Addresses the use of the World Wide Web by international relations students and scholars. Considers an instructional web project for an international relations class outlining the project's contribution to active learning and the development of students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Provides advice for educators interested in…

Discussion of synchronous computer mediated communications over the Internet focuses on the opportunities and pitfalls of using graphical chat programs in education. Topics include two-dimensional and three-dimensional chat programs; distance education; problem solving groups; exploring cultural differences; language skill development;…

Examines the extent to which fostering learning communities can improve literacy skills. Shows possibilities for improvements in writing and reading by fostering a community of learners that focuses on scientific inquiries using computer technology, and that learning communities can enhance the reasoning, problem solving, and learning strategies…

Discusses the use of electronic communication networks in education to foster literacy development and considers how innovations are introduced and accepted. Describes electronic communication networks in a college classroom used on a local area network to improve students' abilities to write, read, and engage in collaborative problem solving…

Details the work of Claudia Vangstad who expanded the range of the MRI approach to transform a school culture. Vangstad significantly increased her effectiveness not by limiting applications of the MRI problem-solving approach to individuals, but rather by expanding the range of approach to include larger units: psychoeducational groups,…

Reviews the use of MTutor, a virtual learning environment, in assisting final year engineering project students to adopt industry best practices for design in their projects and to improve their problem-solving skills. MTutor is designed to support problem-solving skill development in learners through Web-based virtual tutorials, which are…

Although educators often provide opportunities for students to engage in active academic responding, in many situations, students either cannot or will not respond. In the current article, we analyze the reasons students fail to respond. Practical procedures educators can use to prevent "can't do" problems are provided. "Won't do" problems are…

Systematic inventive problem-solving is an approach for finding original and useful ideas by systematically examining alterations in existing components within a system, their attributes, functions or internal relationships. This method, which aims at complementing divergent thinking in problem-solving and design, is gaining increased attention in…

Youth violence is widely recognized as a critical social issue in the United States, and many approaches to prevention have been developed in recent years. Emerging research suggests that only approaches that are deeply embedded in cultural, community, and organizational contexts are likely to be powerful enough to have a meaningful collective…

The 12th iteration of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2019) is organized under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society in Montreal, Canada. The theme of this year's conference is EDM in Open-Ended Domains. As EDM has matured it has increasingly been applied to open-ended and ill-defined tasks…

Increasingly, national stakeholders express concern that U.S. college graduates cannot adequately solve problems and think critically. As a set of cognitive abilities, critical thinking skills provide students with tangible academic, personal, and professional benefits that may ultimately address these concerns. As an instructional method, writing…

In 1989, President George Bush met with the nation's governors and the foundation was laid for the "Goals 2000: Educate America Act" (signed into law March 1994). The act provides funds to underwrite states' development and implementation of content and performance standards and associated assessment methodologies directed toward helping…

How teachers create and foster a learning environment that promotes creative thinking and problem solving skills in students was investigated in a 1-year study in a community college in Texas. The study explored the teaching methods and classroom climates created by eight exemplary teachers who demonstrated exceptional approaches to promote…

Students encounter numerous volatile situations throughout their school days, especially during times of increasing diversity. "Inter-Cultural Mediation" is a single half hour video that includes a teacher's manual and student handouts. Shot in Ontario, Canada during the Commonwealth Youth Conference in Conflict Resolution, this program…

The following topics and objectives are presented as essential for teachers, principals, and supervisors to study in working towards a modern elementary social studies curriculum: (1) objectives in the social studies; (2) trends in the social studies; (3) scope and sequence; (4) materials used in teaching; (5) readiness in learning; (6) number of…