There are many reasons to teach dance as part of the broader curriculum. This article focuses on using dance as a way to foster critical thinking. In this conceptual article, I draw from the National Standards goals that were in line with my own framework of dance as uniquely engaging the three different sensory systems of exteroception,…

Defines "critical thinking" and discusses specific instances in two novels which might be analyzed by students to detect fallacious reasoning by characters in literary works. (RD)

Reflects on the importance of observation and documentation of detail in producing critical thinking and accurate writing. (AEA)

This study examines the ability of 20 5- and 6-year-old children to determine whether an inference could reliably be made or whether a problem was undecidable. Children were given a random series of 8 decidable and 16 undecidable problems in which they had to determine in which of 2 houses a target character could be found. There were two…

This document briefly critiques some of the basic theories upon which art education studies are often based, summarizes the research generalizations that may be made at this time, and reviews pertinent experiments that hold promise for future research. The Haptic-Visual Theory of Perceptual Development (Lowenfeld, 1957), the Differentiation Theory…

This study emphasizes the relationship of perception to thinking and explains direct teaching of thinking. Without clarity of seeing and creativity, perception is shown to become narrow patterning. The Cognitive Research Trust program is recommended for teaching thinking skills using transferable thinking "tools." Self-images of students…

Critical thinking alone is reactive, in that it lacks the creative elements necessary for social progress. Accordingly, the author has developed the CoRT (Cognitive Research Trust) program to teach the two aspects of perception: breadth (developing a perceptual map) and change (using the map to discover solutions). (TE)

Children's visual literacy can be enhanced by focusing their attention on aspects of the natural or built environment in the local community. Two activities use photographs and field trips to provide the building blocks of visual literacy: challenging activities, inquiry and problem solving, curiosity and the unexpected, and culture-based…

Preparing students to be both constructors and consumers of visual information will be an important responsibility for all teachers. This will mean giving learners the tools to go beyond what is merely visual to the deeper, human meanings that lie beneath. One important way that educators can prepare students to be wise visual consumers is to help…

The purpose of this study was to investigate, in a broad sense, children's understanding of various types of people in two social domains: television and real life. Specifically, the study was designed to solicit information about (1) the physical and psychological abilities and vulnerabilities children would attribute to television characters and…

The first volume of a program to increase the academic growth of preschool and primary grade children through the utilization of brain hemisphere research, this manual outlines brain dominance theory and provides two instruments for assessing students' preferred style of learning. Material is provided in eight sections. Section 1 introduces the…

Describes the contents of a book entitled The Care and Feeding of Ideas: A Guide to Encouraging Creativity which considers the thinking process, why skills need to be developed, and how students use or should use these thinking skills. (RT)

A course designed to sensitize the student to both verbal and non-verbal clues to the levels of meaning from written and non-written communication is presented. Course objectives include the following: (1) Students recognize examples of emotionally toned language; (2) Students determine attitudes from demonstrations of various body gestures,…

Twenty-one emotionally disturbed elementary grade children completed a television viewing skills curriculum. Results of the intervention found that the subjects made significantly more accurate reality-fantasy discriminations concerning television program content than a control group; however, the curriculum was not effective in increasing…

One of three related documents produced in response to a need for direct instruction in thinking skills at the secondary level, this program for high school students bases its approach on involvement of students in direct experiences. Designed to build on the thinking skills that the student already possesses and, ideally, on the experience gained…