What disturbs teachers most is not students' ignorance about our culture and history, but their unwillingness or inability to think critically about subjects that ostensibly interest them. Teachers often exacerbate this problem by oversimplifying complex issues, using "defensive" or controlling teaching strategies, and squelching debate.…

Three Piagetian tests of formal reasoning were administered to 65 high school biology students after half of this group had been exposed to a training session involving the control of variables. Among the results of this study was that the concrete operational students benefited more from the training session than did the formal operational…

This annotated bibliography attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What is criticial thinking? (2) Can it be taught and to whom? (3) Which methods are most practical for teaching critical thinking to secondary students? and (4) Can its acquisition be tested? The first question researches the literature for a definition of the term. The…

Two Piagetian tests which require manipulation, two conservation tasks, and the Longeot pencil and paper formal reasoning test were administered to 62 high school biology students. For all measures the males' mean level was higher than that of the females. (MLH)

The Future Homemakers of America (FHA) organization has historically provided an ideal climate for development of critical thinking by devoting conscious attention to thinking, teaching skills directly, and providing opportunities for interaction through cooperative learning and discussion. Strategies for expanding the knowledge base and building…

To determine the effects of instruction in general semantics on the critical thinking of secondary students, 104 tenth- and eleventh-grade students in control and experimental groups completed the "Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal" test before and after the 12-week teaching period, in which two teachers spent 1 hour per week in the…

Many educators believe that, regardless of innate abilities and acquired skills, students at different educational levels do not think in the same way. To account for these differences, 119 female students representing four educational levels (high school seniors to graduate students) completed the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Form A…

Explains how the study of art history encourages the development of critical thinking in adolescents by comparing Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives with Feldman's stages of art criticism. Offers curriculum-based recommendations for using art history and criticism to encourage critical thinking. (LS)

A cognitive-based system of analysis of spoken discourse was designed to provide details about the way pupils think and talk about issues arising from prose material. Written and spoken responses were analyzed to examine the effects of intellectual ability, differences in the stimulus passage, and prior small group discussion. (Note: Page…

Summarizes interviews with British West Indies children concerning the production of art and the role of the artist. Demonstrates that children's perceptions undergo a shift from naive realism (pretty things make pretty pictures) to a more interpretive stance (the artist's efforts define the final product). (MJP)

Intended for college or secondary school teachers of courses beyond the basic level in freshman English and composition, this course description treats components of composition for critical thinking, including semantics, tone, logic, and argumentation, and their application to writing critical, argumentative, and research papers. The introduction…

One of three related documents produced in response to a need for direct instruction in thinking skills at the secondary level, this teaching guide for Book One and Book Two of "Thinking Through Language" is intended for junior or senior high school English teachers. The guide contains an introduction and summaries of Book One and Book Two,…