This article provides an overview of how people learn and strategies that can be taught to individuals to improve their levels of academic achievement. Several examples from recent case studies illustrate cognitive controls and profiles as well as the procedures and materials employed in augmentation and transfer training. (MT)

The amount and type of decision-making activities available to and used by adolescents are examined. Adolescents' effectiveness in making decisions, methods they employ while doing so, and various decision-making models that may help adolescents perfect decision-making skills are discussed. (CJ)

The relationship between laws and the values of a society provides an excellent means for applying citizenship education and law-related education to the social studies curriculum. Teaching strategies suggest classroom exercises in citizenship participation. (JN)

Although the concept of learning readiness has been recognized for over a century, the term readiness did not appear until the 1920s. Readiness efforts must be considered in terms of their effect on the quality of life for young children, and continued evaluation of activities must take place in these terms. (JN)

Describes the development of reading fluency and expression, noting connections among oral reading fluency, word recognition, and spelling. The article presents a model of the stages of literacy development that recognizes the role of tacit knowledge in learning to read and write. A spelling inventory for teachers is included. (SM)

Experiences in the arts can help students develop positive attitudes towards learning. The relationship of language and the arts to the development of perceptual skills is explored. The processes of learning and its application to developing concepts in music and movement are discussed. (DF)

Outlines how contemporary reading theorists conceptualize reading fluency, discussing why it is a good indicator of reading process efficiency. Suggests ways to foster development of reading fluency. Children must acquire the automatic word and phrase processing that enables fluent reading and lets them allocate cognitive capacity to…

Curriculum theory must attend to three problem areas: educational practice, ethical criteria, and content. Educational practice includes questions about predictions, explanations, and descriptions. Ethical criteria are used to clarify improvements in values. Substantive content ranges across areas of human inquiry from the humanities to natural…

Teacher educators are encouraged to respond to variations in the needs of individual teachers. To do this, educators need to devise preservice programs which involve development of teacher tasks for individual teachers. Teacher behaviors are observable indications of teachers' abilities to accomplish these tasks. (JN)

This article reviews literature on higher order thinking focusing on three issues: perspectives of philosophers and psychologists, attempts to differentiate between lower and higher order thinking, and the relationship between critical thinking and problem solving and what that means to higher order thinking. (SM)

Classroom teachers frequently use various programs, strategies, and techniques to enhance student thinking, including questioning, writing, and general information processing (meaning construction, encoding, matching, analyzing, representing, and abstracting). The paper notes other strategies not used or underutilized by teachers. (SM)

A research review suggests that educational practice which nurtures the development of thinking skills in a free mind is effective for all. The paper describes the nature of thinking and the knowledge generation process. Success depends upon students having an opportunity to explore, question, and generate and test answers. (SM)

The needs and attitudes of mature professional teachers are different from those of students and beginning teachers. In-service education programs should be structured with this in mind. (JD)

Describes a dispositional conception of thinking, presenting a view of what good thinking dispositions look like and what they are made of. The article compares different models of teaching (teaching as transmission and as enculturation) and examines the extent to which they provide adequate guidelines for teaching thinking dispositions. (SM)

To understand the processes of learning and to make educational decisions for the future, three levels of environmental and historical context need to be considered. The microsystem represents the most immediate environment, the family; the exosystem includes environment experienced directly, the neighborhood; and the macrosystem represents the…