William Glasser demonstrates the principle of conducting a classroom meeting with a third-grade class in an affluent, suburban elementary school. Class meetings stimulate creative and critical thought. They are a tool to help students to begin to think for themselves. (Author)

PAL (Providing Alternatives in Learning) is an in-school enrichment model which provides opportunities for bright elementary students to pursue a curriculum which has been differentiated to meet their needs, interests, and abilities. The school librarian, special education personnel, and school administrators have been essential to the program's…

Identifies five criteria for the selection of picture books, and discusses their potential benefits for children's reading attitudes and skills. The benefits discussed include offering a store of experiences, learning the possibilities of language, gaining an understanding of cultural heritages, developing imagination, and learning about…

Argues that there is a sense of surprise and wonder that can result from looking back at problem solutions and there is a potential for then creating unexpected, even memorable, alternative solutions. Example problems with routine solutions and alternative approaches uncovered while "looking back" at the solution are given. (PK)

Assessed developmental aspects of ideational fluency, flexibility, and originality across five age groups in 316 Chinese who responded in Cantonese to four groups of acoustical stimuli. Comparative American data were collected previously. Results indicated cross-cultural similarity in the expression of originality, based on developmental trends…

Building projects with blocks provide opportunities to foster creative thinking skills. The connection between blocks and thinking how to implement the strategy are included, along with examples. (MNS)

Although information skills are the most basic of skills, the tendency is to teach strategies related to educational projects, erroneously assuming that these "information skills" are applicable to everyday decision-making. Educated imaginations are needed for today's variety of lifelong creative information situations. (17 references)…

Presents rationale for including use of productivity tool software--database management systems, spreadsheets, graphics software, word processing--in classrooms and reviews appropriate strategies for introducing students to these tools. Discussion covers adaptability of these tools to various academic disciplines and illustrates how students…

Describes the components of SEEN, a computer program which provides an environment that prompts the user to create, support, and test an hypothesis, and its applications in an introductory world literature and an art history course. (MBR)

Although critical thinking and developing student confidence are common objectives of courses in laboratory experimentation, a study of one Australian engineering course showed little progress toward these goals and that efforts to develop critical thinking conflicted with development of confidence. More attention to these objectives within course…

Identifies five obstacles to effective teaching of thinking skills, including lack of consensus among teachers, lack of knowledge among teachers, mistaking of skills testing for skills teaching, teaching of too many skills in too little time, and testing that inhibits students' thinking skills. (JW)

Like a spirited idea exchange among experienced professors, "Teaching Tips: Innovations in Undergraduate Science Instruction" brings the best thinking from campuses nationwide about how to engage undergraduate science students. Published to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Society for College Science Teachers (SCST), "Tips"…

This book presents findings of a 1993 study of how design in the curriculum helps students achieve national educational objectives. It also explores opportunities for expanding the role design can play in students' academic lives. Results of the 1993 study reveal how the use of design experiences in classrooms provides teachers and students with a…

Mathematics education is experiencing a tremendous change. Integrating literature into mathematics instruction is one of the methods used to make this new vision a reality. Children's books that explore the mathematical world often present metaphorical mathematical ideas. This paper presents a review of integration literature on mathematics…

Reprinted from "Value Engineering , Volume I, Number 5, February 1969.