Infusing five processes into assignments can help students hone the skills they'll need to address complex problems. The world students will enter is full of complex, unpredictable problems--and students will need sophisticated thinking skills to cope. The authors unpack five thinking processes students need to internalize through opportunities in…

Students need specific thinking--or Habits of Mind--to engage with problems and become self-directed learners, write Arthur L. Costa, Bena Kallick, Jay McTighe, and Allison Zmuda. A curricular approach based on enhancing students' understanding of conceptually significant, transferable ideas can help schools teach these dispositions.

As consultants who infuse the "Habits of Mind" into schools, the authors explain how spreading these habits through school can increase the whole school's well-being and feed teacher efficacy. They list seven factors that can create a "culture of efficacy" that draws on these 16 habits (thinking dispositions at the core of…

As codirector of Harvard University's Project Zero, David Perkins has conducted long-term research programs on creativity, problem solving and reasoning, and learning in the arts, sciences, and everyday life. He explains a new program designed to help teachers connect thinking strategies with subject matter, so that students can better manage…

Sifts through confusing intelligence theories, arguing that intelligence is a combination of influences involving power, tactics, and content. Good thinking is an unnatural act demanding evenhanded reasoning, problem finding (versus solving), and knowledge as invention. Discusses thinking frames guiding thought processes and the implications for…

Article stresses the skills gained in problem-solving over mere information transmission in the classroom. (GB)

Discusses specific learning strategy tactics for acquiring verbal knowledge basic to certain disciplines, procedural skills (reading, using language, and problem solving), and self-motivation techniques applicable to all types of learning situations. All three tactics are necessary for creating a well-structured knowledge base. Includes 21…

If schools are to succeed in teaching critical thinking, educators must have a clear idea of what it is. Critical thinking is skillful, responsible thinking that relies upon criteria, is self-correcting, and is sensitive to context. (TE)

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development described what children are capable of doing at each stage of development; new research focuses on actual use of these capabilities. (Author/MLF)

Summarizes the work of "information processing" psychologists who study cognition and contends that intelligence consists of a set of developed thinking and learning skills that can, to some degree, be taught. Nine such skills are listed including problem identification and strategy selection. (Author/MLF)

Research in cognitive science is providing an increasingly detailed understanding of human cognition. Teachers can help students become conscious of their own reasoning processes and then learn to compare, contrast, interrelate, or coordinate various ways in which they think in order to refine their problem-solving methods. (Author/MLF)

Describes characteristics of successful problem solvers and reports programs at all educational levels designed to help students improve their skills. (Author/MLF)

Discusses certain teachers' rejection of prepackaged curricula for infusion of critical thinking skills into their teaching. Observational learning develops thinking skills and deepens understanding of causality and responsibility, whether the context is the Battle of Lexington or Chicken Little's dilemma. Strong administrative support is needed…

Considers the characteristics of large-scale spatial representations from three viewpoints and discusses a few implications of the existence of these representations for education. (Author/MLF)

Programs to teach students critical thinking must empower them to be self-directed, but they must also stress respect and empathy for the viewpoints of others. (Author/TE)