Nine studies of teaching critical thinking in universities are reviewed. A table summarizes the methodological features of the nine studies, describing each study's merits and allowing comparison across studies by criterion. A second table summarizes findings and measures used to quantify those findings. Findings are discussed in terms of measures…

Impromptu writing on tests is a useful way to evaluate student comprehension and encourage students to use critical thinking skills. Students' performance on essay tests can improve, and teachers' time required for grading can decrease through the use of an adapted holistic grading scale that clearly states expectations. First, a carefully written…

The objectives of the 2-year Thinking Skills Project were to provide teachers and students with a set of thinking skills, to develop and validate a model of cognition for teachers, to devise a Measure of Questioning Skills, and to establish a normative base for this instrument. The model of essential thinking skills covers the basic processes: (1)…

Staff developers who have worked intensively with teachers to promote higher order thinking tend to emphasize similar types of training activities, especially involving teachers in higher order thinking and authentic problem solving in their subjects and translating ideas about the teaching of thinking into specific lessons for students.…

Historically, it has been generally accepted that the evaluation of teaching competencies should be conducted by an administrator or a master teacher. There is a body of literature, however, that expresses the idea that self-assessment may also be a valuable source of information despite the uncontrollable defense mechanisms that may be inherent…

A Monte Carlo study was done to determine the adequate sample size for quasi-experimental regression studies, which compare regression lines for two groups and estimate their point of intersection. Populations of 1,000 subjects in each of two groups were constructed (using random normal deviates) to yield equivalent regression lines of opposite…

This manual was developed to facilitate the initial training of a group of pre-retirement peer counselors and to introduce them to the basics of helping for clients facing pre-retirement issues. An introduction explains the use of the manual and urges users to complete suggested exercises when reading the manual. The next section lists learning…

In response to criticism of a previous study, this paper reports a revision of a proposed phonics rule "when there are two vowels, one of which is a final e, the first vowel is long and the final e is silent" (cradle), which is called the VCE (Vowel Consonant E) rule. Following an introductory section, the paper examines previous research, citing…

The heightened interest in college program review is traced to a widespread interest in improving educational quality and the need to respond creatively to financial constraints and external expectations for accountability. Current program reviews have also been designed to aid in decision making about resource reallocation and program…

A panel of instructors in the Speech Communication program at the University of South Dakota presented five papers containing the findings from an extensive analysis of their introductory course, the Fundamentals of Speech. The purpose of the analysis was to determine the result of adapting the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) to specific…

This paper describes the way in which the University of Lowell Instructional Network is being used to provide local schools with access to the university's facilities and faculty. The STAR (Science Teachers Accessing Resources) program is described in detail from its inception, through the planning stages, culminating in two-way television…

The trend to distributed processing is being fueled by numerous forces, including advances in technology, corporate downsizing, increasing user sophistication, and acquisitions and mergers. Increasingly, the trend in corporate information systems (IS) departments is toward sharing resources over a network of multiple types of processors, operating…

This ERIC Digest discusses three ways in which teachers can create an environment that stimulates critical inquiry: critical reading; writing to learn; and classification games. Critical reading has been defined as learning to evaluate, draw inferences, and arrive at conclusions based on the evidence. Elbow's (1983) writing to learn approach to…

A debate about qualitative versus quantitative analysis has been waged in the scientific community for several years. A different set of parameters is suggested for this debate, and a logical transformation is outlined that makes the qualitative/quantitative distinction at the epistemological level a non-problem. While the strategy of induction…

Learning is defined as the modification and acquisition of knowledge, feelings, and abilities of the student--the outcomes of the teaching-learning process. The teaching-learning process in vocational education is intended to serve as the vehicle for achieving specific outcomes embodied in the goals of the vocational program. Two primary strands…