Describes assignments that integrate ideas from student journals into expository and deliberate essays. (HOD)

Middle-level teachers can avoid passive seatwork and encourage students to think using a "guided thinking" approach, designed to help adolescents develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills. Essential elements of guided thinking are described, along with an implementation strategy and the principal's role in fostering…

Reviews current conceptions of rhetorical theory and criticism. Proposes that the ultimate goal and justification of rhetorical theory and criticism be regarded as pedagogical: to teach students how to experience their rhetorical environments more richly. (PD)

Argues that effective grammar instruction depends on shifting from a teacher's to a learner's grammar. Introduces techniques for presenting grammar that are accurate, workable, economical, compact, operational, and immediate. (MM)

Although most institutions have had to deal with alcohol-related problems, many higher education leaders are unfamiliar with successful responses--and especially with proactive strategies. Few trustees and senior administrators have found a successful formula for dealing with alcohol on campus, and there are many reasons why. This article aims to…

This paper reports on methods of students' justifications of their solution to a problem in the area of combinatorics. From the analysis of the problem solving of 150 students in a variety of settings from high-school to graduate study, four major forms of reasoning evolved: (1) Justification by Cases, (2) Inductive Argument, (3) Elimination…

The reasons people most often give for the failures of U.S. schools involve poverty, racial inequality, and a host of social problems. This paper argues that even if all these conditions were remedied, the schools would not produce many more people with the ability to think than they do today. Teachers, who are usually able to think, do not know…

Writing instructors must first examine the ways in which they are currently making written comments to become more effective in fostering improved student writing. Three heuristic rubrics form the basis for a guided self-assessment rubric for writing instructors. The first rubric is based on the work of Elaine O. Lees (1979) and involves…

This book aims to make a genuinely new contribution to the teaching of classic and contemporary literature in high schools--a system of teaching English that achieves classroom control through engagement and interest in content. The questions posed in the book help students build a kind of mental muscle for reading challenging texts and, what is…

The ability to understand and frame problems encountered in practice is a critical skill for school leaders. This paper reports on a study that inquired about the teaching and learning of problem-framing skills in the Prospective Principals Program at Stanford University, a preparation program for school administrators that relies on problem-based…

This qualitative research studied patterns of student self-talk (thought) in a sixth-grade mathematics classroom. The research sought greater understanding of the mental labels and operative cognitive structures upon which students rely in order to participate in schoolwork. Twenty-four students were given "math journals" and asked to…

Presents a technique used to understand the anchoring-adjustment heuristic and to integrate the concept with social psychological principles. Explains that students estimated the number of yearly stroke-related deaths that occur in the United States. Reports that the interaction between anchor and familiarity with the heuristic predicted stroke…

Two experiments, with 300 adult women as subjects, studied the effects of laboratory training on the use of the Conjunction Rule, a principle of probability that is often violated. Learning alternative strategies enabled trained subjects to use extensional reasoning rather than intensional heuristics. (SLD)

Using a computerized logic course employing the Carnegie Mellon Proof Tutor problem-solving environment, crucial features of computer environments were isolated and relative pedagogical effectiveness was assessed. Students used computerized environments to construct proofs and were presented with identical course materials on sentential logic. The…

Describes SHRIF, a System for Heuristic Retrieval of Information and Facts, and the medical knowledge base that was used in its development. Highlights include design decisions; the user-machine interface, including the language processor; and the organization of the knowledge base in an artificial intelligence (AI) project like this one. (57…