Explore claims of extraterrestrial life and our efforts to communicate with inhabitants of worlds outside our solar system. Even though there's no "proof positive" for extraterrestrial life-forms of any flavor, we've set the stage for applying a battery of critical-thinking skills to the valid analysis of scientific data. (Contains 3 figures and 5…

Dynamic inquiry learning emphasizes aspects of change, intellectual flexibility, and critical thinking. Dynamic inquiry learning is characterized by the following criteria: learning as a process, changes during the inquiry, procedural understanding, and affective points of view. This study compared the influence of open versus guided inquiry…

We can revive the spirit of inventiveness by allowing students the freedom to consider the unconventional and probe the possibilities of the "impossible." (Author)

Discusses insightful learning, trace system,'' and laws of perception and Pragnanz in connection with problem solving and critical thinking in science teaching. Suggests 19 guidelines for sequencing curriculum and identifying activities for use in science classes. (CC)

A new core curriculum at Newmann College (Pennsylvania) aims to provide liberal learning through cross-disciplinary instruction without destroying the identity of specific content areas. The Collaborative Probing Model (CPM) provides a basis for the kind of creative self-control that will lead to flexible work within and between disciplines. This…

Defines inquiry, a student-centered discovery process, and introduces Pathways to Knowledge(TM), an information process model that provides stages and strategies for anyone interested in gathering, using, and evaluating information. Describes the six stages of Pathways: Appreciation, Presearch; Search; Interpretation; Communication; and…

Since history textbooks omit and/or emphasize certain data, students are left with a false sense of history. Although the "hard data" presented in history texts is generally regarded as reliable, the selection and organization of that data is inherently manipulative because other data has been excluded. Because authors do not begin with a…

Discusses the following themes that pervade individual articles in this volume: (1) critical reasoning; (2) inductive anthropology; (3) active learning; (4) discovery; (5) open versus closed anthropology; (6) reflexivity; (7) cross-cultural comparisons; (8) films; (9) holism; and (10) problems in the 1990s. Suggests that these themes will be at…

Museum objects can be the springboard for exercising critical thinking. There are four main thought processes associated with critical thinking: (1) fluent thinking, the ability to produce many ideas; (2) flexible thinking, the ability to view something in different ways; (3) original thinking, the ability to produce unique ideas; and (4)…

This study investigates the cognitive nature of teacher-pupil questions in "process oriented" and "content oriented" secondary social studies programs. Subjects were five classes selected from a program viewed by both teachers and pupils as process-oriented; five from a program viewed by both teachers and pupils as content…

The plea of this bulletin, the second and full revision of The Problems Approach and the Social Studies copyrighted in 1955 and 1960, is for teachers to do more with the reflective method in their classrooms. It draws upon the latest and most pertinent insights distilled from research, theory, and practice associated with reflective thinking;…