Drawing on research in mathematics and science education that has supported student higher-level thinking in K-12 classrooms, we sought to classify the ways of thinking and reasoning supported by robotics coding tasks. As part of a larger project, we examined coding tasks implemented in elementary school classrooms and analyzed ways of thinking…

This contribution explains the connection between spatial intelligence and spatial competences and by indicating how the first is the cognitive matrix of abilities necessary to move in space as well as to represent it. Indeed, two are principal factors involved in the spatial intelligence: orientation and representation. Both are based on a close…

Provides suggestions for activating prior knowledge, getting children to be aware when their comprehension is lagging, and tying it all together at the end. (FL)

Challenges teachers to explore teacher talk and distinguish messages that unwittingly encourage dependence on authority from those that support the growth of academic autonomy through discovering relationships, developing speed and accuracy in skills, and developing understandings that serve problem solving in projects and activities. (MKR)

Argues that teaching for poetic thought develops not only poets and lovers of poetry, but also readers, dreamers, and doers. Offers suggestions on how it is done.(FL)

Offers seven lesson plans to help blend the affective and cognitive realms of children's learning, connecting an emotional lexicon with written and spoken dialogs, photographs, arguments, and movements. (DMM)

A variety of dynamic television related classroom activities involving reading, writing, and arithmetic skills encourage a broader use of thinking skills. Such activities support instructional goals set for students and promote television literacy. (CJ)

Instruction in estimation is proposed as a natural context to develop and practice important thinking skills. These skills are described and estimation activities are proposed for each. (MNS)

One view of mathematical thinking is described, followed by detailing of the characteristics of a problem-solving program necessary to develop this kind of thinking. (MNS)

"Capture" is a game that requires players to perform several computations on each turn and to choose an optimal move, thus promoting higher-order thinking and probability notions. Rules are given, playing is described, and extension activities are noted. (MNS)

Argues that, from the early grades on, children need help in learning behavior associated with the decision-making process and concludes that school must provide settings in which decision processes are analyzed, taught, and evaluated. (JG)

Describes how teachers can incorporate the use of comprehension monitoring activities into the guided reading phase of basal reading instruction. (FL)

Explores the use of picture books to teach children thinking skills. Presents a three-step process in which children first describe what they see, then compare pairs of illustrations, and finally, express an opinion about which of the illustrations they prefer. (EL)

Examines materials in the ERIC database that deal with the use of creative drama as a language arts teaching tool. Discusses the nature of creative drama and activities for the classroom. (HTH)