Within a group of advanced learners, the variety of abilities, talents, interests, and learning styles can be formidable. For the first time, this book connects the unique learning differences among gifted students to the specific teaching methods used to tailor their educational experiences. Differentiated instruction for gifted and talented…

This article explores historical reasoning, an important activity in history learning. Based upon an extensive review of empirical literature on students' thinking and reasoning about history, a theoretical framework of historical reasoning is proposed. The framework consists of six components: asking historical questions, using sources,…

A color-blot exercise is described as a way of getting students involved in abstract thinking by a low risk, confidence-building activity. Students are asked to combine poetry and art. (CL)

Discusses how elementary school children perceive abstract art and describes activities used to increase their appreciation of abstract art. Students draw dinosaurs and discuss the variations in their drawings. Two movement activities which reinforce concepts about abstraction are described. (AM)

Includes a dandelion poem that is designed to stimulate elementary students' creativity and abstract-thinking skills. Offers several exercises to go with the poem: creating mental pictures, drawing first images, and performing for better understanding. A reproducible for creating a dandelion-shaped poem is included. (SM)

Intended for teachers, this booklet shows how spoken language can affect student thinking and presents strategies for teaching critical thinking skills. The first section discusses the theoretical and research bases for promoting critical thinking through speech, defines critical thinking, explores critical thinking as abstract thinking, and tells…

Discusses three problems preschool teachers should consider when aiming to facilitate children's mathematical activity: (1) How may young children relate to the necessarily abstract basis of mathematics? (2) When is a child's activity mathematical? (3) How may "mathematical" language, concepts, and experiences be appropriately defined?…

Schemata, as defined recently by reading researchers, represent generic concepts which are stored in memory. They include underlying objects, situations, events, actions, and sequences of actions for use in interpreting new experiences. Research on schemata suggests that teachers need to pay attention to the types of questions they ask when…

Describes various movement activities through which young children may discover topological relationships which provide a foundation for their growing understanding of space. (CM)

Described is an exercise that will help college-level psychology students learn abstract and relational thinking skills. The exercise will provide students with a new way to handle compare-and-contrast questions. (RM)

Presents a developmental approach to teaching programing at all educational levels which stresses concepts rather than syntax; provides motivation, relevant examples, and activities; proceeds from concrete to pictorial to abstract according to age and experience of learners; and utilizes increasingly complex activities building upon and extending…

Describes the use of chess instruction to develop abstract thinking skills and problem solving among gifted students. Offers suggestions for starting school chess programs, teaching and evaluating chess skills, and measuring the success of both student-players and the program in general. (PB)

Encourages teachers to listen more carefully to what students say. Discusses two modes of reasoning in an effort to understand more deeply what students hear and the styles of reasoning that they might use in mathematics. (Contains 12 references.) (ASK)

Describes students' investigative work that resulted from playing the game Set in an attempt to show how such games can be used to develop mathematical reasoning. (ASK)