Challenges (assignments, activities, tests) incorporated into agriculture classes were evaluated using Bloom's Taxonomy. The cognitive level varied by course and type of activity. Effectiveness depended on selecting challenges appropriate for the material, requiring higher-order thinking, and rewarding students for work at higher cognitive levels.…

A Think Box is a collection of independent activities based on one theme and housed in an easily transportable container. It is intended to be used as enrichment for students who have already completed their assigned work. The activities are designed to develop higher level skills such as critical thinking or creative reading. They can be part of…

Maintaining that critical reading is critical thinking, this paper presents a teaching method that adapts the critical thinking/reading process to the model of reading proposed by W. S. Gray. The paper describes the four steps of the Gray model (word perception, comprehension of persuasive language, student judgment of the soundness of the…

Discusses the methodology, materials, and results of teaching critical thinking to 20 third graders. (RL)

This practicum was designed to incorporate critical thinking skills instruction and practice into a fourth-grade curriculum to increase fourth-grade students' ability to recognize and apply critical thinking strategies to appropriate situations. This program concentrated on the increasing of six critical thinking skills: classification, sequence…

Describes an assignment sequence using photographs to introduce developmental students to conventions of academic inquiry, and to give them practice analyzing and synthesizing. Reports that students link details observed in the photos to inferences drawn about them. Concentrates on the assignment linking a photo of E. B. White with an essay by him…

Discusses the principles of teaching that can help students to be actively, purposefully engaged in their learning. Describes current innovations in reading, language arts, and mathematics education. Introduces the constructivist principles and teaching practices that can facilitate implementation of current instruction innovations. (MOK)

The first volume of a program to increase the academic growth of preschool and primary grade children through the utilization of brain hemisphere research, this manual outlines brain dominance theory and provides two instruments for assessing students' preferred style of learning. Material is provided in eight sections. Section 1 introduces the…

One of a series dealing with current issues affecting language arts instruction, this paper focuses on thinking skills. The paper begins by raising two issues: whether thinking skills should be taught as part of each subject area, as a separate skill, or both, and whether English and language arts teachers have a special role in the teaching of…

This paper discusses the use of social studies in developing critical and creative thought in preschool children. The social studies curriculum at any age level involves three principles: the development of an understanding of the social sciences, encouragement of acceptable socio-cultural behavior, and the development of critical and creative…

Examines the concept of the cognitively active learner and discusses the following categories of learning strategies: rehearsal, elaboration, organization, comprehension monitoring, and affective. (NKA)

Schools tend to have a built-in bias toward left brain activities (tasks that are linear and sequential in nature), so the introduction of right brain activities (functions related to music, rhythm, images, color, imagination, daydreaming, dimensions) brings a balance into the classroom and helps those students who may be right brain oriented. To…

This article presents 10 practical teaching procedures to encourage students to develop formal reasoning skills. A twelfth-grade English course is used as an example. Procedures include pretesting, sequencing instruction, providing students with concrete experiences, discussing reasoning patterns and forms of argumentation, assigning argumentative…

Discusses recent research in cognitive psychology that identifies how students are likely to respond when controversial issues are included in course content. Points out that controversial material may lead to misunderstandings and forgetting. Provides teaching ideas to enhance student learning and remembering, to deal with emotions, and to foster…

As part of a larger examination of student perspectives in science, social studies and communication arts, this report uses qualitative methodology to explore two teacher-researchers' collaborative teaching of social studies and students' construction of meaning in social studies. Teacher-researchers involved in the overall study included two…