One of the five goals proposed in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" is for students to become "mathematical problem solvers." To achieve this goal, the NCTM proposes fundamental changes in both the content of mathematics curricula and the…

A study examined the association between field-dependence and its related information processing characteristics, and educational cognitive style as a model of conative influence. Data were collected from 145 secondary marketing education students in nothern Georgia during spring 1991. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlations,…

The Mem-ExSpan Accelerative Cognitive Training System (MESACTS) is described as a cognitive skills training program for schools, businesses, and industry. The program achieves extraordinary academic results in reading and mathematics with 1 semester of input 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day. Intensive versions of the program accelerate…

This report describes an interactive video program designed to help college biology students with their abilities to visually discriminate between instructional images, and to think critically about those images. A brief discussion of interactive video technology is provided, including details about videodisks, CD-ROM databases, computer software,…

This directory provides information about promising practices, ideas that work, strategies, and resources to improve education for all students in rural schools. The document contains the following articles from the literature: (1) "Motivation: It's Essential to Achievement" (Erling Clausen); (2) "Consolidate, Cooperate, or…

Phase II of the research on the teaching and learning of higher order thinking and conceptual understanding in the elementary subjects, undertaken by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects, includes descriptions and analyses of commonly used and distinctive published curricula in each of the five subject areas. This report…

Intended to suggest ways of implementing the potential of NovaNet beyond its current applications, this report begins with an overview of current educational applications of telecommunications systems. It is noted that NovaNET is not only a successful computer system for presenting instructional courseware, but that it also supports…

The process of educating children in our schools has reflected a long history of science and mathematics for males only. Culturally, women and minorities have not made the same progress in society as their male counterparts, education for them being significantly different. These differences, coupled with culturally determined expectations, have…

A discussion about the meaning of time that took place in a combined grade 3 and 4 classroom in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is described and analyzed. The paper begins by explaining how a failed classroom demonstration of a water clock resulted in an animated class discussion that led to the successful redesign of the clock. Next, recent work in…

This document describes a practicum that was designed to incorporate student mastery of eight critical thinking skills, their definitions and nature of applicability, with the regular class material, and within the normal scope and sequence of ninth grade world history by introducing each skill concurrent with subject matter, thereby improving…

Eight vocational and academic classes taught by four different teachers at three comprehensive high schools were studied to identify classroom practices that facilitate teaching and learning generic skills. The teachers studied had a mix of instructional goals for students, including subject matter knowledge and skills, complex reasoning skills…

This book describes the Reflective Judgment Model (RJM) and provides a comprehensive review of the research on it and the Reflective Judgment Interview (RJI). Chapter 1 defines reflective judgment as an often neglected aspect of critical thinking. Chapter 2 discusses stage-related assumptions that underlie RJM and relates RJM to current work in…

A study examined the perceptions of participants in a multidisciplinary project regarding the degree to which the integration of technology, mathematics, and science had enabled advanced mental skills in technical thinking and problem solving. A literature review focused on advanced learning and thinking, ill-structured workplace problems,…

This document begins with a discussion of the cognitive task analysis (CTA) that was commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration to identify the cognitive skills-related training needs of en-route air traffic controllers. Concluding the introductory section are a brief list of recommendations regarding the design of a training program…

A powerful way of understanding something new is by analogy with something already known. An analogy is defined as a mapping from one structure, which is already known (the base or source), to another structure that is to be inferred or discovered (the target). The research community has given considerable attention to analogical reasoning in the…