Personal futures planning is a tool for fostering new ways of thinking about people with developmental disabilities. Futures planning helps groups of people focus on opportunities for people with disabilities to develop personal relationships, have positive roles in community life, increase their control of their own lives, and develop the skills…

This inservice training module was designed as part of the Child-Centered Inservice Training Project (Syracuse, New York) for use with paraprofessionals in educational programs for children with developmental disabilities. Use of the materials is recommended to encourage team problem solving, to practice new skills, and to provide ongoing support…

In the fall of 1980, a course titled Developing Critical Thinking Skills was approved at the University of Minnesota-Duluth for offering as one of the options in the liberal education category called Communication, Language, and Symbolic Systems. This paper provides a description of the course (designed to provide experiences with methods and…

This study investigated the extent to which participation by high school students in a computer programming course leads to improved critical thinking skills, and whether a significant difference exists in critical thinking skill development between participants in Pascal and BASIC classes. Three groups of high school students were tested using…

The ways in which students in grades five and six solve problems is the focus of this paper, which provides background for the staff of the Skills Essential to Learning Television Project, (a multi-level series of video and print resources for classroom use). It considers the problem-solving process categories of understanding, transformation, and…

Spider World is an interactive program designed to help individuals with no previous computer experience to learn the fundamentals of programming. The program emphasizes cognitive tasks which are central to programming and provides significant problem-solving opportunities. In Spider World, the user commands a hypothetical robot (called the…

Attempts to train learning strategies have not produced marked or lasting increases in academic IQ, probably because current training models fail to recognize the evolutionary nature of strategies acquisition. Empirical and theoretical evidence supports an incidental learning model, which engineers the instructional environment following study…

This paper describes a systematic research program examining the remedial and preventive effects of coping skills training for the management of anxiety. The general conceptual/methodological frameworks guiding the project, the rationale behind selection of fears as the target problem, and the coping skills training as the preventive intervention…

A TECHNOLOGY WAS NEEDED TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND THE PRACTICE OF TEACHING. THE CHIEF GOAL WAS TO DEVELOP A PROCEDURE FOR TEACHING CHILDREN THE METHOD OF DIFFERENCE, THE PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGY IN WHICH EACH FACTOR IS VARIED IN SUCCESSION WHILE ALL OTHER FACTORS ARE HELD CONSTANT. THE COMPONENTS, SCOPE, AND LIMITATIONS…

The workshop instructional materials described here are designed to try out a systematic problem solving process as a way of working toward improvements in the school setting. Topics include diagnosis using force field technique, small group dynamics, planning for action, and planning a RUPS (Research Using Problem Solving) project. This…

The validity of an automated experimental system incorporating a computer mediator for resolving conflicting requests to speak among four-member problem-solving teams was assessed. Learning how to use problem-solving strategies was affected by this new method for facilitating participation in dialogue. Strategy learning among shy and assertive…

A set of writing assignments and class activities designed to help students analyze their own writing processes, define their own strengths and weaknesses as writers, set their own goals, devise plans for achieving those goals, and evaluate their own progress is presented in this paper. The assignments are explained in detail, and suggestions for…

This issue of the curriculum bulletin deals with the use of maps and globes. Eight topics are discussed in this publication: How Maps and Globes Are Used in Problem Solving, Inquiry, and Discovery Learning; Developing Skills Using Globes; Making Flat Maps; Guiding Concept Development of Map Symbolism; Guiding Development of Distance Concepts…

This work provides a framework for the design of programs to train change agents in the skills of helping and of resource utilization, and presents some alternative models of such training programs. The organization of the training guide is as follows: Part I is concerned with outlining the principal content areas that relate to the concept of…

This curriculum guide outlines modifications to the life skills lessons contained in the Life Skills Coaching Manual prepared by Saskatchewan NewStart. The course changes are based on adult education experience at a penitentiary, a literature search, and interviews with inmates and staff at a correctional institution. As with the correctional…