Contends that, to become a better critical thinker, one must not only develop expert thinking skills, but also become an expert at choosing the best skills for the particular situation. Reports on a study of critical thinking and metacognition among 65 college students. (CFR)

Maintains that a major source of intercultural misunderstanding is the clash of culturally conditioned perceptions of reality. Describes the use of a family history project in an introductory college sociology course. Provides an appendix including the project description. (CFR)

Presents a five-lesson, high school instructional unit on the ideas and activities of Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr. Includes student objectives, step-by-step instructional procedures, and discussion questions. Provides quotations by Thoreau and King. (CFR)

Describes the methods and means by which composition teachers can successfully create, train, and maintain writing groups (peer response groups, writing circles, or writing workshops) within the English classroom. (HB)

Asserts that, given proper preparation at the elementary and middle school levels, high school students can learn to improvise stylistically appropriate harmony, rhythm, and melody. Provides suggestions for teaching choral improvisation. Maintains that improvisation success must build on what students always know--melody. (CFR)

Maintains that writing ability is vital in fulfilling geography discipline objectives of mutual understanding and emancipation. Reports on a study of the use of writing groups in college geography classrooms in the United States and Australia. Includes a student essay evaluation guide as an appendix. (CFR)

Investigates issues of conceptual understanding in teaching and learning mathematics provided conceptually based instruction on place value and two-digit addition and subtraction without regrouping in four first grade classrooms. Conventional textbook-based instruction was provided in two first grade classrooms. Experimental-group students scored…

Presents a series of hands-on activities for teaching about continents and oceans. Includes projects on (1) why earth is the blue planet; (2) continent names, shapes, and locations; and (3) continental drift. Discusses use of poetry, music games, mathematics, and science to interest students. Suggests ending with using maps in following directions…

Presents an art educator's reflections upon his career. Discusses psychological views of art, the role of the arts in enlarging human knowledge, and implications for the curriculum. Describes teaching as an artistically pervaded activity. Reveals how the educator's experience in the arts has influenced his thinking about education. (KM)

Argues that cooperative learning is useful in elementary social studies instruction. Identifies positive interdependence, student interaction, individual accountability for mastering material, and appropriate interpersonal and small group skills as essential elements of cooperative learning. Suggests that cooperative learning can help teach social…

Twenty-three senior high school special education students were trained in the use of either a teacher-directed graphic advance organizer or a student/teacher-shared graphic advance organizer. Results revealed that the use of either type of advance organizer generated higher quiz scores in mathematics and science. (Author/JDD)

Discusses the need for holistic curriculum development and reflective teaching, examining five persistent myths related to teacher education and noting strategies for refuting them. Challenges excuses for maintaining the status quo in education (lecturing and testing as the normal mode), viewing learning as an interactive process. (SM)

High school teachers (n=89) rated the importance of 14 student skills and the reasonability of 35 intervention strategies related to mainstreaming. Student skills deemed most important were study skills useful in every class. Factor analysis of intervention strategy results revealed seven factors, and teachers' preferred intervention strategies…

This methodology for teaching basic meal preparation skills to students with mental retardation uses convenience foods and involves learning meal preparation reading vocabulary and common procedures. Instructional techniques include sight word development, use of rebus symbols, and graduated prompts (verbal, modeling, or physical guidance). A list…

Utilizes LOGO to teach the concept of inequalities by programing the turtle to take random walks in the coordinate plane restricted to predetermined regions defined by inequalities. The students task is to discover the inequalities that define the illegal areas into which the turtle must not move. Provides examples and corresponding computer…