This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of critical thinking. The lessons are: acquiring expertise in critical thinking is hard; practice in critical-thinking skills themselves enhances skills; the transfer of skills must be practiced; some theoretical knowledge is required; diagramming arguments ("argument mapping")…

This pilot study is an exploratory investigation into the effectiveness of the routine and systematic use of a specific play intervention common in many mainstream early years settings meeting the needs of children with autistic spectrum disorders. The intervention, known locally as Tabletop Identiplay, combines the use of a play script with adult…

This paper describes an approach to intervention that aims to foster the skill of young children with autistic spectrum disorder to share social attention and action to promote socially meaningful communication. It applies principles derived from research into pre-linguistic development. The efficacy of the approach was evaluated through both a…

Golf is a lifetime sport that can have a positive influence on children in many ways. Golf provides physical educators a means of teaching character education, etiquette, and interdisciplinary concepts such as math, in addition to physical education objectives such as motor skills, coordination, and flexibility. When teaching golf in schools,…

This article discusses the grid system as a strategy for enhancing the skill of striking in physical education. A grid system is a box or rectangle-defined space in which students practice specific skills or strategies in pairs or small groups. Here, the author provides sample activities that can be used with grids to teach striking skills for…

This article provides suggestions on ways in which science process skills can be taught in a meaningful context through children's literature. It is hoped that the following examples of how process skills can be taught using children's books will provide a starting point from which primary teachers can create additional examples. Many…

In this article, the author contends that in order to fulfill music education's purpose of developing a child's capacity to make and experience music, attention must be paid to developing listening in performance ensemble classes. Music educators cannot assume that being involved in the refinement and performance of music contributes to becoming a…

This part of the "Street Wise" series incorporates essential bicycle safety skills into a one week bike unit, designed for 3rd through 6th graders. These skills require much repetition and practice but can help children develop safe traffic behaviors that save lives, such as stopping, scanning, signaling, street crossing, and avoiding…

This article offers a specific example of the benefits that might result from integrating scientific principles into the daily practice of dance training. Using the mastery of turnout as our focus, we 1. describe the anatomy of turnout in terms familiar to the dance artist, 2. explore conditioning and imagery work designed to improve the use of…

Engaging students emotionally is the key to strengthening their dispositions toward critical thinking. Elder (1997) contends that it is critical thinking which leads us to a rational and reasonable emotional life. The link between thinking and emotions is essential in leadership education. With this in mind, the researchers sought to examine the…

By helping children to form positive thinking and learning habits, and to develop a range of transferable skills, we give them the tools they need to become successful learners. This book is grounded in the best of current practice and theories surrounding thinking and learning skills. It provides a highly effective method for introducing a…

The goal of this article is to provide an integrative review of research that has been conducted on the development of children's scientific reasoning. Broadly defined, scientific thinking includes the skills involved in inquiry, experimentation, evidence evaluation, and inference that are done in the service of "conceptual change" or scientific…

Mentoring is an important aspect of professional development, but can it advance substance use disorder skills in a national, interdisciplinary fellowship program? This evaluation study used a telephone survey to examine the influence of distance mentoring, interdisciplinary mentoring, and mentor functions on fellows' satisfaction, learning and…

In this article, the author describes a personal teaching experience that led her to incorporate improvisational drama into her English classroom. The author describes justifications for implementing drama into the classroom as well as the possible benefits gained by teachers and students. Also included are several improvisational dramatic…

Research in second or foreign language learning indicates that for adult learners, the improvement of one language skill facilitates the development of other skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlations among Chinese EFL students' reading, writing, and listening development by examining their test scores on the College…