The 1969 version of "The Italian Job" is used as context for teaching turning forces and introducing or enhancing the understanding of equilibrium and Newton's Third Law of Motion. A Harrington Legionnaire coach is used as the getaway vehicle for a gold heist and the film ends on a genuine cliffhanger, with the rear half of the coach…

Purpose: In this clinical focus article, the authors argue for robust vocabulary instruction with emergent bilingual learners both in inclusive classroom settings and in clinical settings for emergent bilinguals with language and literacy disorders. Robust vocabulary instruction focuses on high-utility academic words that carry abstract meanings…

This study examined effects of gamified comparison on sixth graders' performance of algebra word problem solving and attitude toward algebra learning. Seventy-two sixth graders were invited to participate in a four-week experimental instruction and assigned to three groups: gamified comparison, comparison, and control. The results showed (1) a…

The author describes the process an inventor uses to create a new item. The process includes (1) problem identification, (2) background research, (3) data collection, (4) imagination, and (5) limitation identification. He suggests that students should learn this process to become creative problem solvers. (CH)

Describes the U procedure, a seven-step model that facilitates management problem solving. Explains how this model was taught to farmers, with small groups assigned to solve class members' actual farm management problems. (CH)

The emphasis on promoting thinking skills in the classroom has fostered several trends, tendencies, and tensions. This movement has taken three directions: the teaching of thinking, teaching for thinking, and teaching about thinking. In the first, thinking is regarded as a process of developing a set amount of skills. The proponents of this…

This program adapts the Think Aloud method, originally designed to assist young aggressive boys in achieving greater self-control, to improve problem-solving skills among first and second graders. Modeling of self-instructional verbalizations is used to teach children a systematic approach to analyzing a problem, planning an attack and evaluating…

Recommendations for increasing participation of functionally illiterate adults in community education programs include decentralization of educational sites, availability of transportation and child care, and instruction stressing functional literacy and teaching reading and computation as tools for solving students' personal and social problems.…

Presents the Decision-Making Process Model, a framework for working through questions that require action. The seven steps are identifying the decision; determining why it is needed; identifying alternatives; analyzing information; estimating practicality; and deciding on a conclusion. The focus is on adolescent sexual decisions. (Author/JAC)

Many elementary and junior high school students do not become proficient with common and decimal fractions because they have established few connections between the form they learn in the classroom and understandings they already have. (Author/GC)

Suggests that language awareness, or consciousness raising, has great potential in second-language learning. Language awareness presents students with linguistic data so they can work out grammatical rules for themselves. Offers a variety of examples of possible language-awareness lessons, first for the teaching of English, then for the teaching…

In literature on problem-based learning (PBL), it is often difficult to determine whether the educational approach being described is actually PBL. Provides planners and assessors of PBL curricula with a framework for analysis. Educational activities can be categorized as PBL according to three core principles and four criteria concerning their…

Develops a comprehensive approach to human relations training (HRT) for teachers based on knowledge of student diversity and application of communication skills. Describes a model that integrates the two major components of HRT. Discusses specific goals, skills, and attitudes capable of being fitted into a teaching paradigm. (Author/RC)

Information processing models do not account for much of human competence in everyday scientific and lay contexts. Situated cognition models account better for competence in widely differing situations. In situated cognition models, the purpose of science education must be reconceived as preparing citizens to participate in public enactments of…

The purpose of this report is twofold. The first is to deliver an accurate portrayal of students' achievement in geometry and measurement as gleaned from the results of the 1986 Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP). The second is to provide K-12 teachers of mathematics with activities that have proven to be helpful in encouraging…