This digest complements guidelines addressing the mechanics of online searching by considering how treating information searches as exercises in critical thinking can improve our use of online resources. It addresses the use and application of metacognition, hypothesis testing, and augmentation. Improving metacognition means improving the ability…

Argues that there is evidence documenting the need for improvement of university and community college instruction in critical reading and thinking. Describes programs offered to improve such skills. Argues that universities and colleges need to strike a balance between the skills approach and the more general contextual approach. (RS)

Reviews two approaches to critical thinking and shares seven steps from one approach which promote critical thinking skills. Shares an example of an activity showing how this approach can be used in many areas of the curriculum. (MG)

Argues that educators have the intent and the means to develop students who can reason and reflect across all content areas. Outlines three principles involved in teaching critical thinking. (RS)

Intended for teachers, this booklet shows how spoken language can affect student thinking and presents strategies for teaching critical thinking skills. The first section discusses the theoretical and research bases for promoting critical thinking through speech, defines critical thinking, explores critical thinking as abstract thinking, and tells…

This bibliography contains 23 annotations of resources in the ERIC database (ranging from 1985 to 1989) on helping students develop higher level and analytical skills, such as critical reading and thinking. The citations include instructional strategies for teaching visual literacy, religion, spelling, reading, semiotics, problem solving,…

Describes various teaching models that have proven effective in teaching argumentation. (HOD)

Reports on programs and activities designed to teach thinking skills either as a separate school subject or as a strand in a content area. (FL)

Offers nine citations from the ERIC database which point to resources for developing students' critical thinking skills. (MG)

The field of educational technology was built on the positivist, modernist search for a best medium towards universal communication and the teaching of predetermined behavior and thinking patterns. Once, this medium was thought to be motion pictures, then television, then programmed instruction, and today it is hoped that it will be instructional…

Critical thinking is a major goal of social studies education. Teachers need to know what critical thinking is before they can successfully incorporate the skill into their teaching strategies. Understanding why critical thinking is a major goal of education in a free society helps teachers prepare students to be informed and rational participants…

Intended for teachers, this monograph encourages readers to consider the notion that thinking critically is a matter of reading signs, that it is the function of signs that makes reflective thinking possible. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "Beyond a Literal Reading"; (2) "Current Thinking on Critical Thinking";…

This digest concerns itself with the origin of reflective thought, the application of theories about reflective thought to classrooms, conflicts and issues, and a synthesis of the essential ideas. Sections of the Digest address origin of the idea of reflective thought, definitions of reflective thinking, questioning strategies, how to generate…

Discusses how teachers can provide classroom experiences that lead young readers to react critically to what they read. Suggests ways to focus attention and target evaluative responses to literature. (MM)

Based upon the idea that the only hope for substantial curricular reform and for adoption of reflective inquiry in American schools is for teachers to redefine the basic pedagogical concepts that they have inherited, this book discusses how to teach students to reflect upon what they learn in school. The three major sections of the book discuss:…