The gap between the theory of democracy and its practice is nowhere more evident than in the classroom, where the teachers charged with transmitting democratic values to the next generation of citizens can only repeat democracy's failures. Some people would like to separate liberalism from the concept of democracy, since they believe that the…

One of a series of workplace education modules, this document presents the Mind Fitness module, designed to help determine students' learning styles and create successful learners in the workplace. An introduction describes the framework of the module, indicating that it utilizes four types of exercises to work with feeling-directed,…

The United States Military Academy leads a consortium of 12 schools located throughout the country in an effort to improve educational culture through the enhancement of interdisciplinary cooperation and coordination. The primary activity of this program is the development and use of Interdisciplinary Lively Application Projects (ILAPs), the goals…

The Inventive Thinking Curriculum Project is one of the many projects included in the national outreach program of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It is designed to be used in conjunction with a thinking skills program as a means of applying critical and creative thinking and problem-solving skills through the activity of creating an…

This study involved the use of "economic reasoning," which refers to the application of the concept of cost-benefit analysis to personal decision making. The study examined the degree of economic reasoning employed by high school seniors who had received instruction in cost benefit analysis. The main purpose of the study was to compare the…

Thinking skills instruction involves both the mastery of skills and the development of dispositions, habits of thought, and interpersonal behavior. Schools incorporate thinking skills programs into their programs to achieve two basic goals. The first goal is the development of autonomous thinkers. The liberal tradition in American education takes…

A working definition of critical thinking is needed to guide teachers to encourage their students to think critically and to coach them as they proceed. Constructing a working definition involves first identifying certain assumptions that, when taken collectively, may be incompatible with an effective definition of critical thinking. Among these…

This annotated bibliography lists books, articles, and other related sources dealing with the areas of speech communication education and critical thinking. Besides works dealing specifically with the area of speech communications, a majority of the sources focus primarily on the general topic of critical thinking, its value to secondary and…

Among the measurement techniques receiving greater attention is the context-dependent item set or testlet. The context-dependent item set consists of a scenario and related test questions. This item format is generally believed to be able to tap higher level thinking. Unfortunately, this item form leads to inter-item dependence within item sets…

Critical thinking involves a multitude of mental operations from recalling to analyzing to evaluating information and ideas. In order to foster critical thinking, students need to build bridges between concrete, everyday ideas and abstract, academic concepts. These bridges can be built through journal writing. In his book "Critical Thinking:…

Critical thinking is currently a prominent issue in education. For business educators, four issues must be considered: the meaning of critical thinking, how critical thinking can be introduced into the curriculum, how critical thinking is developed in courses, and how critical thinking can be evaluated. The literature identifies three theoretical…

Designed with real teachers and real conditions in mind, this booklet presents a model for a writing-across-the-curriculum/writing-to-learn program that can be used in all classrooms in all subject areas from grades 4 to 12. The model presented in the booklet defines five types of writing assignments and the outcomes expected for each--using…

This paper discusses six instructional components that meet the literacy needs of all students and address all of the components of a balanced and comprehensive approach to reading instruction: (1) phonemic awareness (the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of elementary speech sounds); (2) letter names and…

This publication is designed to educate high school students about the problems and challenges of transportation. The parent project was conceived as a mathematics curriculum project but developed into an interdisciplinary project to ensure that students would become well informed regarding the transportation decisions they make. In the activities…

This book provides guidelines and suggested activities for collaborative learning for elementary grade students with a variety of abilities and disabilities. It is based on experiences at the Developmental Studies Center (Oakland, California). Activities are presented as blueprint formats that provide a comprehensive set of structures which can be…