The effect of test expectancy on preferred strategy use and test performance on factual and higher-level questions in learning from expository text was studied, using 42 undergraduates who reported their study strategies and completed a multiple-choice test. Test expectancy affected neither preferred strategy use nor test performance. (SLD)

Presents an economics terminology puzzle based on economic factors and vocabulary. Requires students to recall economic terms and subsequently apply these terms to economic concepts. Provides an answer key. (CFR)

This study examined the facilitation of reflection among novice teachers using three types of journal writing and reflective interviews to encourage novice teachers to reflect upon their teaching. The procedures solicited different types of reflection in the student teachers, suggesting that facilitation of teacher reflectivity is vital in teacher…

Authoring provides a powerful model for promoting and studying teacher thinking. The paper explores the development of one teacher's thinking in terms of voices expressing an expanding community of selves, noting narrative and voice and thought construction processes. Narrative self-inquiry helps teachers construct a new community of selves. (SM)

A divided-attention experiment with 24 college students who were native speakers of Japanese speaking English and 16 English-Japanese bilingual students speaking Japanese confirm the prediction that performance in a thinking task declines when a concurrent linguistic task in a foreign language is required. (SLD)

Elementary students can investigate U.S. geography and exercise critical thinking and research skills by compiling a computer database on state facts and figures. As they research and work, they develop their own questions to ask and answer and make thoughtful hypotheses about how and why facts may be related. (SM)

Presents an evaluation of a correlational reasoning module using content from a variety of topics implemented in 12 grade 9/10 classrooms. Among the findings are that performance on a multivariate correlational task increased substantially and the average treatment student scored higher than 99% of those in the control condition. (PR)

Suggests that critical thinking assessment is difficult to do well, but it is possible. Notes that difficulties and possibilities vary with the purpose of the assessment and the format used. After examining published critical thinking tests, the paper explains how to create customized tests. (SM)

Examines the nature and attributes of reflective practitioners, necessary characteristics of reflective practitioners, and the role of university faculty in educational foundations and philosophy of education in preparing reflective practitioners. Argues that reflective practice in schools is philosophy of education at its best. (SM)

Examines the role of cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational skills in problem solving. Cognitive skills include instructional objectives, components in a learning hierarchy, and information-processing components. Metacognitive skills include strategies for reading comprehension, writing, and mathematics. Motivational skills include motivation…

Reviews research on children's ideas about floating and sinking. Describes the Model-Assisted Reasoning in Science (MARS) project curriculum and student responses to a question about helium balloons. Contains 61 references. (DDR)

Describes a study that examines the extent to which effective thinking skills are incorporated in faculty teaching goals across nine academic disciplines--mathematics, the sciences, and humanities. Indicates that effective thinking skills are included in all faculty goal statements except for those in the romance languages. (3 tables and 33…

Presents suggestions for creating a classroom environment where young children's thinking and reasoning processes are supported. Discusses organizing time blocks for predictability and flexibility and organizing the physical space, including providing access to work spaces and access to materials. (KB)

Presents findings from an analysis of classroom discussions aimed at constructing shared knowledge. Demonstrates how students build up new concepts by renegotiating and sharing meanings and ideas during argumentative exchanges. Suggests that collaborative discourse-reasoning can support students' gradual mastery of discursive practices…

A study involving 58 seventh graders in same-gender dyads in three mutual peer tutoring conditions demonstrates that tutorial interaction can be structured so that same-ability age mates can scaffold each other's higher order thinking and learning. Scaffolding is not necessarily restricted to situations in which one partner is more knowledgeable…