Suggesting that critical thinking activities are the crux of many of the goals and objectives of communication education, this paper summarizes a sample of the literature on critical thinking. Based on the review, the paper notes that: (1) a consensus exists regarding what critical thinking is and what specific skills are acquired through varied…

Designed to develop K-3 children's thinking skills before the children have mastered reading, this book presents 32 activities in which children learn to complete analogies--presented with an "attribute block" with 3 attributes, children choose a fourth attribute block to complete the analogy. The attribute blocks in the book are of 4 types--shape…

The research on cooperative scripts is brought together using a model that provides an overview of the learning processes involved and the outcomes to be expected from the use of certain scripts. By providing such a framework, the wealth of research may be compared and generalized, thereby promoting its instructional utility. The Cognitive…

Much of the emphasis in this handbook is on helping students develop investigative, problem-solving, and thinking skills, but the importance of students' working together in a cooperative and democratic setting to solve problems is also stressed. Cooperative learning is an instructional tool that can often be used to the student's advantage. Part…

In two studies, children participated in route-planning tasks in which they were asked to find the shortest path to retrieve certain items. In Study 1, children participated in two versions of the task (standard versus feedback) differing in the amount of contextual support. Forty-eight children, ages 6, 8, and 10 years, had to help their…

This document contains informal geometry explorations that provide students with opportunities to investigate the environment from a geometric perspective, construct connections between related mathematics and other content areas, and solve problems in a geometric context. The activities provide experiences that develop curiosity, understanding,…

Cognitive development is driven by experience, but is mediated by domain general processes, which include learning, induction, and analogy. The concepts children understand, and the strategies they develop based on that understanding, depend on the complexity of the representation they can construct. Conceptual complexity can be defined in terms…

This study examined the self-regulated strategies college students used as they read their textbooks in preparation for examinations, noting whether they adapted these strategies across the semester. Eight students completed three think aloud sessions across the course of a college class. Each think aloud involved participants studying their…

Bright Start is a preschool program designed to assist caregivers and educators of children ages 2 through 5 years become optimal facilitators of young children's learning through enhancing the quality of their interaction with children and through providing mediated learning experiences. This paper examines the cognitive approach to preschool…

This paper responds to an article by John Bruer that questions the wisdom behind the recent surge of interest in the educational implications of brain research. Bruer is skeptical about brain-based educational practice and policy. This paper argues in favor of the default alternative that knowledge of brain functioning and development can guide…

Experiential education provides an excellent justificatory framework for the forensics program as an educational opportunity. The three major tenets of experiential education are: (1) connecting theoretical knowledge to real life experiences; (2) valuing and fostering different "ways of knowing"; and (3) encouraging lifelong learning.…

Successful classroom questioning is an art that can be cultivated through practice. While teachers do use questions in classroom interaction with students, these questions tend to be lower order questions which only require recall or comprehension on the part of the students. Research suggests that teachers favor these lower order questions for…

While many students have found SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review) and PQ 4 R (Preview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite, Review) systems to be helpful, developmental/remedial students may need more assistance than the average freshman. Students who need more help to deal with the massive amounts of reading that needs to be done in…

Research indicates that students have great difficulty solving algebra word problems and that few high school seniors have mastered the fundamentals of algebra, let alone algebra problem-solving skills. Improving students' algebra problem solving skills is considered to be critically important by those who have worked on reforming mathematics…

An ecological approach to a psychological study of language is presented in this paper. Such an approach is based on the understanding that the process of perceiving an object or event is based neither in images or pictures nor in verbal or symbolic structures. In order for objects and events to become knowable, higher order cognitive processes…