The diversified skills gained from various industrial arts classes are a significant asset to anyone operating a small business or seeking fulfillment as a human being. Sometime soon an "educational think tank" will rediscover the value of three-dimensional problem-solving skills for students desiring a sense of accomplishment or improved…

All academic disciplines must accept the responsibility of training students in the basic higher-order thinking skills that will provide them with the cognitive processes to cope with the rapidly changing world of the future. Describes developing a program for thinking across the curriculum. (MLF)

Discusses anchored instruction, a teaching technique using videodisc-based problem-solving environments, and describes two research projects involving anchored instruction. Argues that anchored instruction provides a way to recreate and improve upon some of the advantages of situated cognition. (FMW)

Investigated was the level of cognitive development of Afro-American students enrolled in general chemistry courses to determine the strategies used by both successful and unsuccessful problem solvers in solving stoichiometry problems. Results indicated that a higher level of cognitive development may be crucial in solving more sophisticated…

In a survey of 31 area vocational center directors in Illinois, results showed that 70 percent perceived a need to assess students' reasoning skills; diverse standardized tests are used; the information would be used for placement, guidance, and instruction; and a lack of practical instruments inhibits assessment and inclusion of reasoning skills…

Encouraging students' use of satire, irony, and parody in college writing assignments is recommended to help students voice their concerns, think critically, and discover how a form of discourse contributes to both form and substance of the writing. Samples of student work illustrating the effectiveness of this approach are offered. (MSE)

Presents activities based on readings from ChemEcology that incorporate student writing with thinking skills as part of a reading/writing portfolio. Helps students to develop a broader understanding of chemistry, the chemical industry, and the environment. (JRH)

This study delineates modes of thinking that differentiate exceptionally gifted children from more moderately gifted peers. Cognitive differences include viewing the simple as complex, a need for precision, viewing the complex as simple, abstract reasoning ability, early grasp of essential elements of an issue, high capacity for empathy,…

Investigated whether skills and knowledge might be transferred between hypermedia systems as is the case with conventional paper-based materials. Performances of students using a familiar hypermedia system and a relatively unknown system were compared. Results revealed no significant differences achieved in either levels of success or efficiency…

Data from Pakistani cohorts, ages 20-24 and 30-44, show that local school availability accounts for one-third of the gender gap in cognitive achievement and two-fifths of the gender gap in numeracy. Most schools in rural Pakistan are single sex and in some areas only boys' schools are available. In the schools available to them, girls do not…

Provides simple suggestions for educators to create problem-solving situations for children of all ages, even the very young. Emphasizes developing daily activities that build and reinforce these skills. (ET)

Three experiments (sorting and theory-of-mind tasks) examined whether, for preschoolers, a particular form of reasoning applied to theory-of-mind and a set of problems requires understanding of mental states. Found that advances in theory of mind, card sorting, and causality depend on ability to switch judgments across conditions; reasoning by…

Low ability sixth graders (n=19) participated in a teaching experiment involving fraction concepts. Results showed students were able to acquire and use semantic processes and transfer these processes to novel tasks. Semantic processing was positively associated with performance. (MKR)

Examined children's reasoning about mixed-domain events containing both conventional and moral components--violating a conventional rule and negatively affecting others. Found that older children were able to identify the moral components of mixed-domain events and combined moral and conventional issues in their reasoning. Younger children were…