Performance based assessment refers to tasks that require students to construct responses or take actions to demonstrate specific knowledge or skills. Performance assessment tasks appear in a variety of formats, but they focus on higher order skills and are nonroutine, and sometimes loosely structured, in nature. A number of concerns have been…

This report investigates the effectiveness of a metacognitive strategy in reducing anger behavior and/or aggressive acts in elementary and secondary-aged students placed in special education classes. Three separate studies were conducted with three elementary, three middle, and three high school students who were placed in special education…

This book argues that the best solution to higher education's conflicts over culture and "political correctness" is to teach the conflicts themselves. The book suggests making intellectual conflict part of the universities' object of study and thereby more successfully engaging students in the world of ideas and learning. The book argues…

A comparison is provided between general education core requirements and basic skills and competencies at the community college level in Illinois. First, general education core requirements from the Illinois Community College Board and South Suburban College are outlined related to communication; mathematics; humanities and fine arts; social and…

This practicum project involved working with four preschool children with mental disabilities to increase their cognitive abilities through the use of computer-based instruction and use of manipulative materials. It also sought to improve the children's social-emotional development and self-esteem. The developmental levels of the four students…

These guidelines for developing an undergraduate medical education curriculum in pulmonary disease prevention emphasize not only the most current scientific practice but also the active application of cognitive and behavioral skills related to patient education. Chapter 1 introduces the guidelines and the issues and trends in preventative…

Noting that theme teaching offers opportunities to set up a classroom environment that fosters and encourages process learning, this book offers a rationale and activities for a thematic approach to instruction. The introduction of the book explores several issues: (1) assessing the strategies that children will learn as a result of theme teaching…

A study examined two dimensions of higher-order problem-solving skills: the ability to solve problems in an embedded context and the attitudes and preferences toward problem solving that suggest vocational self-understanding. The variables of gender and field-dependence cognitive style were used. Subjects were 238 secondary school marketing…

Cognetics provides an exciting cooperative learning experience for students that develops both thinking skills and content knowledge. In Cognetics, teams of students in grades 3 to 12 create solutions to problems. This set contains a student manual and a teacher's manual. The teacher's manual explains the concept of cognetics and then provides…

This paper investigates the ways in which department chair and principal leadership influence the teaching secondary social studies classes. Based upon research in three sets of high schools, leadership efforts in the areas of curriculum program development, faculty collegiality, staff development, and school culture are explored. Instructional…

The need for developing cognitive skills in early adolescents as they move from concrete thinking to more abstract operations has been documented. College students seeking the middle school endorsement in education were trained to utilize matrices as graphic constructs of textual materials. By examining these content matrices, prepracticum…

Teaching critical thinking, a relatively new area and concept in physical education, can take the form of problem solving--the development and presentation of physical and mental problems that challenge students to reach a solution. Providing students with conceptually well-defined and designed problems can give physical education teachers an…

In language arts classes a "composition" generally refers to a written text. Semiotic theory based on C. S. Peirce's work suggests that writing is only one of many forms of composition available for mediating thought and activity. According to J. V. Wertsch (1991), writing should be one tool in a tool kit of mediational means available…

This study examined children's problem solving strategies by testing the verbal and mathematical abilities of 52 second-grade and 51 fourth-grade students. After being identified as either reflective or impulsive, based on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test, the children were given grade-appropriate mathematical and verbal reasoning problems…

The literature on teaching thinking reflects a major controversy which results from two distinctive theoretical views about the nature of thinking. One focuses on content of thinking and the other emphasizes skills involved in thinking. However, an attempt to understand practitioners' perceptions of these theories is generally absent in the…