In teaching a well-organized college physics course that is understandable to students, teachers should first understand students' conditions and circumstances and be clear on the goals of the course. The goals of physics teaching are commonly defined as understanding the nature of scientific reasoning and the concepts and methods of physics,…

Growing interest in teaching philosophy in elementary and secondary school prompted a 1975 national survey to determine the present status of philosophy as a component in the curriculum. Possible contributions of philosophy to students' personal growth and critical thinking skills are explored. The first section of the paper presents the following…

Explores ways to organize skills which aid in developing the reasoning process. Suggests a social studies curriculum which focuses on a skill network composed of facilitating skills (observation, classification, spatial relationships), processes (inferring, predicting, hypothesizing), and operations (communications, interpretation, social…

This paper presents a system for synthesizing the educational objectives of infant curricula and illustrates the procedure by reviewing the synthesis of several specific objectives of the Carolina Infant Curriculum. Five sources are used in the synthetic process: (1) consumer opinions, (2) developmental theory, (3) developmental facts, (4)…

The lack of a philosophical teaching approach in social studies is partly due to the lack of exposure students have had to philosophy in preparatory programs and partly due to a lack of preparation for teachers in college. (JN)

The moral criticism approach employs elements of criticism and moral reasoning to reach reasoned decisions regarding the rightness or wrongness of actions in applications of scientific knowledge. (JN)

This report presents the results of a study, based on 500 responses to a survey mailed to a structured sample of school administrators, on the problems and solutions of developing thinking and reasoning skills in the schools. Provided are analyses of the issue, examples of successful practices, and advice from school administrators and…

An experiment was conducted on the effects of two teacher variables and student engagement on science achievement. The variables included: teacher wait-time, defined as the length of the pause preceding a teacher utterance; and questioning quality, a generic term used to describe cognitive level, clarity, and relevance of questioning. Thirteen…

This handbook for educators and parents discusses the need to include philosophy in the elementary classroom. The authors point out that as a question-raising discipline, philosophy is appropriate to guide children's natural inquisitiveness through the educational process. It encourages intellectual resourcefulness and flexibility which can enable…

The disciplines, the means by which knowledge is generated and organized, provide a logical framework for the selection and organization of curriculum content. Curriculum development based on the disciplines facilitates content selection and cooperation with scientists and is compatible with the training of teachers and public expectancies. A…

Law-related education programs for elementary school should be based on children's perceptions of reality. Psychologist Jean Piaget's studies of cognitive development indicate that children constantly reconstruct reality as they undergo new experiences. Children at early developmental stages may not be capable of understanding the origin and…