Following some years of eclipse by the basics, imparting thinking ability to students is once again emerging as the primary goal of public education. How to teach thinking skills, is, however, subject to question. For example, not only is the domain of the higher order skills broad and imprecisely specified, there is also considerable naivete in…

Focusing on the revival of interest in teaching critical thinking as a major goal of schooling in American education, this paper examines why it has recurred, what is being emphasized, and, if there is significant change since the past occurrences, what has made that possible. Among the questions the paper addresses are: (1) what the renewed…

A study examined the effects of visual-verbal redundancy and recaps on learning from television news. Two factors were used: redundancy between the visual and audio channels, and the presence or absence of a recap. Manipulation of these factors created four conditions: (1) redundant pictures and words plus recap, (2) redundant pictures and words…

Psychological well-being has been shown to be significantly influenced both by daily and major life events. The impact of two types of daily events on reports of physical and mental well-being was investigated in a multiple-time measurement design. Demand events which occur independently of one's volition, and desire events which arise from one's…

Intended for administrators and policy makers as well as teachers, this digest explores issues surrounding methods of teaching thinking skills and who should teach them. Following an introduction that acknowledges the need for teaching such skills but a lack of consensus on how to meet this need, the digest discusses theories of isolating specific…

The experience of Chase Manhattan Bank in hiring a diverse group of college graduates and preparing them to be entry-level relationship managers is discussed. The objectives and procedures followed by the bank in recruitment and training of new staff are addressed. Trainees are screened for six mental abilities that correlate with success in this…

Contradictory research findings on teachers and teaching are frequently the result of overlooking or neglecting a systematic approach to teaching, using principles of human learning to enhance pupils' learning and their enjoyment of learning. In discussing teacher preparation, it is pointed out that task analysis is a crucial operation, in which…

Noting that a distinction can be made between the different types of problems faced by managers in today's organizations, and that managers increasingly face problems of a more complex nature, this paper suggests that an interactive management approach is best for solving complicated problems. Following an introduction that distinguishes between…

A study identified communication characteristics that indicate an individual's perceived ability to offer informal therapeutic relationships to people in a social network. Subjects, 93 male and 130 female students from 16 randomly selected sections of a required speech communication course at a major state university, were assigned to one of three…

An earlier study showed that responses are remembered better when subjects produce them from cues, than when subjects read cue-response pairs. The decided memory advantage for generated targets relative to read ones is known as the generation effect. The present research is designed to study the generation effect for cues, following a…

An overview is provided of the principles of cognitive psychology that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI). First, the paper looks at the features of classical and operant conditioning that provide the foundation for important parts of mastery learning and CAI programs. Next, findings from four areas of…

An educational consultant with experience in teaching graduate courses for teacher certification in gifted education implemented a practicum designed to develop selected thinking skills in approximately 40 nursery school 3-year-olds. The practicum was also intended to inform parents of practical techniques for fostering important thinking skills…

The study examined the effectiveness of a program to improve the cognitive skills of 91 hearing impaired college students. Experimental students received systematic cognitive instruction focusing on specific generalizable skills during the experimental period, several times per week, in the contexts of their regular college classes. Instructors of…

Recent research and program development in the areas of metacognition and related teaching and learning strategies is the subject of this issue of the newsletter. The lead article reviews reasons for the current interest in cognition and metacognition, clarifies the concepts of cognitive and metacognitive strategy instruction, and describes key…

The effect of computer-assisted instruction on spatial problem solving skills was examined in this study. Subjects were fifth grade students from nine classes, who were divided into three treatment groups in a nonrandom fashion: (1) computer-assisted group, which used computer software designed to help students improve spatial problem solving…