Students learn important concepts and ways of thinking by building on their own actions and experiences. In much of higher education, the primacy of textbooks and the lectures that accompany them are inconsistent with the nature of student learning. Some students manage to learn despite the problems from this emphasis, but educators can do much…

This brief biographical sketch of Maria Montessori focuses on her philosophy of learning and her methods of teaching. Her holistic approach to education is discussed in the light of its impact on educational theories and practices in the early 1900s. Included in this discussion is a description of her theories, such as the developmental stages of…

A number of college students in forensic debate may be deterred from debating broad topics due to a lack of appropriate cognitive development and a perception of unacceptable certainty. These students have failed to develop formal thinking patterns because they lack reinforcing experiences in reasoning at that level. A sequenced pattern of…

Presents the theory that rhetorical modes taught in developmental writing courses parallel the process of human cognitive development. Describes the teaching strategies and competencies incorporated in a developmental writing course which proceeds sequentially from description through analysis, comparison, classification, and cause and effect. (JP)

This article describes methods for teaching higher level thinking skills to children. A four-step teaching plan utilizing Beyer's Taxonomy of thinking skills provides a sequential technique for teaching these skills as do increased verbal interaction, skillful questioning, and use of knowledge organizers. The I PLAN strategy can aid decision…

This article presents 10 practical teaching procedures to encourage students to develop formal reasoning skills. A twelfth-grade English course is used as an example. Procedures include pretesting, sequencing instruction, providing students with concrete experiences, discussing reasoning patterns and forms of argumentation, assigning argumentative…