Use of metacognitive strategies, creative problem solving, and creative thinking techniques in intermediate grade writing instruction can promote students' thinking and creativity. Metacognitive strategies can help students attack the writing task in an orderly fashion. Answering specific questions for descriptive, expository, narrative, or…

Growth occurs when the need for change is recognized by the individual through self-analysis, and when measures to effect the change are self-initiated. In this course the student is actively involved at every step in self-evaluation, identifying problem areas in her or his relationships and environment, selecting topics and issues for research,…

Characteristic reform measures that perfect the status quo and maintain educational order have become outdated and irrelevant to our times. Educators are calling for leaders with the ability to sense organizational needs from a holistic approach and with the insight or intuitive feel for what the organization can become. Such activity depends upon…

Research on mathematics instruction is reviewed in order to respond to two questions: (1) Has the influx of talented people who have entered the mathematics instruction field over the last three decades changed anything? and (2) Will any of the work being done actually improve mathematics instruction? The different ways in which parents, students,…

This study explores the usefulness of a creativity construct for arts education. It is hypothesized that an arts orientation is a valid personality construct, that this orientation is correlated with contrasting cognitive skills, and that these skills are manifested in creative behaviors. Sixty-five high school seniors were given the ACT Interest…

Synergistic psychology has been proposed as a meta theory for synthesizing different psychological theories into an explanation of how social, cognitive, and biological factors interact in human behavior. The basic theoretical assumption in synergistic psychology is that internalized social interactions become higher mental functions that regulate…

This study measured the physical fitness, levels of creative thinking, and attitudes about physical education in second graders enrolled in physical education programs with different curricular focus: (1) aerobic fitness; (2) movement education; and (3) standard classroom teacher taught curriculum. Seventy-seven children and five teachers…

Divided into six sections, this book focuses on creative pupils and creative reading, special considerations when developing programs for gifted students, materials and resources, meeting the writing needs of gifted students, suggestions for meeting their unique needs, and future trends regarding the gifted. The titles of the articles and their…

Using examples from children drawing in a year one classroom, this article examines firstly, how drawing operates as a unique mental tool, and secondly, the role of drawing in the construction and development of knowledge. Young children utilize prior knowledge and experience to negotiate and construct meaning through their interactions with…

This study provides preliminary evidence as to the validity of measures derived from the "Tests of Scientific Thinking" (TST). The TST and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) were compared with regard to their relationships to interests, self-appraisals, and accomplishments of students during their first year of graduate work in…

AN INQUIRY (SPECIFIC DISCOVERY) APPROACH TO LEARNING WAS SUBJECTED TO A RIGOROUS TEST AND EVALUATION PROGRAM, INVOLVING ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. STUDENTS IN THE FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH GRADES SERVED AS SUBJECTS. EVALUATIVE CRITERIA WERE (1) SCIENCE CONCEPT ACHIEVEMENT, (2) DIVERGENT THINKING OR CREATIVITY, AND (3)…

STUDIES OF CREATIVITY AND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCES IN CHILDREN HAVE SUGGESTED THE PRESENCE OF SLUMPS (OR INVERSIONS) WHICH MAY BE CORRELATED WITH DEVELOPMENTAL TRANSITIONS. THE MOST NOTABLE OF THESE OCCURS AT ABOUT THE FOURTH GRADE AND IS THE OBJECT OF THIS STUDY. THREE SETS OF INVESTIGATIONS WERE UNDERTAKEN--(1) A STUDY OF CREATIVE…

A study was conducted to identify types of mental operations of 4- and 5-year-olds and to relate them to the child's age and the educational level of the mother. The sample consisted of 423 white English-speaking children of American parentage, evenly divided by sex and as evenly distributed as possible over the 12-month-age range of 4 to 5 years.…

This book combines background information on language and communication with methods for developing specific skills needed to cope with the daily communication problems. Comments on environmental effects on language development, on differences in dialects, on reasons for teaching grammar, and on types of grammar precede a discussion of the impact…

This curriculum guide presents objectives, learning activities, evaluation suggestions, and resources for 13 areas related to creative thinking: (1) observing, noticing, and memory stretching; (2) comparing; (3) classifying; (4) developing language through the senses; (5) finding cause and effect relationships; (6) summarizing; (7) looking for…