Examines the issues surrounding the implementation of thinking skills programs in public school curricula. Seeks to classify thinking skills, to provide options for selection of an instructional framework, and to suggest guidelines for teacher training in thinking skills curricula. (SR)

Offers strategies which preschool teachers can use to facilitate children's problem-solving skills through play in the context of the Play and Problem-Solving Model. Discusses the clues children give teachers when they need help and what kind of help children need to solve problems. (BB)

This article describes a new curriculum for reversing self-defeating tendencies in secondary level youth with disabilities by building skills in areas such as communication, self-understanding, creative thinking, and problem solving. The curriculum, Self Determination: The Road to Personal Freedom, focuses on development of eight skills. (DB)

Gifted elementary students at the Center for Gifted Education in Columbia, Missouri, participated in a seminar designed to teach them the fundamentals of chess and other strategy board games. Students learned that beginning chess is accessible to everyone, learned problem solving and concentration, and created their own strategy board games. (JDD)

Problem-solving strategies which use reflective thinking and inference in mathematics are discussed. Examples are provided with discussions of the learning process. The advantages of this approach are stressed. (CW)

Although increased attention to testing has resulted in improved guidelines for measuring skills and interpreting test results, educators are confused about certain testing problems and appropriate ameliorative strategies. Changing from multiple-choice formats to authentic performances will not reform education. Highly valuable outcomes such as…

The article suggests a method for organizing the research on teaching thinking and provides examples of indicators of teacher performance within various domains (hypothesis testing, argument assessment, problem solving, probabilistic thinking, and flexibility). Examples of empirical evidence supporting each indicator are included. (SM)

Discussion of combating stereotypes of Native Americans in literature and educational resources focuses on the need to promote information literacy in order to develop students' critical thinking skills that will help with problem solving, decision-making, and creative thinking. Highlights include integrating critical thinking; resources for…

This article discusses how the World Wide Web can empower students to think creatively, especially the gifted. It profiles 3 Web sites that discuss techniques, games, and strategies for enhancing creative thinking and 13 Web sites that contain information on inventors and inventions to stimulate gifted students. (Contains one reference.) (CR)

An important outcome of Singapore's education system is the development of creative thinking skills. This project investigates the impact of a creative dance unit on a class of Primary One (seven-year-old) children's usage of bodily kinaesthetic intelligence to solve problems. One key objective was for the researchers to observe something new,…

This guide encourages a learning environment that allows for creativity. Creative theory, assessment, and talent identification information is given. Student activities are presented to encourage creative problem solving, dispel myths and misunderstandings about creativity, provide exercises in brainstorming, creative thinking, and making cross…

Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, is an awareness of and control over one's own thinking behavior. This guide for teaching metacognitive reflection in the classroom is divided into three sections that highlight the arenas where metacognition can occur: planning, monitoring, and evaluating. Within each section, 10 specific strategies are…

This is one of a four-volume series intended to improve students' (grade 6-adult) critical thinking through evaluation of conflicting viewpoints of United States history. Each lesson is a self-contained problem that can be integrated at any point in a corresponding history unit. The book represents both analytical and narrative history. Unit One…

In this paper the theory that human thinking proceeds according to the computer model, or symbol manipulation, is reviewed and challenged. The research used as subjects five highly rated tournament chess players who "thought aloud" during a chess game to provide tape recorded protocols of decisions made while playing. These protocols…

In this study 34 spontaneous analogies produced by 16 college freshmen while solving qualitative physics problems are analyzed. A number of the analogies were invalid in the sense that they led to an incorrect answer from the physicist's point of view. However, many were valid, and a few were powerful in the sense that they seemed not only to help…