Panoramic scanning is the capacity to perceive, interpret, and appreciate complex problems from a big-picture vantage point. Barriers to panoramic scanning (sensory bombardment, superficial polarized thought, and tunnel vision) and facilitators (broad interests and knowledge, pattern finding, and connection-making skills) are identified. Educators…

An examination of the reasons behind the strong evidence that practice in sentence combining leads to overall superiority in writing began with the development of a more precise syntactic instrument than had been used previously and a new set of criteria for rhetorical analysis which focused on unity, organization, succinctness, and cohesiveness.…

Discusses the "Philosophy for Children" program developed by Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children at Montclair State College in New Jersey. Explains how the teaching of philosophy can also be incorporated into the teacher education curriculum. (FL)

Reviews current research on brain-behavior relationships in disabilities of arithmetic and mathematical reasoning from both a neurological and a neuropsychological perspective. Defines developmental dyscalculia and the developmental importance of right versus left hemisphere integrity for the mediation of arithmetic learning and explores…

Students from thirteen middle school science classes participated in this study to determine their formal reasoning ability and locus of control. Students were observed through a sequence of lessons for their classroom behavior. Results indicated that achievement was related to high formal reasoning ability, attention to instruction, and internal…

After participating in a 4-week demonstration project focusing on enriching skills in cognition, memory, convergent and divergent thinking, creativity, and problem solving, 68 potentially gifted 4- and 5- year-olds (many from culturally-diverse and/or low socioeconomic backgrounds) made significant gains in their ability to reason with figures and…

Recent research projects have indicated that a majority of adolescent and adult students have not reached a formal level of cognitive functioning and must therefore be taught rhetorical modes such as comparison and classification. A study was constructed to investigate the cognitive skills development of average college freshmen and to test…

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…

Evaluation results are reported for the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's Thinking and Reasoning Program, designed to develop analytic thinking and problem-solving skills in young children in multicultural classroom settings. Results are based on a pilot test of the program conducted during the 1974-75 school year. Mastery activities,…

This teaching guide provides an integrated framework for teaching thinking skills which involves both teaching thinking in a separate program or course and infusing the teaching of thinking into standard subject area instruction across the curriculum. Individual chapters deal with the following topics: (1) the nature of thinking skills and…