The history of mental computation in the elementary school curriculum is briefly described, followed by discussion of the benefits of mental computation. How thinking skills are enhanced is then illustrated. (MNS)

Francis Wayland Parker's approach to education was based on a belief that children learn when they deal with meaningful things from their daily life. Art education allows the child to explore many forms through attending and expression modes. (DF)

Reviews a study which sought to assess the influence of field activities, as compared to classroom-contained activities, upon students in an earth science laboratory course. Test results indicated that both groups had identical levels of lower-order learning but the field-oriented group demonstrated higher levels of understanding and application.…

Using children's verbal interactions to analyze their mathematical thinking ability is discussed. Suggestions are given for moving from a question-and-answer approach to using activities in which mathematics stimulates talk. (MNS)

Describes an assignment to focus students' attention on the thinking process in which students write dialogues that reproduce concretely the dialectic movement of a formal argument. Includes a more advanced exercise in which students' address the remarks of literary critics. (HTH)

Mastering the basic number combinations involves discovering, labeling, and internalizing relationships, not merely drill-based memorization. Counting procedures and thinking strategies are components, and it may be that using stored procedures, rules, or principles to quickly construct combinations is cognitively more economical than relying…

The author first corrects Baroody's description of the network retrieval model for basic number facts, in which facts are stored in memory and retrieved as needed. He then indicates weaknesses in Baroody's argument. (MNS)

Questions about teaching rational numbers are discussed, dealing with when to teach the meaning of fractions and of decimals, when and how to teach computation with fractions and with decimals, and other issues. (MNS)

Division of fractions and division of decimals, both troublesome, are discussed in relation to helping students learn well and retain what they have learned. A strong conceptual base, mastery of related concepts and skills, and meaningful development are stressed. (MNS)

The effects of a teaching program in probability devised for students in grades five to seven were analyzed. Most of the notions were too difficult for fifth graders; 60-70 percent of the sixth graders and 80-90 percent of the seventh graders were able to understand and use correctly most of the concepts. (MNS)

Archimedes' shoemaker's knife problem is interesting in its own right and also allows the demonstration of heuristic teaching ideas and a different method of doing a routine construction. The focus in the article is on the thought processes involved and questions asked when attempting proofs with the problem. (MNS)

The effects of verbal mnemonics on mathematics achievement were investigated using 100 Japanese seventh graders. All students received 10 weeks of mathematics instruction, but the experimental subjects were taught with the aid of verbal rhymes. Significant differences favoring experimental subjects were found on both the immediate and delayed…

Argues that the current trend toward abandoning teacher education comes at an inopportune time, since recent research creates opportunities for meaningful reform. Discusses findings concerning instructional and classroom management techniques and their effects on student achievement, the classroom applications of such findings, and consequent…

Reseach on use of questioning in classroom teaching reveals that recitation is a poor method, but teachers use it anyway because it is effective in teaching curriculum that is largely textbook based. Teacher educators may be advised to help teachers learn to use recitation well. (MD)

Three major views of intelligence are compared and evaluated: the psychometric, the Piagetian, and the information-processing. The educational implications of each view for training content knowledge and intellectual skills are considered. How each view would approach training students in solving verbal analogies is discussed. (Author/BS)