This paper discusses the 1997 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) two-year study("Design as a Catalyst for Learning") of how design is being used in pre-K-12 schools. The NEA acknowledged the thirty-year contributions of professional designers who bring their content and expertise to the school classroom; however, the focus of the report was on…

Liberal arts colleges occupy a unique place in the landscape of higher education. Whether defined, as David Breneman has, as an exclusive group of about 200 schools that award a large percentage of their degrees in traditional liberal arts fields, or as a more inclusive group of baccalaureate institutions, liberal arts colleges focus on…

In educating students to understand research-based publications, an interactive approach was designed. Students were first instructed to identify and locate different sources that publish information produced from research. Then students were taught how to carefully evaluate the quality of these sources and the research reported. Classroom…

The typical college student is unable to deeply comprehend what he or she reads. Most students have few, if any, intellectual tools that would enable them to read deeply, and then apply what they have read. The "Critical Thinking and the Art of Close Reading" series (which includes this column and the past three columns) focuses on some of the…

The author's ninth grade world history students communicated the connection they felt to three women whose stories they evaluated in class. The women represented ordinary people living during time periods being studied, and their personal stories demonstrated how the political, economic and cultural events had an impact on people in unique and…

The purpose of this study was to develop and apply a scheme for the analysis of flow diagrams. The flow diagrams in question are a schematic representation of written instructions that require students to process the text of their practical manual. It was hoped that an analysis of the flow diagrams would provide insight into students'…

This paper will discuss the results of a project that enabled three faculty members from disparate disciplines: Social Work, Interpersonal Communication and Software Engineering, to enhance writing and critical thinking in their courses. The paper will address the Faculty-in-Residence project model, the activities taken on as a result of it, the…

Researchers agree that increased parental involvement is necessary if low-SES, underrepresented student populations are to overcome a history of reading deficiencies. However, the fact remains that parental involvement alone is insufficient for achieving desired academic outcomes. Teachers must design interactive/constructivist homework…

Improving critical thinking--defined by one expert as "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"--has been a frequent topic in the writing of history educators at least since the early 1970s. Attitudes and interests do support higher-level thinking and, most importantly, knowledge used in carrying it out…

We present here results of a case study examining the classroom practice of one thirdgrade teacher as she participated in a long-term professional development project led by the authors. Our goal was to explore in what ways and to what extent the teacher was able to build a classroom that supported the development of students' algebraic reasoning…

This article describes an activity where children develop reasoning skills by using mathematical clues to decide whether there is one, more than one, or no solutions to a problem. (Contains 4 figures.)

This article describes how two middle school teachers incorporated algebraic thinking into their textbook-based geometry lessons. One teacher embedded algebraic concepts within an existing textbook lesson while the other teacher elicited algebraic thinking by extending a textbook lesson. (Contains 5 figures.)

When a computer-based tool or application is used to carry out a specific task in a learning situation--that is, it is used for learning--more effectively or efficiently one speaks of learning "with" the tool or application. When, possibly, that same tool or application is used to enhance the way a learner works and thinks, and as such has effects…

The last few years have revealed a growing concern about U.S. global competitiveness, and American schools have been called to account for failing to produce enough engineers and math and science workers to compete in the new global economy. The author argues that the education solutions offered to tackle this problem are too simplistic. Instead…

The authors explore children's use of intention information in evaluating the moral quality of others' actions. They also address links among mental state understanding, motives-based moral reasoning, and children's own moral behavior. (Contains 2 tables.)