This document is one of eight reports prepared to support the development of a new learning system, a development effort that is the first step in a major initiative undertaken by the Stupski Foundation. The Foundation endeavors to improve the life options of all students, especially underserved urban youth of color, whom we refer to as "Our…

Evaluation of a metacognitive reading program with 13 learning-disabled children in grades 3 and 4 found that students increased in performance and awareness of strategies from pre- to posttesting. Differences were also observed between different clusters of students with defensive, pessimistic, or realistic self-concepts. (DB)

Presents results of study investigating cognitive strategies involved in the Kohs Block Design test. Reports that the study's purposes were to improve the distinction between syncretic and analytic strategies, match strategies with field dependence level, and assess metacognitive skills. Discusses findings of three strategies: syncretic, analytic,…

This study examined the problem-solving protocols of 21 students in a grade 11 enriched physics course as well as 3 adult "experts" in physics. Experts and high performing students made more correct metastatements and more references to prior knowledge than did average performing students. (DB)

Evaluation of the relationship between metacognition and analogical reasoning in 80 children (mildly retarded, learning disabled, normal achieving, and gifted) suggests that retarded children's performance reflected a central processing deficiency across processes, learning-disabled children's performance reflected specific processing…

Ties together the educational threads of teaching thinking skills and improving the intellectual performance in deaf learners. Identifies six criteria for curriculum or research decisions related to teaching for higher-level problem solving. Applications of these ideas to mathematics are left to the reader. (MDH)

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students from different academic settings differ in their usage of metacognitive strategies in mathematical problem solving, and if they do, what the differences are. A questionnaire was administered to students at various levels from academic tracks and academic streams requiring them to…

Investigates the difficulties that college students (n=83) have in reading and comprehending physics texts. Students were taught the skill of formulating clear questions on textual material. The strategy stimulated students' awareness of the difficulties in reading comprehension and could be used by students as a self-monitoring technique to…

Points out that successful mathematical performance depends not only on declarative and procedural content knowledge, but also upon mathematical thinking skills such as problem-schema knowledge, decision-making skills, and metacognitive knowledge. Argues that the growing need for remediation should influence schools' traditional overemphasis on…

Suggests that reading students be taught to write symbolic codes alongside the text to identify new terms, similarities in ideas, cause-effect relationships, important or difficult ideas, etc.; and to use mnemonics to record their responses to the text (e.g., whether they were bored, confused, surprised, or in agreement). (PAA)

Procedures that could be used to assess progress in instructional programs designed to enhance cognitive skills are reviewed, discussing measures of the following parameters: (1) knowledge acquisition, organization, and structure; (2) problem representation; (3) mental models; (4) metacognitive skills; (5) automaticity of performance; and (6)…

In an effort to further explore the experience of understanding from the university perspective, this study examined how British students' understanding was refined and committed to memory during preparation for final examinations. After piloting an interviewing procedure, in-depth interviews were conducted with eleven students from psychology…

This report investigates the effectiveness of a metacognitive strategy in reducing anger behavior and/or aggressive acts in elementary and secondary-aged students placed in special education classes. Three separate studies were conducted with three elementary, three middle, and three high school students who were placed in special education…

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)

Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) is a technique in which audiotapes are used to evoke students' memories concerning their own thinking. Reports a study using IPR to probe elementary students' (n=17) thinking during a problem-solving situation. Concluded that IPR has potential in classroom research. (MDH)