Proposes a model of critical thinking in science with affective (dispositions), cognitive (knowledge, basic skills, and higher order skills), and behavioral (contextualized or generalized behaviors) components. Describes the links and mutual influences between the environment and these components. Emphasizes the role of affectivity in the…

New knowledge is made meaningful by relating it to prior knowledge. Although meaningfulness usually relates new knowledge to prior superordinate knowledge, arbitrarily meaningful knowledge, coordinate, subordinate, and analogic ideas, experiential knowledge, and cognitive strategy also facilitate learning. Optimization of prior knowledge is done…

This article illustrates the theoretical and empirical basis of cognitive strategy instruction and compares this basis to major principles of constructivism. Illustrations of self-instructional and other cognitive strategy instruction models are presented in the areas of reading comprehension, written language, and memory. Maintenance,…

This report opens by asking how operations in general, and addition and subtraction in particular, are characterized for elementary school students, and examines the "standard" instruction of these topics through secondary schooling. Some common errors and/or "sloppiness" in the typical textbook presentations are noted, and…

According to the ACT theory of skill acquisition, cognitive skills are encoded by a set of productions, which are organized according to a hierarchical goal structure. People solve problems in new domains by applying weak problem-solving procedures to declarative knowledge they have about this domain. From these initial problem solutions,…

The document consists of three articles by European educational experts on recent trends in secondary education within the member nations of Europe's Council for Cultural Co-operation. The first article, "Interdisciplinarity in Secondary Education," focuses on the tendencies to underestimate the complex managerial side of…