Describes what research has found about the use of collaborative mind mapping to facilitate the development of constructivist preservice teacher education programs. The paper discusses explicit connections between collaborative mind mapping and constructivism, varieties of mind maps, mind mapping as an invitation to thought, and how to use mind…

Learning to teach is difficult and depends upon the ability of teacher educators to help preservice teachers move from generality to real world specificity. The article describes a model of reflective thinking that was used in a field-based elementary physical education methods course. It discusses the structure of the model, conditions necessary…

Compared are the van Hiele levels of geometric thinking and the geometry curriculum recommended by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. Activities which illustrate the various levels are provided by grade level with procedures. (CW)

Examines three approaches to fostering higher level thinking in students: (1) the stand-alone approach; (2) the embedding approach; and (3) the immersion approach. The first two approaches teach thinking skills separately from or in the context of subject matter content; the immersion approach assigns an active role to perception and downplays…

Examination of the effects of changing employment patterns on the skill composition of jobs shows strong upgrading of cognitive and interactive skills, substantial slowdown in growth of those skills, and declining demand for motor skills. The earnings mix of jobs did not show the same correlation with growth in skill and educational levels. (SK)

Piaget's hypothesis that children's interactions with peers during middle childhood are essential to their moral reasoning development was tested with 48 female preadolescents who were paired with a female agemate or their mother. Subjects paired with peers showed more sophisticated moral reasoning and used more active transacts in their…

Discusses Bank Street College's Graduate School of Education's advisement program for teacher educators which offers opportunities for transformative experiences. Advisors provide students with a set of experiences comparable to those they will later have when teaching. Advisement consists of fieldwork supervision, group conferences, and…

Longitudinal data on conversations recorded from 1 child between 18 and 27 months of age and 3 children between 27 and 62 months were analyzed to chart acquisition of the word "if" and of conditional inference. Within six months of speaking their first "if," children produced "ifs" at the same rate and forms as…

Students (n=105) enrolled in a college remedial mathematics course participated in a one-semester experiment to determine whether cooperative learning would help students increase their problem-solving skills in mathematics. Results indicated significant differences in favor of students using cooperative learning in solving word problems in…

A study of 255 fifth graders and 177 eighth graders from 12 randomly chosen Mexican schools was conducted to identify and characterize the students' computational estimation skills and strategies. Data from computational estimation tests and selected interviews revealed that Mexican students employed general estimation processes similar to U.S.…

Examined students' opportunities to use thinking skills in physical education programs. Results indicated that teachers used deductive and inductive strategies to encourage student metacognition. Teachers encouraged students to focus attention, compare, and analyze. (BC)

Researchers compared thinking and decision making in expert and novice teachers. They analyzed audiotaped planning interviews, videotaped lessons, stimulated recall interviews, postteaching interviews, delayed self-reports, and printed materials and found striking differences between the mental representations of the two groups. The article…

Ties together the educational threads of teaching thinking skills and improving the intellectual performance in deaf learners. Identifies six criteria for curriculum or research decisions related to teaching for higher-level problem solving. Applications of these ideas to mathematics are left to the reader. (MDH)

Describes the economics course that makes up part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program at a Georgia high school. Emphasizes the international outlook of the program with its focus on international economic relationships and comparisons. Includes discussion of sections on international trade, economic growth and development, and…

Students in grades 7 (n=4), 9 (n=9), 10 (n=13), and 11 (n=12) were interviewed to compare the use of intuitive and taught methods of problem solving. Results indicate grade 9 students could efficiently use taught methods as well as intuitive methods, whereas grade 10 and 11 students reverted to basic problem-solving methods and were reluctant to…