Identifies current problems in teacher education, recognizing larger social dilemmas and the need for change; discussing the need to acknowledge one's perpetuation of social problems; and examining how to transform schooling through a major shift in critical reflection on social issues, noting teachers' role in achieving educational and social…

Investigated the impact of electronic discussion group coding on student teachers' learning processes and experiences, examining whether coding provided a scaffold for critical thinking. A hierarchical series of discussion codes, applied to students' discussion contributions, acted as a procedural facilitator for critical thought processes.…

Examines how specific aspects of cases and the case-discussion process can foster informed, strategic inquiry among elementary mathematics teachers, focusing on development of one's own understanding of mathematics, use of the student perspective for feedback, recasting of the familiar as strange and the simple as complex, and a critical…

Describes an Australian teacher education program in educational psychology that promoted preservice teachers' intellectual functioning in terms of developing critical and reflective judgment; tolerance of doubt, ambiguity, and complexity; and awareness of self-agency. Data from questionnaires, interviews, and measures of intellectual development…

What occurs in most schools and colleges is a ritual pretense lacking substance. Test scores and memorized facts mean little. John Dewey felt that education must be a continuous expansion of a web of connections and understanding that continues throughout one's life. Wisdom is education's true goal. (MLH)

Describes a teacher-researcher's instructional experience with her middle school students in which she applied strategies and techniques to promote the development of English as a Second Language (ESL) and critical thinking through a literature-based approach to social studies. (Author/VWL)

Describes a study of the effects of instructional practices recommended by the National Science Education Standards on individual achievement. Finds that whereas the instructional policies suggested in the Standards may be associated with higher achievement overall, they are equally likely to have the unintended consequence of contributing to…

Presents a theoretical framework for understanding mass media news influence; explores the concepts of agenda setting, priming, framing, asymmetrical selection, binary oppositionalism, and institutional hegemony in a survey of literature in journalism and communications; and outlines a teaching strategy that highlights one news event and compares…

Discussion of assessment in online distance education focuses on network-delivered model answers and peer review as additional formative feedback on assessment. Concentrates on the development of a critical approach to writing and the ability to communicate within a discipline in a course at the United Kingdom's Open University. (Author/LRW)

"Opposing Viewpoints" and "Opposing Viewpoints Juniors" have long been standard titles in upper elementary, middle level, and high school collections. "Opposing Viewpoints Juniors" should be required as information literacy/critical thinking curriculum tools as early as fifth grade as they use current controversies to teach students how to…

One of the skills that can be taught in an English proficiency class that adopts literary texts for teaching the language is critical thinking. The background, characters and their motives are among those that invite critical inquiry and interpretation. Although it has been claimed that discussing literary texts in the traditional way can help…

First-year students in genetics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, attend two general biology modules, one in each semester. Teaching involves four formal lectures per week of 45 min each, one 3-h practical, and one lecture period tutorial. These students, graduating from secondary education, are well schooled in rote learning but…

The purpose of this article is to argue that the growing commercialization of education and the simultaneous decline of what has traditionally been called "liberal education" will limit the range of political discourse and thus have negative effects on civic life. In a context driven mainly by the profit motive, not-for-profit…

This study focuses on the contribution of overall epistemological understanding to argumentation skills, after controlling for topic knowledge and interest, in eighth graders. Students were introduced to two controversial topics, global warming and genetically modified food, through the reading of a two-sided text on each topic. After reading,…

Educational assessment is more than measurement, rubrics, and grades. Its real focus needs to be on learning. Art educators need to pay attention to the assessment of daily learning as well. Everyday assessment of classroom learning is crucial because it provides feedback directly to students in the process of their learning, more than mere…