Reflection and notation in communications in the School Renewal Network, a national collegium of practitioners engaged in school reform activities, are examined in this paper. The network was designed to create an interactive knowledge base for school restructuring that would link educators in meaningful dialogue based on research and current…

Language arts activities for use in conjunction with 83 children's picture books are contained in this K-8 guide. Following a list of the 83 books presented alphabetically by author, the bulk of the guide consists of a page devoted to each book. These pages, also in alphabetical order by author, give the publisher's name, the publication date, a…

The upper and lower 5% of 456 undergraduate students who completed the Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI) were subjected to a laboratory stress test. In support of the hypothesis, poor constructive thinkers reacted to the stress with a greater increase in negative thoughts and negative emotions, and exhibited a greater increase in blood…

The first chapter of this book makes a case for preparing teachers to be lifelong students of teaching. Impediments to that goal are enumerated, and suggestions are made on how they might be overcome. Some of the means by which teachers can be made more reflective about their teaching are presented. In chapter 2, teachers are encouraged to become…

This paper discusses "Guided Design," a method for teaching course content which engages students in group decision-making, where problems are solved or issues are resolved in a step-by-step process using instructions and feedbacks especially prepared to make students think for themselves about subject matter rather than depend on the…

Intended to involve students in language and communication study in such a way that significant thinking occurs, this collection of teaching ideas outlines ways to teach literature and composition that engage the students in such thinking processes as inferring, sequencing, predicting, classifying, problem solving, and synthesizing. The activities…

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of using an adapted version of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) to increase problem solving activities of kindergarten students, and to determine the practical significance of using CPS as a method for increasing problem solving skills of kindergarten students. Data were collected from…

Science is suggested as an excellent content area for teaching primary students the creative and critical thinking skills that can help them become better problem solvers. J. P. Guilford's Structure of Intellect model and Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives serve as the basis for developing exercises which lead to improvement of…

Noting that the media can be powerful instruments in the hands of creative teachers, this paper explores the use of media as instructional tools to promote growth in thinking and language processes (primarily reading and writing). The paper views media form and applies it to the interrelationship of experience, thought, and language. It proposes…

Creative thinking and problem-solving, skills related to people's flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity, curiosity, and risk-taking ability, are especially useful for foreign adults currently living in the United States. These skills are crucial in adapting to a new culture and in making decisions in a society based heavily on individual choice. The…

Any consideration of basic skills must at some point achieve the realization that a fundamental skill is the ability of the mind to create, produce, and utilize meaning. The purpose of productive and creative thinking is to know and understand, to produce and utilize meaning that serves to guide and direct mental and physical behavior. The overall…

A student of affective education describes how she helped her 8-year-old son express and discharge negative feelings resulting from the family's relocation to a new home in an unfamiliar city. Together mother and son made a book about the move. The mother designed a sequence of exercises stimulating right hemispheric, creative, and intuitive…

Some central issues in discussions of creative processes in science are: (1) the mechanism(s) by which hypothesis formation takes place; (2) the sources of new knowledge during hypothesis formation; and (3) the "Eureka" versus steady accumulation (accretion) issue concerning the pace of change during hypothesis formation. This paper…

This paper examines motivation in elementary and secondary schools and discusses its relationship to critical and creative thinking, student decisionmaking, future trends, and mass media. It is suggested that thinking is an important consideration in teaching students and that there is a relationship between student thinking and motivation.…

This paper examines the teaching of thinking skills for the future. An analysis of John Dewey's "How We Think" offers insights into cognition. Four types of thinking--reflective, conceptual, critical and creative--are explored. Aspects of brain research relevant to cognition are discussed. Specific ways to facilitate thinking and several…