This booklet contains proceedings of the Fourth Conference of the University/Urban Schools National Task Force. The conference was held to present information about four programs designed to help high school students to sharpen their reasoning skills. Criteria for program development state that: (1) the program can be taught to teachers in a…

This material describes two games, Minicomputer Tug-of-War and Minicomputer Golf. The Papy Minicomputer derives its name from George Papy, who invented and introduced it in the 1950's. The Minicomputer is seen as an abacus with the flavor of a computer in its schematic representation of numbers. Its manner of representation combines decimal…

TOPS, a set of materials designed to improve problem solving instruction, was evaluated in two large urban school districts from Fall 1980 to Spring 1982. At Site A, the program was implemented at the middle school level (grades 5-8), where most mathematics teachers were specialists; they accepted the problem-solving activities after some initial…

A program for teaching children and adults the thinking skills most important in everyday life is described. This program, which has been tried out and evaluated in the United States, France, Germany, England, Australia, Japan, and Israel, is needed in every school and community as a "gymnasium for the mind," to help people fully use their natural…

Students (N=49) enrolled in a physics course for elementary teachers were evaluated for their abilities to use: (1) combinatorial logic; (2) separation and control of variables; (3) proportional reasoning; and (4) reciprocal implications. Performance of four Piagetian tasks during interviews was treated as a measure of the degree to which students…

A 1978 field test evaluated the 3-program "Collecting Information" cluster of ThinkAbout, a series of 60 15-minute instructional television programs for fifth and sixth graders designed to strengthen reasoning skills and to review and reinforce language arts, mathematics, and study skills. Conducted in 60 classrooms in Kansas City,…

Solutions Unlimited is a computer/video project developed by the Agency for Instructional Television (AIT) in collaboration with a consortium of state, provincial, and local education agencies. The goal of the project is to improve the problem-solving skills of students in grades 6 through 8 through the use of brief instructional television…

In addition to reviewing the literature on the pros and cons of computer use in the schools, this document reports the results of a research project in which 13 pairs of first graders learned to use the LOGO computer language over a 10-week period as part of their classroom activities. The first two chapters discuss the overall question of…

Current interest in the content and methodology of college physical science instruction stems from a recently adopted general education program for Montgomery College, a two-year comprehensive community college. It is contended that physical science should play a major and vital role within the science component requirements of a student's program…

Problem Solving in Mathematics (PSM), a program of problem-solving lessons for grades 4-9, is designed to be integrated into the regular mathematics curriculum. Although the content objectives of the lessons are similar to those of most textbooks, PSM emphasizes problem-solving skills and a variety of instructional strategies which foster the…

This description of a process used in a social studies methods course presents an experiential approach to helping students learn power sharing and decision-making skills. By leaving students alone with instructions to decide cooperatively on desired class changes, type of evaluation, and leadership, students gain experience in negotiation and…

Limitations of the retrieval strategy dimension of Siegler's (1982, 1984) distributions-of-associations model of young children's estimation of sums are delineated, an alternative model is described, and findings of two studies designed to test key assumptions of the models are reported. In Study 1, kindergarten children with normal IQ and no…

Resources that will help secondary students become more effective problem solvers are provided. The book describes techniques or tools and an overall strategy for solving problems. Throughout the book there are exercises that enable the student to practice the techniques. The first chapter provides an overview of the problem solving process.…

Information on the process of decision-making, hints on how to function in team decision-making, and materials on how to prepare clients for decision-making in team meetings for the beginning level child welfare worker are provided in this self-instructional manual. Techniques are discussed for improving the quality of decisions made by the…

Presuming that rhetorical discourse comes into existence as a response to a situation in the same sense that an answer comes into existence in response to a question, or a solution in response to a problem, then Mexico is fertile ground for rhetoric and the study of rhetoric. Mexico is a country under fire. Economic and political problems threaten…