Discusses research on teacher thinking, noting the types of information available from a simple procedure for collecting pupil responses to lessons taught by student teachers. Pupil response patterns shift as student and cooperating teachers alternate instructional processes. Pupil responses to lessons allow prospective teachers to learn to think…

Students' opportunity to develop high-level competencies depends on teachers' ability to manage independent, thoughtful people who make observations and take initiative. Barriers to competency-oriented education are the absence of summative assessment procedures, the value-laden nature of competencies, and the difficulties in managing…

The Matrix Analogies Test measures nonverbal ability of handicapped and nonhandicapped children, ages 5-17, in a culture-fair fashion. It assesses pattern completion, reasoning by analogy, serial reasoning, and spatial visualization, with a short form available as a screening instrument. This paper describes the test's administration, format,…

This paper describes common practices in social studies instruction and proposes a conceptually based model of history instruction for learning-disabled students, involving sameness analysis and integrating concepts into a network of knowledge. The model includes preskill instruction, problem-solution-effect analysis and note taking, vocabulary…

This study investigated the effects of prompting, or directing/controlling attention, during a reasoning task on the performance of 68 children with attention deficit disorders, learning disabilities, or no handicaps, in grades 1-12. All groups benefited from prompting, and prompting was related to a different set of cognitive processes in each…

The Future Problem Solving Program develops students' problem-solving and thinking skills as student teams undertake a step-by-step process which involves assessing the teams' existing knowledge of the topic, determining the knowledge they need, gathering information, organizing their knowledge, and using the knowledge to solve specific problems.…

Study measured how differences in working memory capacity related to differences in comprehension and following directions in first, third, and sixth graders. The number of words recalled in word- and reading-span tests predicted comprehension for all grades. Results indicate working memory's role in following directions increases with age. (SM)

Presents guidelines on ways teachers can create an atmosphere that will encourage young children to use higher level thinking skills in all their classroom activities. Describes five learning experiences that promote such thinking abilities. (BB)

The effects of the LOGO computer programing environment on creativity were studied for 73 8-year-old third graders (33 males and 40 females) who were tested before and after LOGO instruction. Overall, the LOGO group significantly outperformed a comparison group receiving non-LOGO creativity training and a nontreatment control group. (SLD)

Discussion of computer programing at the secondary level focuses on automation and schema acquisition as two processes important in learning cognitive skills such as programing. Their effects on learning outcomes and transfer of training are examined, the importance of worked examples is highlighted, and instructional design principles are…

Examined is teacher thinking which develops during curriculum and methodology courses for intending teachers of secondary school science. A science teacher thinking framework which includes subject matter, teaching strategy, objectives, and student response was developed. The importance of reflective thinking is discussed. (KR)

Discussed is a constructivist model of science learning and its possible use in the treatment of science misconceptions. Science learning as conceptual and methodological change is described. (KR)

Determined was the effect that cooperative groups heterogeneously based on proportional reasoning ability have on problem solving in regular and honors high school chemistry. Characteristics of successful and unsuccessful problem solvers individually and in groups are discussed. (KR)

Asserts that high school student research assignments in history and social studies often yield disappointing results with limited summaries of facts and a loose array of opinions. Argues that graphic organizers can help students with historical inquiry and result in improved thinking skills, more sophisticated conclusions, and better decision…

Reports research findings regarding the learning and teaching of proportional reasoning. Presents four tasks devised to assess students' proportional reasoning and describes four solution strategies for solving these tasks based on the analysis of seventh and eighth graders' correct responses. (MDH)