Describes the use of manipulatives for solving simple combinatorial problems which can lead to the discovery of recurrence relations for permutations and combinations. Numerical evidence and visual imagery generated by a computer spreadsheet through modeling these relations can enable students to experience the ease and power of combinatorial…

A study involving 22 Australian Aboriginal students, age about 11 years, and 12 controls found that a thinking skills program, the Cognitive Research Trust Program, can enhance their creative thinking in mainstream classrooms, but did not improve scholastic aptitude, academic achievement, thinking approaches, self-concept as a thinker, or locus of…

Investigates reasoning strategies students use in solving stoichiometric problems and explores the relation between these strategies and alternative conceptions, prior knowledge, and cognitive variables. Results show how stoichiometric relations produce conflicting situations for students leading to conceptual misunderstanding of certain concepts.…

Debating can teach students how to investigate new ideas, develop critical thinking, and open their minds to different viewpoints. It is a way to explore a world filled with diverse viewpoints. Debating topics can come from the books students are reading. The debating process develops critical reading skills by challenging students to examine text…

Discusses the growing interest in "ethnomathematics," an effort to embrace non-European methods of math in college courses, especially in teacher education courses. Proponents claim they are teaching the same concepts as in traditional math but adding new culturally sensitive reasoning skills. Critics suggest dangers in teaching "politically…

Listening to students' mathematical thinking is one of the reform-minded visions of mathematics teaching. Examines how a mathematics letter exchange between grade 4 students provided an occasion for prospective teachers to learn about students' mathematical thinking and examine their interpretive practices. (Contains 26 references.) (Author/ASK)

Reports on a study of 14-15 year old students' ideas about combustion. Describes patterns of students' explanations across a range of questions and analyzes them to gain insight into both the degree of consistency of their explanations and how this may affect the process of conceptual change in the students. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/YDS)

Presents a study to describe and understand the thinking processes of students in a computer environment while undertaking mathematical tasks related to the differentiation of functions defined on real numbers. Describes two different approaches, the visual and the algebraic approach, in the thinking processes of calculus students. (Contains 19…

States that average and below average students' learning styles tend to be more concretely dimensional. Providing developmental students with physical models (e.g. adding and subtracting of integers using two color chips on a number line) helps them to abstract the more complex meanings and ideas of higher mathematical thought. (PGS)

Points out the difficulties that English language learners may have and advocates that teachers help students acquire academic scientific language from words that can mean different things in science and be confusing. Recommends using graphic organizers, providing vocabulary support, and pre-writing and reading activities as possible ways to help…

Introduces the Environmental Inquiry (EI) program which focuses on five topics: watershed dynamics, environmental toxicology, ecology of invasive species, biodegradations, and urban ecosystem modeling. (YDS)

Introduces the American Renaissance in Science Education (ARISE) project. Discusses factors influencing the project's success. (YDS)

Describes the use of daily essay quizzes to encourage thorough preparation for class and higher level thinking. Explains a study assessing student reaction to daily quizzes, which compared anonymous student questionnaire responses from two classes: (1) a test-based class and (2) a daily quiz-based class. (CMK)

Asserts that traditional strategies of problem-solving are inadequate and that a new method is needed. Suggests four ways to redirect attention in problem solving: overcoming an instant or linear perception of time, interacting between the problem's components and its whole, searching for the meaning or sense of a problem, and studying the…

Originally published in January 1989, reviews a longitudinal study that compared changes in critical thinking over a one-year period between matched groups of college and non-college students. Results indicate that students who attended college for one year scored higher in critical thinking than the matched group of students who did not attend.…