Examines the importance of teaching critical thinking and intellectual standards through the use of an engaged lecture style. Indicates that engaged lectures pressure students to intellectually process the information conveyed by the teacher and thus better understand the lecture's content. Describes the key issues regarding the implementation of…

Provides a teacher's guide and activity sheets designed to introduce students to three patterns of reasoning in inferential logic. Students learn to construct arguments from diagrams and, given an argument, illustrate the argument with a Venn diagram, then study the diagram to see if the argument is valid or invalid. (MKR)

This article describes a process for increasing the quality of students' thinking through alternating from a quiet intuitive state to rational logical processing. The article provides specific teaching suggestions using guided imagery for students in grades K-2, grades 3-4, and grades 5 through college. (DB)

Investigated the manner in which the temporal order and variability of events influence three and seven year olds' event representation. Children participated in three events: a logical-invariant, a logical-variable, and an arbitrary-invariant event. Both the structure of the event and children's representational capabilities influenced children's…

Argues that information retrieval based on semantic representation is not helpful for those searchers who do not have well-defined ideas of the target document type. Presents an alternative, complementary method for indexing and document retrieval based on attributes of argumentation, a characteristic of articles advancing a claim. (52 references)…

Reports a study of 922 college students that classified the students based on performance on formal operational reasoning tasks. Students were also administered seven logic tasks. Response patterns were analyzed and found to be similar to patterns derived from the multiple-hypothesis theory of advanced scientific reasoning and different from those…

Offers a theory of how commonsense reasoning about motion may develop. Takes as fundamental the basic categories: action, object, space, cause, time, and movement. Suggests that very primitive elements could combine to provide schemes of motion recognizable in psychological accounts of infancy and generate prototypes of and rules for motion. (DK)

In the Philosophy for Children program, children discover the rudiments of their own philosophy and improve their reasoning and reflective skills through group dialogue. The teacher (facilitator) training model involves teacher participation in a similar community of inquiry and consideration of the role of critical reflection in educational…

The possibility is raised of teaching reasoning strategies to students with learning disabilities using a curriculum designed around reasoning by analogy. The research base for such instruction is summarized. These principles of critical thinking are illustrated through examples including reading the newspaper, counseling situations, and content…

Examined proposition that variations in career decision making are related to identity formation process by identifying relations between ego identity statuses and decision making in college students (N=99). Findings support proposition and suggest stable identity persons use rational and systematic decision-making strategies, foreclosed identity…

Monotonic logic requires reexamination of the entire logic string when there is a contradiction. Nonmonotonic logic allows the user to withdraw conclusions in the face of contradiction without harm to the logic string, which has considerable application to the field of information searching. Artificial intelligence models and neural networks based…

Notes limitations of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Suggests that should these weaknesses be addressed, teachers of critical thinking would do well to incorporate REBT into their critical thinking courses. Relates that A. Ellis has suggested that the future of REBT is in integrating it into the educational curriculum as a way of…

Discusses an alternate path to teaching introductory stoichiometry based on research findings. The recommendation is to use problems that can be solved easily by rapid mental calculation as well as by pure logic. (AIM)

Advocates teaching critical thinking through showing students the logic of a subject. Uses one example of instruction in history that allows students to think their way through the logic of the subject rather than memorize bits and pieces of someone else's thought (never grasping its logic). (VWC)

The current study aimed to test a Relational Frame Theory (RFT) model of analogical reasoning based on the relating of derived same and derived difference relations. Experiment 1 recorded reaction time measures of similar-similar (e.g., "apple is to orange as dog is to cat") versus different-different (e.g., "he is to his brother as…