In recent decades, research and practice have shown that investing in a positive school-wide social culture is a key component of effective education. Evidence demonstrates that educators and students succeed when students are present, engaged, socially secure, and academically successful. Developed by 2M Research in conjunction with an expert…

Discusses metacognition as an important component of a set of essential survival skills for the future. Indicates ways to promote general awareness of metacognitive activity, facilitate conscious monitoring of comprehension, and encourage a deliberate and systematic approach to learning and problem solving. (RH)

Presents an activity to assess primary students' understanding of ordinal numbers and ability to apply those skills to new problem-solving situations. The activity helps teachers view students' reasoning strategies. Students have to figure out the total number of dots on a strip of paper when they can only see a few but are given a clue that a…

School systems face the challenge of effectively and efficiently addressing the disciplinary needs of their students and providing a safe environment conducive to learning. The 1997 and 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates the use of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) for students who, because…

One of eight papers from Project Seed, this paper describes a conflict resolution program co-facilitated by a special educator and a guidance counselor and designed to help young students who have conflicts with authority figures in school and elsewhere, as well as those students with low self-esteem and poor social skills. The project described…

Identifies kinds of thinking that fit naturally into elementary social studies curricula, using models of thinking that are not complex. Models include general problem solving skills and skills pertaining to specific types of intellectual tasks, such as comprehending information, solving specific problems, researching topics, and making decisions.…

When teaching primary mathematics, story problems with themes that are special to children (such as anything to do with animals) work well to develop their numerical reasoning. Children benefit from problem-solving experiences that help develop their number sense. The paper presents an activity for practicing numerical reasoning and offers three…

Primary-level teachers can show their students that mathematics is all around them by turning classroom projects into opportunities for math practice. This across-the-curriculum activity gives pairs of students a problem-solving experience by having them figure out how to create journals with different numbers of pages. (SM)

Based on an account of how two classes of primary five students in Singapore engage in the learning of English, Mathematics and Science by playing the role of global citizens, the paper suggests an alternative but realistic approach to teaching global citizenship education. Set against the back story of Atlantis facing ecological, social and…

This document contains a set of reproducible activity sheets for teachers to use in enhancing the self-esteem of their students. Designed to supplement other approaches being used by teachers, the activities in this book can be used to infuse esteem-building activities into the core curriculum. The activities are organized around several…

Documents the different problem-solving styles and approaches of two first-grade children having strong mathematical abilities. One child demonstrated an extrinsic, algorithmic style of problem-solving, while the other used an intrinsic, individual-in-control style. (NH)

Maintains that children's thinking skills can be developed and improved through discussions of children's literature. Provides suggestions of how teachers can help students to develop their thinking through questioning techniques and children's literature. Also presents various teaching strategies involving learning activities that allow students…

Pullout pages provide suggestions for teaching elementary students at all levels about the wonders of human ingenuity. The suggestions help students see that great ideas come from the need to solve real-life problems and that one great idea leads to another, so current inventions help predict future inventions. (SM)

This book provides a sequence of organized training sessions and activities designed to prepare students for such helping roles as student assistant, tutor, special friend, and small group leader. The first of the handbook's seven chapters provides an introduction to friendly helpers, describes helping characteristics, and presents an overview of…

This practicum was designed to improve and increase the problem-solving skills of third-grade students. Using a specially designed 20-item test consisting of mathematical word problems, a preassessment was made of the addition and subtraction skills of 843 third-grade students from high, middle, and low socioeconomic levels in four Florida…