Critical thinking skills figure prominently among the goals for education proposed by educational researchers, parents, and employers. This digest discusses the skills related to critical thinking and three specific strategies for teaching these skills. The first, Building Categories, is an inductive reasoning tool that helps students categorize…

This ERIC Digest discusses three ways in which teachers can create an environment that stimulates critical inquiry: critical reading; writing to learn; and classification games. Critical reading has been defined as learning to evaluate, draw inferences, and arrive at conclusions based on the evidence. Elbow's (1983) writing to learn approach to…

Multicultural education has become a controversial topic in recent years, and in the midst of such controversy, there has been little agreement on a precise conceptualization of multicultural education. It is apparent that it takes many forms. A typology is presented that divides multicultural education programs into three categories according to…

This digest provides an overview of mental retardation in children and adults. It begins by discussing the definition of mental retardation and the three components that are required for an accurate diagnosis: an IQ score of approximately 70 or below, a determination of deficits in adaptive behavior, and origins of the disability prior to age 18.…

In the past several decades, individuals have been responding more actively to political and personal pressures to identify with a specific group that shares their background. For many people of mixed racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage, making such an identification is complicated. It is important for society to foster the positive development…

This ERIC digest provides highlights of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (P.L. 105-17). Changes to general provisions of the law are explained, as well as changes in other areas, such as outcomes and standards, evaluations and curriculum, procedural safeguards, discipline, early intervention, and teacher training…