. The first chapter discusses the nature and definitions of thinking. The second and third chapters discuss frameworks for adolescent thought (focusing on the Gestalt school, Geneva school, and accelerated learning) and survey studies on…

This report on the Adult Math Skills Project includes sections on theory, empirical studies, and their implications. Section 1 presents an overview, noting that activity and setting are seen as mutually creating, sustaining, and changing the nature of problem solving. The empirical studies involved: (1) arithmetic practices among grocery shoppers;…

This paper examines problems involved in designing an integrated system to teach and assess critical thinking skills in the classroom, and describes the Monitor Achievement in Pittsburgh (MAP) Critical Thinking Project, an attempt to draw upon research from diverse disciplines in developing an effective pilot project in the Pittsburgh public…

The aim of this study was to investigate the strategies leading to test item responses in 60 young (20-25 years) and 60 middle-aged (35-40 years) adults, whose highest level of education had been either secondary, technical or university. Subjects were individually administered a 12 item test similar to Raven's Progressive Matrices, and were…

Well-designed problems are crucial for the success of problem-based learning (PBL). Previous discussions about designing problems for PBL have been rather general and inadequate in guiding educators and practitioners to design effective PBL problems. This paper introduces the 3C3R PBL problem design model as a conceptual framework for…

The primary objective of this study was to describe those mental processes involved in teacher planning decisions made prior to teaching. One elementary teacher's planning decisions were studied during five months of classroom instruction. Both ethnographic and information processing approaches were used to describe distinctive features of the…

Much valuable information can be gained by analyzing the students' wrong responses. When a student answers a free response item she/he gives the response which she/he considers to be the correct one. Therefore, diagnosing the algorithm that led the student to his/her answer provides an important source of information for assessing his/her…

Part of the "Teaching Young People to be Critical Series," this booklet defines and analyzes emotions and emotional terms for children in light of theories of philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Dewey. Intended for individual or small group work, the objectives are threefold: reading improvement, reading enjoyment, and student involvement in…

This second booklet of a two-part publication, designed as an in-service tool for teachers of grades K-9, concerns the teaching and curriculum aspects of problem solving. It is a digest of selected topics integral to successful problem-solving instruction. The resource is organized into independent units for individual reference or group…

The selection of wrong answers for multiple choice tests appears not to be blind guessing, as the current theory assumes, but represents systematic choice based upon the ways in which learners extract meaning and solve problems. It appears the departures from "expected" answers arise when the learner interprets the question in a manner different…

In a test the presence or absence of a "structure" in the individual's cognitive processes of formal operations thinking, 61 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students were administered three tasks supposedly requiring such a method of thinking. The three tasks were (1) a problem solving task (PS), (2) a chemistry task requiring a certain combination…