There has been a major shift in educational learning goals--as seen most recently by Goal 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals--focused on global citizenship education and education for sustainable development. The shift concerns recognition of the need for education systems to equip learners with competencies such as problem solving,…

Children today are born into a world with endless amounts of information at their fingertips, the ability to instantly connect with others, and smartphones with an app for virtually everything. It is a world that is vastly different than that of their parents or grandparents. As these students sit in classrooms all over the world, their teachers…

According to dual-process accounts of thinking, belief-based responses on reasoning tasks are generated as default but can be intervened upon in favor of logical responding, given sufficient time, effort, or cognitive resource. In this article, we present the results of 5 experiments in which participants were instructed to evaluate the…

This investigation evaluated the effectiveness of a teaching approach on the students' ability to demonstrate and retain specific behaviors of science inquiry skill in the attainment of critical thinking ability in problem-solving situations. The sample consisted of 318 first-year liberal arts, chemistry students who were assigned to three groups,…

The paper-and-pencil game "Tri" is described. The authors argue that students gain logical skills by playing the game, and that the game lends itself to the introduction of diverse mathematical ideas. (SD)

Brief mystery stories such as the three presented here can be used to help students develop critical reading and thinking skills, as well as to introduce the notion of indirect proof. (SD)

In this interview, Edward de Bono says critical or logical thinking in lockstep fashion is necessary but not sufficient because we need not only the ability to critique ideas, but to create them. Creative or lateral thinking arrives at solutions by attacking problems "laterally" or "sideways." (DCS)

This is a satire on students' ability to think. Children can in fact think, but teachers often don't give them a chance or encourage them to do so. Questioning techniques are very important in getting children to think. A good starting point for children's thinking is their observations. (BR)

Discusses five strategies to use in creating an environment that will foster the development of critical thinking. To make thinking the subject of instruction; focusing on the key aspects of higher-order thinking; providing opportunities for continual, explicit practice; questioning and developing an investigative nature; and reinforcing the…

A problem solving card program was constructed on the basis of Gagne's hierarchical sequence model to teach Unit II of the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) course in physics. The program was used to diagnose areas of difficulty in problem solving. Remediation on 52 identified mathematical abilities involved in the problem solving tasks was…

Students, playing the game described, develop strategies for guessing the four-digit number chosen by the opponent. The rules of the game are easily understood by low achievers, yet strategy development is challenging to advanced students. The game can be extended to numbers having more digits. (SD)

Presented is a problem solving strategy emphasizing the definition step. Detailed analysis of the process of problem definition is included. (SL)

The Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) concluded that teaching is a cultural activity. But do claims about teaching based largely in comparisons of math teachers also apply to teaching in disciplines with less well-defined problems, like civics? What is gained and what is lost when the cultural aspect of teaching becomes the focus?…