This guide is designed to help teachers create test items that measure a variety of higher level thinking abilities. Part One, "Foundations for Item Writing," provides a context for item writing. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the book and defines basic concepts, principles, and terminology. Chapter 2 integrates research literature to…

This paper identifies five difficulties in teaching the analysis of social problems, and proffers "mind maps," a concept that refers to the ways in which students create a visual representation of their thinking patterns, as a possible solution. In constructing mind maps, especially for a Social Problems course, the following four steps…

A wide variety of techniques and classroom activities, contributed by teachers, for content-based instruction (CBI) in English as a second language (ESL) are presented. CBI is defined to include theme-based second language courses, sheltered content-area courses, and paired or adjunct arrangements in which language and content courses are taught…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of problem-solving activities in physical science classes designed for elementary education majors. A post-test only control group design was used, with 50 students participating during a 5-week treatment period. The experimental group performed problem-solving activities, while the control…

A study assessed the cognitive level of academic challenges incorporated into courses offered in the College of Agricultural Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. Eleven faculty members from nine departments provided copies of all academic challenges used in their courses. They were categorized by type: activities, problem sets, written…

The Screening Assessment for Gifted Elementary Students-Primary Version (SAGES-P) developed by S. K. Johnsen and A. L. Corn (1992) is a reliable and valid instrument for the identification of young gifted children. The SAGES-P addresses the U.S. Department of Education's guidelines for the identification of young gifted children. The items were…

This paper builds a case for the use of multimedia to meet students' varied learning needs instead of relying solely on the traditional lecture/textbook/workbook approach. Piaget's theory of intellectual development is used as background for a discussion of developing teaching strategies based on individual learning styles, and various theories of…

This guide was developed to assist teachers and media staff in Winnipeg, Manitoba to work together to plan programs that help students develop independent, resource-based learning skills. The first section of the guide describes how library research projects can be used to teach independent learning skills. The guide discusses opportunities for…

This practicum was designed to incorporate critical thinking skills instruction and practice into a fourth-grade curriculum to increase fourth-grade students' ability to recognize and apply critical thinking strategies to appropriate situations. This program concentrated on the increasing of six critical thinking skills: classification, sequence…

Key competencies (or generic skills) have been specified in four sources: Further Education Unit (FEU), United Kingdom (1987); Finn Report (1991) and Mayer Committee (1992), Australia; U.S. Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) (June 1991); and Butterworth and Lovell (1983), New South Wales. A comparison of the four…

Researchers of performance assessment in social studies have contrasted authentic assessment, which is characterized by contextualized, complex intellectual challenges, with multiple choice tests of achievement, which are characterized as fragmented and static. In calling for the need for authentic assessment, this paper outlines a plan for the…

Because it has been overworked, underanalyzed, and undefined, critical thinking has come to mean anything or nothing. The best work on critical thinking imagines it as an act of composing and revising. Definitions of critical thinking have undergone a historical evolution--from general problem-solving "skills" to a complex of…

This report describes three model demonstration projects in Ohio school districts which focused on identifying types of gifted underachievers and providing them with services through unique instructional models. Provided for each program is information on: identifying characteristics (district, location, school population, project director);…

This study explored the effect of experiential and experience-based approaches to learning and instruction on transitional first grade students' (a) acquisition and use of economic concepts and (b) economic reasoning ability as indicated by the presence or absence of misconceptions about economic concepts. A pretest-posttest control group design…

Current research continues to attempt to determine factors, or combinations of factors, which influence efficacy in problem solving behaviors. This presentation combines several viewpoints regarding the most important component, or combination of components, needed for the most successful problem solving behaviors to occur. Quantitative literature…