Bible studies are one of the foundations of Israeli education. Nevertheless, this content area has been neglected for many years and it is now bordering on crisis. Passive learning style and classroom discussions that lead to predetermined conclusions are prevalent in Bible classes in both elementary and high schools. In this article, we present…

In national contexts where curriculum policies explicitly advocate for the development of students' higher order thinking capabilities, evidence suggests that achieving this goal can be quite elusive. In this article we explore this challenge by drawing on senior secondary school examples from two national contexts (New Zealand and Israel) that…

Purpose: This study investigates how senior science teachers viewed the effects of a Raising Test Scores policy and its implementation on instruction of higher order thinking (HOT), and on teaching thinking to students with low academic achievements. Background: The study was conducted in the context of three concurrent policies advocating: (a)…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze two parallel processes in the Israeli educational system: first, the idea of school autonomy, exploring its origins and its pedagogical implications and effectiveness; and second, the development of the progressive education evident mainly in the cognitive domain of twenty-first century skills (21st…

This study examines epistemic thinking in action in order to shed light on the relation between students' personal epistemologies and their online learning practices. The study is based on observations of the learning behaviors of 6th-grade students (n = 38) during two online inquiry tasks. Data were collected through think-aloud protocols and…

Over the past decade there has been a major move to position "thinking" (however thinking is defined and enacted) as a more explicit outcome within the curriculum of many nations, with implications for teachers' professional development, assessment, and examination requirements. This paper analyses approaches to this challenge taken by…

The aim of the present study is to explore the effects of Meta-strategic Knowledge (MSK) on scientific inquiry learning. MSK is a subcomponent of metacognition defined as general, explicit knowledge about thinking strategies. Following earlier studies that showed considerable effects of explicit instruction of MSK regarding the strategy of…

Like other countries, Israel had its share of projects that see the implementation of inquiry and higher order thinking in schools as their main goal. However, although many of these projects were quite successful, they did not succeed in changing the bulk of teaching and learning in Israeli schools. This article describes a new national…

This study assessed the effects of explicit teaching of metastrategic knowledge (MSK) on gains of low-achieving (LA) and high-achieving (HA) 5th grade students (N=41). Gains in reasoning scores of students from the Experimental group (compared to students from the control group) were obtained on the strategic and on the metastrategic level. Gains…

This study revisits a classic yet still intriguing question regarding information technology (IT): what difference does IT "really" make, in terms of people's thinking? In order to explore this question, the effects of IT in authentic research settings were studied through retrospective interviews with 24 academic researchers. Analysis of the…

This study examines the development of teachers' metastrategic knowledge (MSK), a component of metacognitive knowledge, in the context of higher order thinking. Participants were 14 junior high school and high school science teachers who attended a professional development course. Data collection was carried out by triangulation of several data…

Examines whether teachers treat low-achieving students differently than their high-achieving counterparts with regard to teaching higher order thinking skills. Asks whether low-achieving students gain from teaching and learning processes designed to foster higher order thinking skills. Findings indicate that while students with high academic…

Investigates difficulties in thinking about interactions between variables and suggests remedial educational means. Reports that expert thinkers demonstrate thinking about interactions at both an operational and metastrategic level. Lay adults, however, encounter substantial difficulties in drawing valid interaction inferences while engaged in an…

Examines the outcomes of a unit that integrates explicit teaching of general reasoning patterns into the teaching of a specific science content. Focuses on the teaching of argumentation skills in the context of dilemmas in human genetics. (Contains 50 references.) (Author/YDS)

The purposes of this study are to describe the development and validation of a research instrument for assessing teachers' beliefs regarding issues pertaining to the instruction of higher order thinking, and to explore the beliefs of Israeli science teachers regarding issues pertaining to instruction of higher order thinking. This paper describes…