The basic premise of this paper is that effective teacher training programs need to assist students in reaching beyond competence in subject matter and instructional methodology to focus on developing the prospective teacher's capacity to recognize and utilize the cognitive processes underlying the respective categories of the curriculum. A…

Intended as a resource for teachers of grades four and up who are eager to improve their students' thinking skills while teaching their regular curriculum, this booklet contains activities that can be used to teach a new concept or to review a previously taught skill. Following an introduction, the topics of the chapters of the resource guide and…

Research involving split-brain patients has shown that the two hemispheres of the brain process information differently. The left side of the brain is more analytical, the right side is more holistic, taking in overall characteristics rather than specific detail. This reserach can be applied to the educational process in several ways. The concepts…

In teaching students how to write, the utilitarian aspect does not need to be ignored, but--more important--the imaginative, expressive aspect should be emphasized. Since all writing depends on the full resources of the imagination, students need to be taught how to recreate or vivify people, objects, scenes, and feelings. A process which helps…

This study was conducted to determine whether efficiency in concept attainment can be increased as a function of the interaction of the use of good negative instances and increased attention as defined in terms of risk conditions. Subjects were 36 ninth-grade students of average problem solving ability as determined by IQ. Six treatment groups…

The author summarizes the results of 133 studies designed to test approaches to teaching children to think creatively. While acknowledging criticisms that most of the studies use performances on tests of creative thinking and other creative school performances as criteria, he contends that the evidence which they provide can be extremely useful to…

Advocates emphasizing invention or substance of writing first, and suggests that peer evaluation will provide a necessary audience for student writers. (MKM)

Describes three types of chemical content, learning strategies for each type, and methods of teaching students to use the appropriate strategies. Provides suggestions for improving students' ability to learn. (CW)

This updated 1987 article argues that teaching of thinking skills, common in gifted education, has wider value in regular school instructional programs. It describes programs which have implemented Talents Unlimited, a classroom-level, research-based model for teaching creative- and critical-thinking skills which encompasses productive thinking,…

"Mental aerobics" stimulates the mind through well-planned, specific, and direct exercise routines. During a lecture, students are asked to tear out a half-sheet of paper and write an immediate reaction to the lecture. This technique encourages inclusion, expression, understanding, thinking, feedback, insight, and comparison. (Author/MLW)

The renewed interest in teaching thinking skills results from concern about the failings of the current system. Some thinking skills programs emphasize cognitive processes, while others are concerned with heuristics, development of formal operations, language and symbols, or thinking as subject matter. (TE)

Article stresses the teacher's influence on the creativity of children and the importance in recognizing the necessity for encouraging the development of each child's creative expression. (RK)

Planning for the distant future should be an integral part of current decision making. (JD)

Teaching strategies that overcome the brain's natural tendency to limit information can open students' minds to new ideas and creative mental habits. Seven strategies to provoke divergent thinking and deepen understanding are hypothetical thinking, reversal, application of different symbol systems, analogy, viewpoint analysis, completion, and web…