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…

How the self-explanation process relates to learning and subsequent problem-solving performance was studied in two experiments with college students to examine whether students taught to self-explain during a study phase show greater test gains than control group counterparts; this is an attempt to replicate the results of M. T. H. Chi and others.…

This book offers practical guidelines for implementing cooperative-collaborative learning in the classroom. Included are research reviews, sample lesson plan formats, suggestions for peer coaching, and forms and materials that teachers may duplicate. The book's 17 chapters are divided into three sections on cooperative group learning; partner…

This document reports on a health promotion divisional workshop on popular education (PE) that was conducted to teach health promoters/educators to use PE methodology to analyze their educational work and role as health promoters and to learn to apply PE methodology during the health promotion activities. Information on the history and…

This document is a compilation of 30 lesson plans for teaching about Japan in elementary grades. Produced by "Japan Alumni," North American classroom teachers who became acquainted with Japanese society through a program of travel/study fellowships, the lessons are divided into the following categories: motivational activities, land and…

This paper asserts that a mixture of creative movement and children's literature should be used to facilitate children's interest in literature and reading. It is argued that the integration of literature and movement into the educational environment could help lower the degree of illiteracy and ease the growing obesity and other health-related…

Role play (a dramatic technique in which individuals improvise behaviors that illustrate acts expected of persons involved in defined situations) has several advantages for the classroom. Role play: (1) involves little or no additional instructional costs; (2) allows students to practice behaviors and skills; (3) closes the gap between training…

An overview of the histories and cultures of the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe is provided for K-12 teachers in this guide. The guide is not intended to serve as a comprehensive history, nor as an in-depth analysis of the political and economic systems of these countries. It is hoped that teachers will share the information with…

This curriculum for gifted/talented students in kindergarten through grade 2 focuses on the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains in the areas of language arts, mathematics, music, physical education (dance), science, social studies, theatre, and visual arts. The curriculum is student centered, experientially based, exploratory,…

This booklet for parents offers ideas for utilizing everyday situations in the home to help children improve in school, primarily in reading and mathematics skills. General suggestions are given for helping children to do their best by talking to them, reading to them, listening to them, praising them, watching television with them, keeping them…

This supplementary math curriculum guide for use with Spanish-speaking students in Chicago public schools' seventh and eighth grade classes employs a contrastive analysis approach. Lessons are presented for objectives for which the instructional strategies used in the United States differ from those in Spanish-speaking countries. (Objectives for…

This module on directing students in applying problem-solving techniques is one of a series of 127 performance-based teacher education learning packages focusing upon specific professional competencies of vocational teachers. Addressed in the four learning experiences included in the module are understanding problem-solving techniques and their…

A model user's guide for the film, "The Frog King or Faithful Henry," introduces media specialists and educators to the range of possibilities for developing different activities for different objectives and age levels from a single film. An introductory article provides a synopsis of the film, rationale for its choice as a model, a…

Activities and methods for teaching newspaper skills to eighth-grade students are presented in this unit from the Greenfield Express Management System (GEMS) program, a California Demonstration Program in Reading. A project overview form from the California Centers for Educational Improvement (CCEI) describes the GEMS program and lists other units…

Activities and teaching methods for involving children (especially young children) in literature are presented in order to establish positive attitudes towards reading. Ideas are provided for use with wordless books, patterned or repetitive books, books organized around a theme, and picture books. The activities, each related to specific…