Reviews current resource materials available to help educators, counselors, and others who work with rural families in an effort to support them in crisis, to facilitate their decision making and long-range planning, and to foster their problem-solving efforts. (Author)

The reprinted 1978 article with a 1988 update advocates a combination of enrichment and acceleration to meet the needs of gifted youth. It presents a three-stage enrichment model to develop: (1) divergent and convergent thinking abilities; (2) creative thinking and problem solving strategies; and (3) independent learning abilities. (VW)

The paper examines social cognitive activity in mentally retarded children as it applies to language problems, the relationship of problem solving and communication skills, and teaching methods which emphasize language pragmatics. (DB)

Suggests that, when teaching statistics, research supports linking concrete experiences to procedures, giving students the opportunity to develop language, giving students a variety of problem types, using problems that represent the data in various forms, having students collect and summarize their own data, and using calculators for…

Describes six types of software (manipulative, problem-solving, text reconstruction, text construction, simulation, and adventure) and the possible roles of each in computer-assisted language learning. (Author/CB)

The relationship of day care quality to the activities of preschool children during free play and their knowledge of social problem solving was investigated. Relationships were found between dimensions of quality and children's absorption in solitary play and knowledge of social problem solving. (PCB)

Educators have shown great interest in teaching thinking in the last five years. This overview introduces thinking skills instruction as the theme of this issue of "Educational Leadership" and distinguishes three different approaches: teaching for thinking, teaching about thinking, and teaching of thinking. (TE)

An elementary school-based team (SBT) problem-solving model is described. Intended to provide recommendations for initial screening, assessment, and instructional alternatives for students with learning problems in mainstreamed settings, the SBT is discussed in terms of benefits, potential problems, developmental sequence, functional processes,…

Outlines an instructional approach that can be used to teach students to apply a strategy known as subgoal generation to multistep problems. (PK)

Instruction in thinking skills is possible and desirable, but educators must guard against assumptions that undermine the process. Eight fallacies that obstruct the teaching of critical thinking skills are presented. (MD)

Forty-eight students with no previous exposure to probability or statistics read one of three textbooks that varied in emphasis placed on rote and conceptual learning of basic elementary probability concepts. Findings, among others, show students who read textbooks emphasizing conceptual learning tended to be less sensitive to surface features.…

School-based, social problem-solving (SPS) training offers promise both for the prevention and remediation of social maladjustment of disabled children, with emphasis placed on social competence, social skills, and social problem-solving. Strategies for maximizing SPS skills acquisition include repetition, modeling, and role-playing. (CB)

Eight techniques for studying mathematics that can be taught during regular classroom instruction are presented and discussed with illustrations of their classroom use. (MNS)

Recognizing problems in state universities involves a critical analysis of both internal and external environments, as well as a simplification of the complex factors to help people understand the problems and marshall the forces necessary to address them. (MSE)

Describes five studies in which the learning and transfer abilities of two- and four-year-old children were examined on a task that required them to combine two separately learned solutions to reach a goal. (HOD)