This report describes the instruction, assessment, and staff development of the Multicultural Reading and Thinking (McRAT) program and summarizes the results of a one-year study conducted in 1989-90. (McRAT is a nationally recognized staff development program designed to help teachers infuse higher order thinking skills and multicultural concepts…

Serving as a bridge between research in the cognitive sciences and educational policymakers and practitioners, the first part of this report reviews recent research on thinking and learning. Findings emphasize work on higher order learning, the role of knowledge in learning, and the development of a disposition for thinking. Topics detailed…

To help improve students' ability to interpret and write about literature, teachers should get rid of old habits. The old habits include giving quizzes to make sure students read assignments, and assigning readings just because particular works are part the literary canon. Once a teacher assigns a novel and gives a quiz, everything the teacher and…

Public relations (PR) research on the teaching of critical thinking shows that PR practitioners must possess the communications skills and social sensitivity necessary to help organizations adapt to their environments. PR students must learn to think critically and to take an active role in learning. Practice in questioning educators' and…

This study examined the interactions between teachers and children in three kindergarten classrooms. Programs used in the classrooms were: a direct-instruction (DI) program, representing a cultural transmission paradigm; a contructivist program (CON), representing the cognitive-developmental paradigm; and an eclectic program (ECL), combining…

The overall purpose of this research project was to examine the effects of prediction activities on instructional outcomes in a high school genetics unit. The researcher-developed prediction activities were designed to stimulate student interest and critical thinking prior to formal instruction on the concepts. Enhanced levels of classroom…

Nine studies of teaching critical thinking in universities are reviewed. A table summarizes the methodological features of the nine studies, describing each study's merits and allowing comparison across studies by criterion. A second table summarizes findings and measures used to quantify those findings. Findings are discussed in terms of measures…

The objectives of the 2-year Thinking Skills Project were to provide teachers and students with a set of thinking skills, to develop and validate a model of cognition for teachers, to devise a Measure of Questioning Skills, and to establish a normative base for this instrument. The model of essential thinking skills covers the basic processes: (1)…

Staff developers who have worked intensively with teachers to promote higher order thinking tend to emphasize similar types of training activities, especially involving teachers in higher order thinking and authentic problem solving in their subjects and translating ideas about the teaching of thinking into specific lessons for students.…

This ERIC Digest discusses three ways in which teachers can create an environment that stimulates critical inquiry: critical reading; writing to learn; and classification games. Critical reading has been defined as learning to evaluate, draw inferences, and arrive at conclusions based on the evidence. Elbow's (1983) writing to learn approach to…

Learning is defined as the modification and acquisition of knowledge, feelings, and abilities of the student--the outcomes of the teaching-learning process. The teaching-learning process in vocational education is intended to serve as the vehicle for achieving specific outcomes embodied in the goals of the vocational program. Two primary strands…

Children often have difficulty developing debugging skills. This may be attributable to instructional methods that discourage reflection on one's reasoning errors. Logo instruction may encourage such reflection. Two studies examined Logo's effect on confirmation bias--the tendency to select confirming over disconfirming information to prove an…

The controversial nature of the knowledge base of educational administration is discussed in this paper. Included are a definition of professionalism, a discussion of how to build and develop a knowledge base, and a review of the obstacles to knowledge base development. Elements of a consensual knowledge base include theory, practice, and other…

Subjects for which aesthetics and creative performance are critical curricular dimensions (such as art, physical education, music, and technology education), and which are accommodative of students across the range of intelligences (Gardner, 1999) are not readily or completely captured by content standards. Therefore content knowledge in these…

GED "Scoreboost" materials target exactly the skills one needs to pass the General Educational Development (GED) tests. This book focuses on the thinking skills needed to pass GED tests in Reading, Social Studies, and Science. The test taker will need to succeed with GED questions that involve comprehension, application, analysis,…