A sample of 86 college students aged 18 to 35 years of age were asked to solve three formal operations tasks and to participate in a problem-finding task. No relation was found between performance on problem-finding and the formal operations task. (JMB)

Learning disabled students need systematic instruction in thinking skills. Both individual clinical studies and group programs have proven such training effective. Some important thinking strategies include goal clarification, previewing, organization, questioning, imagining, predicting, checking results, humor, and self-monitoring techniques. (DB)

If schools are to succeed in teaching critical thinking, educators must have a clear idea of what it is. Critical thinking is skillful, responsible thinking that relies upon criteria, is self-correcting, and is sensitive to context. (TE)

Reviews questions that arise when considering critical thinking in the process of education. Key issues discussed include the definition of critical thought and effective ways to facilitate critical thinking skills. Concludes with an analysis of how children use thinking skills and the factors teachers need to consider when designing…

Describes a dynamic construct that classifies societies according to their dominant method of resolving conflict in the area of libel on a continuum from self-help to mediation, with criminal and civil law remedies between. (DF)

Previous studies indicate that many early elementary school children have the misconception that whole number subtraction is a commutative operation. The degree and character of this subtraction error was investigated in this longitudinal study. Results obtained from three groups of students with different number abilities provided further…

Author states that modern education has provided students with an adequate ability to solve given problems and implement solutions, but has overlooked the importance of problem-finding, a skill which involves defining purpose, setting personal objectives, and exploring interests. (RW)

Nonroutine problem-solving, too, involves elements of routine. Often, elementary routines such as solving for a variable are not carried out without error. In this paper, we use new findings from neuroscientific research to explain why even excellent students make mistakes in elementary routines. [For complete proceedings, see ED489597.]

Main findings of a previous study are confirmed in that the matrix mode of representation, as actually used by Ss, again leads to significantly better performance on all problems except those where information was presented in terms of negative statements. (Authors)

Moderately and severely learning disabled boys were evaluated in terms of constructs of reflection-impulsivity and field dependence-independence, which concerns cognitive style and whether one is able to perceive and utilize discrete elements of his perceptual field. (KW)

Study results indicate that teachers should be less concerned with teaching relationships between problem elements and more concerned with helping students to identify logical assumptions made in problem statement. (Author)

Age and condition (either constancy-relevant or variability-relevant) interact, with the youngest group in the constancy-relevant condition performing most poorly on concept identification tasks. (MH)

The proposed three-step strategy for research on human information processing--concept hierarchy analysis, analysis of example sets to teach relations among concepts, and analysis of problem sets to build a progressively larger schema for the problem space--may lead to practical procedures for instructional design and task analysis. Sixty-four…