This article has three goals: to set forth some general claims about the course of skill acquisition; to discuss a series of counter intuitive predictions derived from the ACT theory; and to review the state of empirical evidence relevant to these predictions. (LMO)

This article reviews the quality circle concept, shows why its characteristics appeal to American executives, and examines some of its limitations. It looks at self-managing teams and discusses the reasons that adoptions have been relatively few. It then shows what organizational conditions are necessary for quality circles to evolve into teams.…

Presents results of two case studies in which parents served as cotherapists in a social cognitive problem-solving program: a 9-year-old boy referred for distractibility, immaturity, and impulsivity, and an 8-year-old boy referred for aggressive behaviors. (Author/NRB)

Describes a programming environment called Tinker, in which a beginning programmer presents examples to the machine, distinguishing accidental and essential aspects of the examples. Examples of programming in Tinker are presented in which programmers demonstrate how to handle specific examples and the machine formulates a procedure for handling…

Discusses the support for higher-order skills in the secondary school and vocational curricula, the need for higher-order skills in the marketing curriculum, methods of teaching higher-order skills, and implications for teacher education. (CT)

Effects of training four urban high school principals in problem solving with adolescents and family members were assessed in simulation and naturalistic settings. Quality of problem solving exhibited was greater following training. Other principals indicated that the training program would be beneficial to themselves and other school…

Identifies procedure to help classroom teachers infuse problem solving into the typical technology education classroom. The five steps involved are (1) set a goal the student can attain, (2) define a task that incorporates new actions and ideas, (3) provide a structure, (4) force the student to choose between several alternatives, and (5) make the…

Presents ideas to improve education, including employing increasingly effective group procedures, teaching techniques of cooperative planning and group problem solving, developing skills of cooperative assessment and self-evaluation, and developing skills of propaganda analysis. (CT)

Performance on patient management problems and multiple-choice questions was analyzed for candidates for American Board of Internal Medicine certification whose residencies had been problem-oriented, for candidates whose residencies had been classified as nonproblem-oriented, and for the national pool of U.S. medical graduates. (Author/MLW)

A recent study in Baltimore shows that the inclusion of a structured cognitive skills program in the language arts curriculum significantly improved student verbal performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). (MD)

A sociologist and a writing instructor developed a college level human ecology course that stresses problem solving and written communication. The emphasis on thinking and writing skills increased student ability to identify, resolve, and communicate issues in sociology. (Author/RM)

Mid-year assessment produced significantly greater results in mastered skills and problem solving by 12 learning disabled (LD) students with 40 minutes daily instruction in the SPARK-80 Computerized Mathematics System on Radio Shack terminals as opposed to nine LD students with traditional resource room mathematics instruction by experienced…

Critical thinking skills that can be applied to reading can be developed through means other than reading. Teachers can launch class discussions of popular films, such as "E.T.," to nurture these skills, a technique especially helpful for children who have difficulty with the printed word. (PP)

This training manual presents concepts and skills that students can be taught to successfully address social, economic, and ethical issues both inside and outside of school. The manual is intended as a comprehensive guide for effective service learning and peer helper programs; the concepts and skills provided here are designed to apply human…

This book is designed to help better understand problem-solving instruction. It presents information on helping students understand the problem-solving process as well as information on teaching specific strategies, including: Choose an Operation; Find a Pattern; Make a Table; Make an Organized List; Draw a Picture or Diagram; Guess, Check, and…