Offers examples of games and problem-solving strategies to help students solve word problems in mathematics. Emphasizes the importance of first considering the question the word problem poses and using game techniques to teach students how to transfer those same strategies to solve different math problems. (TJQ)

Discusses Project MATH: Good Beginnings, a staff development project for teachers in grades K-3. The staff of the program models teaching strategies used in a problem-driven curriculum that encourages student engagement. (MKR)

Using play learning and real-world problem solving, an alternative Arizona program is cultivating confidence and love of learning in bilingual first-graders. Children learn by using their own language (Spanish), learning styles, and thought processes. Besides problem-solving, the "cube train" teaches estimation, number relationships,…

Discusses Means-End Critical Analysis of Subject Matter (MECA*SM), a new instructional approach that allows subject matter and critical thinking to be taught simultaneously through the use of Socratic questioning and systematic problem solving. (DMM)

Gifted intermediate-level students in Greenville, South Carolina, held a Future Fair in which students completed projects and developed critical and creative thinking skills as they investigated real problems. Projects such as models, inventions, photo essays, and creative writing focused on future schools, art, fashions, space travel, and other…

The strength of collaborative learning is in involving students in intellectual problem solving. In a college-level U.S. literature course at East Stroudsburg University (Pennsylvania), traditional lecture and Socratic questioning establishes background; and collaborative learning is used to help students examine the central questions about the…

Discussion of teaching practices that are effective in developing higher cognitive functioning focuses on curriculum development for at-risk students. Four main strategies are addressed: (1) big ideas; (2) linked concepts and connected knowledge; (3) depth of understanding, including declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge; and (4)…

Union and school board representatives studied basic negotiating techniques at a five-day workshop. Improved relations and cooperation were the result. (MLF)

Interest-bargaining involves focusing on the issues, segregating each issue, and assigning interests by each side to these issues until a mutually satisfactory option is reached. Cites effectiveness of interest-bargaining in 60 California school districts and an endorsement from the New York State School of industrial and Labor Relations at…

Consultants and higher education clients have worked together for many years. The rapidly changing landscape of American higher education has produced continuing evolution in consulting practice and in the areas consultants serve. To use consultants effectively, institutions must learn about themselves, the consulting process, and available…

Describes the possible roles of an automation librarian working with microcomputer-based applications. Topics discussed include developing original applications; troubleshooting; software evaluation; hardware and software monitoring, maintenance, and upgrading; data protection; staff training; system documentation; negotiation and communication;…

Instead of diagnosing students' individual learning styles, a Seattle eighth grade teacher tries to help students become more aware of their own styles and develop strategies for dealing with the diverse demands of school and life in general. Students learn about style through informal debriefing of class activities and through formal instruction…

Describes project helping frail elders to live independently. Describes community forums through which elders engaged in problem solving with health care professionals and policymakers. Notes that, when asked about remaining independent, 102 elders' responses fit into themes: safety; problems communicating with health care providers;…

Presents a model of the relationship between the presented problem parameters of art assignments and the creative processes of students. Parameter types of instructions include incomplete, overly and inadequately restrictive, and expanding/contracting parameters. Parameters of student responses are categorized as disregarded, self-imposed, and…

Explains the Big6 approach to information problem-solving based on exercises that were developed for college or upper high school students that can be completed during class sessions. Two of the exercises relate to personal information problems, and one relates Big6 skill areas to course assignments. (LRW)