The college experience should help students develop basic thinking skills required of aware, discerning individuals in society. Healthy skepticism is a foundation for learning. Student activities are a good place to teach critical thinking skills. Specific skills must be identified, challenges offered, and alternating periods of analysis and…

External memory strategies were investigated in 45 children (age 11) with mild mental retardation and children (ages 7 and 11) without mental retardation. In contrast to expected deficiencies in the use of strategies, results showed areas of overlap in strategy capabilities among the groups. (Author/DB)

Describes activities designed to encourage students to analyze and interpret graphs. Activities include using software to draw clear bottles, fill them gradually, measure and record the water height, then graph the volume and height relationship; graphing cause and effect relationships between gender, height, and shoe size; and graphing…

A survey of 190 first- and second-year university students investigated the relationship between student orientation to learning (deep, surface, or achieving), perceptions of the skills and abilities being assessed by multiple-choice tests, and study strategies they intended to use for upcoming examinations. (Author/MSE)

Illustrates the use of forced classification for assessing student solutions to ill-structured problems. The analysis, applied to discussions by children of a social problem, consists of content categorization; quality ratings within content categories; and categorical discriminant analysis, with student grade and judged quality as discriminating…

Based on Piaget's theory that children acquire number concepts by constructing them from within, the authors conclude that teaching algorithms harms mathematics learning. A better approach is allowing them to construct their own logico-mathematical knowledge and invent their own efficient procedures. (JOW)

Distinguishes between ethical management behavior prescribed by a code of ethics and personal moral judgment (Kohlberg's third level of moral development). Argues that moral ideals translate into moral action only in the presence of capacity for individual reasoning, commitment to ideals, and ability to act accordingly. (SK)

Notes that content area teachers recognize that visual organizers such as time lines, Venn diagrams, inductive towers, concept maps, causal chains, force fields, and flow charts help students recognize and take control of the intellectual processes which bring meaning to the study of academic content. (RS)

In three experiments, four and six year olds and adults were examined to determine whether children were more likely than adults to confuse memories from different sources when the sources were highly similar. Findings indicated that children may be especially vulnerable to the effects of source similarity. (SH)

Changes in children's understanding of experimentation are examined. Sixteen fifth and sixth graders worked on two experimentation problems consistent with an engineering and science model, respectively. The science model was associated with broader exploration, more selectiveness about evidence interpreted, and greater attention to establishing…

Examines the inductive approach to learning, which helps ensure an interactive environment where students use their language processes to learn. Preservice teachers can learn to organize their teaching inductively. Such training should include direct experience with the inductive approach, analysis of the experiences, guided practice, and coaching…

Describes an enhanced role for librarians in course integrated bibliographic instruction that promotes critical thinking as a component of knowledge acquisition. Stages in critical thinking and in the research process are described, and an example of librarians working with faculty at North Park College (Chicago) to develop critical thinking is…

A hands-on science project on watersheds helps elementary students understand the water cycle. The unit, which focuses on the fact that all living things need water and that watersheds are sources of water for rivers and streams, teaches students to observe, make inferences, predict, and draw conclusions. (SM)

Reviews past research that examined which variables might affect learning from feedback and identifies areas that need further research. Topics discussed include feedback as reinforcement; modeling of the feedback cycle; response certitude; feedback elaboration; error analyses; and feedback and higher-level tasks. (65 references) (LRW)

To prepare information-literate citizens, teachers should (1) shift focus from product to process; (2) recognize and accommodate diverse styles of learning information; (3) integrate information seeking into learner-based curriculum; and (4) help students understand the view of information as a commodity and the issues surrounding access. (SK)