Between 1985 and 1988 eight colleges implemented a "Thinking Across the Curriculum" program and a procedure for assessing the impact of the program on the cognitive development and thinking skills of students. One hundred and twenty faculty members participated in the project and approximately 1,800 students studied in courses developed…

Sixty-five Year 2 children with ages ranging from six to seven years participated in a teaching experiment to introduce functional thinking. The results show that young children are capable of generalising, can provide examples of relations and functions, can describe the inverse of such relationships and give valid reasons for how they found the…

A two-year study randomly assigned children (K-grade 2) with advanced mathematical skills (n=276) to two groups, an intervention group reflecting a constructivist approach or a control. Boys gained more than girls on quantitative and visual-spatial measures in the control, whereas the intervention group made greater gains in quantitative measures…

Compared and contrasted are the concepts intuition and logic. The ideas of conceptual thought and algorithmic thought are discussed in terms of the world as a labyrinth, intuition and time, and the structure of knowledge. (KR)

Discussed are some situations students face that result in cognitive conflict, possible sources of these conflicts, and strategies which students use to resolve, remove, or circumvent them. A global account for observed systematic errors is offered based on a general problem-solving rule called the "Matching Rule." (KR)

Analysis of the relative contribution of age, gender, and verbal and mathematical reasoning abilities (measured by subtests of the Scholastic Aptitude Test) as predictors of success in accelerated secondary science courses found that a composite of verbal and mathematical reasoning ability was the most powerful predictor and verbal reasoning…

Reports a study of 913 Israeli students in grades 7-12 from randomly chosen heterogeneous homeroom classes to investigate students' Piagetian cognitive levels using a video-based test. Results indicate that less than 50 percent of high school students have mastered formal operational reasoning. (MDH)

Identifies the types of reasoning involved in middle grade mathematics with regard to multiplicative structures and the difficulties students have with the concepts, why these difficulties might occur, and the interconnections within this content area. Offers four recommendations for the preparation and professional development of teachers.…

The need for developing cognitive skills in early adolescents as they move from concrete thinking to more abstract operations has been documented. College students seeking the middle school endorsement in education were trained to utilize matrices as graphic constructs of textual materials. By examining these content matrices, prepracticum…

Building on the assumption that the most important skill for the future is the ability to think, an initial framework for an intellectual processes curriculum theory is described. A definition of intellectual processes is formulated first: Intellectual processes are those mental operations that enable one to acquire new knowledge, apply that…

Described are inconsistencies, definitions, and examples and their complex relationship which can be used to interpret students' reactions to the geometric tasks used to investigate inconsistencies in student thinking. Discusses the nature of definitions, the value of precise vocabulary, the use and limitations of prototypes, and the power of…

Reports on a study of how naive theories, age, and education relate to higher order thinking among 54 adolescents and adults. Finds that, regardless of age and education, all subjects referred to naive theories to identify causes and create remedial strategies for social problems. (CFR)

In 1992, only four blacks in the entire country earned a Ph.D. in mathematics. In the 25 highest-ranked universities, there are only 5 black mathematics professors. Traditional academic beliefs about the inability of blacks to do abstract thinking appear partly responsible. (SLD)

Outlines an instructional approach for teaching moral thinking, based on considering consequences of alternative options. Discusses R. M. Hare's two-level theory of moral thinking, and cautions against relying solely on critical thinking for moral education. Suggests students must learn open-minded thinking, be aware of the consequences of their…

In the light of significant changes in contemporary society that demand high level thinking skills of professional workers, this monograph explores the nature of independent thinking and principles of teaching independent thinking, particularly to college freshmen. A section on independent thinking outlines abstract, creative, and systematic…