Focuses on a cognitively based reflection process (in a graduate educational leadership program) for developing administrators' expertise in problem solving, decision making, and complex thinking. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of student journal entries around critical incidents during the year-long set of experiences revealed that changes…

In a study of the use of baserates and the representativeness heuristic, children and college students made judgments about scenarios that varied by domain and information provided. The use of baserates and heuristic, and the consistency between subjects' choices and rationales, increased with age. Use of individuating information developed early.…

Creating classroom rules together can be a very meaningful experience for children and teachers and can help establish a positive sense of classroom community. Student participation in rule-making encourages active involvement, reflection, meaningful connections, respect for rules, a sense of community, problem solving through negotiation,…

Argues that the conventional Delphi procedure offers decision makers a user-friendly, rigorous, and systematic strategy for collecting and disseminating critical information. Reviews literature related to the Delphi procedure, provides a rationale for its use, describes its distinctive features, reviews points of contention, and provides an…

Interviews with 35 parents of children with cochlear implants found that one type of parent has initial and exclusive contact through a medical practitioner and is motivated by desire for a normal communication situation and the second type learns about implants from family or teachers and is motivated by lack of communication skills. (Contains…

This interview with three performing master teachers at the Interlochen Arts Academy features personal teaching approaches that develop the problem solving skills that are essential for advanced musical study. A positive master teacher-student dynamic is revealed that nurtures technical facility, as well as interpretive decision-making. The role…

Advocates the need for pupils to practice significant aspects of scientific work such as the making of epistemic (related to the nature and construction of knowledge) and methodological decisions. This requires that they work on problems and activities presented in a more open way than usual. Describes a case study. (Contains 11 references.)…

Similarity underlies fundamental cognitive capabilities such as memory, categorization, decision making, problem solving, and reasoning. Although recent approaches to similarity appreciate the structure of mental representations, they differ in the processes posited to operate over these representations. We present an experiment that…

The paper reports on parent survey comments to raise awareness of teachers of children with disabilities and facilitate the parent-teacher collaborative experience. The Life Management Survey (LMS) was designed (Scorgie, Wilgosh, & McDonald, 1997) to corroborate nine themes (Scorgie, Wilgosh, & McDonald, 1996) identified through in-depth…

Orienteering is an outdoor pursuit in which participants try to locate a series of different control points, using only a map and compass (Laubach, 1998). It is a life-long skill that can be taught to all ages in both a natural and urban setting. Adventure education is an approach to teaching where an individual is placed in an unfamiliar…

This paper provides an overview of the realm of critical thinking. The document explores the development of a critical thinking attitude and specific skills relative to logic, rationality, and reasoning that must be fostered to facilitate and enhance future learning. The issue of ambiguity also is addressed as a central construct of the critical…

Group decision support systems (GDDS) represent a technological aid for the decision-making process, combining communication, computers, and decision technologies to support problem formulation and solution in group meetings. A study examined communicative influence strategies used in a GDDS meeting. Subjects, 201 high- and low-influence persons…

Drama is a means to develop imagination and empathy. Simulated experiences can affect profoundly one's judgment and understanding, adding insights and expanding the frame of reference. The name game is a good beginning exercise, especially if participants do not know one another. Each player states his or her name and a favorite object that begins…

School based decision making (SBDM) has become one of the of hottest issues in education today. In SBDM the local governing body consists of parents, teachers, community members, and school administrators responsible for the legislative duties of running their school. Since most decision-making programs are geared for use in business settings…

This paper offers a process for organizational decision making that will assist educators involved in school restructuring. The first part, which focuses on the nature of theory and the relationship of theory to practice, concludes that current organizational theory on decision making is inadequate. The next section outlines four stages of a…