The purpose of this publication is to assist educators in their efforts to improve students' thinking abilities. The book identifies and describes some common components of thinking skills programs and addresses the scope and sequence of purposeful thinking. In some respects, the content of thinking is described by offering a generic organization…

Noting that skills and knowledge taught in schools have become abstracted from their uses in the world, this paper clarifies some of the implications for the nature of the knowledge that students acquire through a proposal for the retooling of apprenticeship methods for the teaching and learning of cognitive skills. The paper specifically proposes…

Suggestions for instructional improvement are offered for science teachers in this compilation of research summaries on specific areas of science education. This series examines the topic areas of: (1) higher-order cognitive skills (focusing on developing operational definitions and classification schemes for cognitive skills); (2) microcomputers…

In response to recommendations by a National Institute of Education (NIE) planning group to the effect that NIE should support efforts to understand the cognitive processes involved in acquiring basic reading skills and in comprehending linguistic messages, this book summarizes what has been learned about reading comprehension in the decade since…

A study examined the use of lookback strategy (selective rereading of text material to clarify inconsistent information) employed by good and poor readers attempting to monitor their own reading comprehension. Using microcomputers, narrative and expository texts containing inconsistencies were presented one line at a time on a "page" of…

Fifty-four high aptitude undergraduates and 46 moderate-to-low aptitude undergraduates were divided into four treatment groups and were given a pretest during which they learned and recalled a map of a small town in five successive trials. Two weeks later, each group was given a different treatment with a varying degree of explicitness of…

To understand better how readers learn and recall text information, a study examined one prose learning approach--the selective attention strategy (SAS)--in which text elements are processed, given various degrees of attention, and learned according to their perceived importance. Fifty sixth grade students from an inner city school in a large…

Discusses the inclusion of socio-scientific issues in science education. Describes a study in which adolescents who had successfully completed both high school chemistry and biology were interviewed to determine the extent to which they used their knowledge of the physical world, via nonsocial cognition, when analyzing such issues. (TW)

Explores questions regarding the knowledge and proficiency level expected of second-language learners, the acquisition of valued knowledge, the relationship between cognition and language learning, the nature of "progress," and quality curriculum design. These questions are discussed in reference to the development in Australia of the…

This study tested the hypothesis that effortful interaction with a computer tool that provides reading-related guided interaction on a meta-cognitive level results in the internalization of the guidance and later improved reading comprehension. Results with 25 seventh graders in Tel Aviv using a specially designed tool--the Reading…

The purpose of this study was to identify the strategies used by learners in an open-ended hypermedia information system. Four participants were drawn from an introductory technology-for-teachers course incorporating a unit on telecommunications. Participants completed a survey measuring reported knowledge in three domains (metacognitive, system,…

The "componential" theory of intelligence explains intelligence in terms of three types of component processes that make up intelligent performance. The first of these, "metacomponents," are the higher-order or executive processes that one uses to plan what one is going to do, monitor what one is doing, and evaluate what one…

The focus of the adult education field is shifting to adult learning. Current trends are the continued development of the concepts of andragogy and self-directed learning, increased emphasis on learning how to learn, and real-life learning. Cognitive psychology is influencing work in adult learning. The concept of intelligence as it relates to…

This study of 24 third-grade students learning Logo had 3 major research goals: (1) to compare the effects of learner control with those of program control on students' metacognition, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge application, with total subjects; (2) to extend the comparison between learner control and program control by classifying the…

Because of its ability to record and represent process, the computer can provide a powerful, motivating, and as yet untapped tool for focusing the students' attention directly on their own thought processes and learning through reflection. Properly abstracted and structured, the computational medium can capture the processes by which a novice or…