This study used a posttest only design to determine the effects of a strategic thinking program on the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT, Form 4) scores of seventh graders who received direct instruction in Strategic Thinking Skills (STS) with the scores of seventh graders who did not receive direct instruction in STS. The study was conducted in a large suburban middle school in north Texas.

The problem for this study was to enhance the development of higher order thinking skills and improve attitudes toward computers for fifth and sixth grade students. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a Technology Enriched Classroom on student development of higher order thinking skills and student attitudes toward the computer. A sample of 80 sixth grade and 86 fifth grade students was tested using the Ross Test of Higher Cognitive Processes. The Ross Test was selected because of its stated purpose to judge the effectiveness of curricula or instructional methodology designed to teach the higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation as defined by Bloom. The test consisted of 105 items grouped into seven subsections. In addition, the students were surveyed using the Computer Attitude Questionnaire developed by the Texas Center for Educational Technology. The questionnaire assessed sixty-five questions combined to measure eight attitudes.

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of 7E learning cycle model as an inquiry-based learning on the improvement of 5th grade students&rsquo / critical thinking skills. This study was conducted during 2005-2006 spring semester in a private primary school in Sakarya. A total of 46 fifth grade students from two different classes of the same science teacher was involved in the study. Two classes were randomly assigned as experimental group and control group. While students in the control group were instructed with traditional method, inquiry-based learning was carried out in the experimental group. Since phenomena that show cause and effect relationships are good inquiry subjects, water cycle in the science and technology curriculum was taken as the unit in the present study. The Cornell Conditional Reasoning Test, from the Cornell Critical Thinking Skills Tests Series was administered as pre-test and post-test to students both in the experimental and control groups. The effects of gender and family income of the students on the dependent variable were also checked. Statistical Analysis of Covariance was used to test the hypotheses of this study. The results indicated that the experimental group achieved significantly better than the control group in both the critical thinking skill test. In other words, inquiry-based learning improved students&rsquo / critical thinking skills. On the other hand, no significant effect of gender and family income on improvement of students&rsquo / critical thinking skills was found.

Education is rapidly moving away from the instructional models of the 19th century and educationalists are now asserting that not only do students need to be able to learn by rote but also to be able to think in a more profound and complex manner. Students are required to develop new processes to handle the rapidly changing world that they are expected to take part in as they complete their formal learning. This change is evident in all the developed nations and Australian students are finding that they are being asked to demonstrate a range of higher order thinking skills in all their school subjects. Science courses in Queensland require students to be assessed on both complex reasoning and scientific process skills. Studies have shown that students can develop these skills in a number of ways that include the exposure to appropriate open-ended hands-on tasks. As higher order thinking skills underlie the development of both complex reasoning and scientific process, it is important that science educators take appropriate steps to facilitate the development of this level of thinking. This study examined the use of some higher order thinking skills by students using Information Technology in their science classroom. It investigated the degree to which students used their higher order thinking skills when engaged in a computer simulation of a complex science task. The study involved two pairs of Year 9 students, one pair each from the upper and lower quartiles of the year level, in a private Years 4 to 12 boys' school in an inner Brisbane suburb. All students had been immersed in Information Technology in Years 4 to 8 as part of a technology-across-the-curriculum project for all year levels in the school and at the time of the study were at the end of their second semester in Year 9. Students had worked with a large number of computer applications in all their subjects, averaging about one lesson in the computer room per day across all their subjects for the past year of schooling. The school also had a policy for learning and teaching that revolved around the development in students of critical thinking and, specifically in Science, complex reasoning, and scientific process skills. During this study, students engaged in a computer simulation requiring the application of skills and knowledge already learnt in their science course. The modules of this simulation developed an understanding of the essentials for life and the quantities of a range of items from water to seeds to land areas that would be required for a number of people that would be needed to staff the Lunar Base. Prompts were given on the way, which assisted students in their decision making. Students progressed through the various areas and stages of the development of the Lunar Base until they were satisfied that each area supported the others and that there was no imbalance that needed to be corrected. Once all stages had been completed, students were free to change variables and experiment further as they saw fit in order that they might produce the most self-sufficient Lunar Base possible. There was some evidence that the simulation did encourage the students in the pairs observed to think in greater depth about the materials and to argue their convictions in an improved manner. As well as the students appearing to increase in competency in argument over the period of time, the four students in their final interviews, spoke of feeling satisfied with the results of the lessons. The students also appeared more engrossed in their task and the pedagogy provided in the task was appreciated as it gave meaning to why they were required to learn scientific materials as well also presenting them with ways to find the knowledge for themselves.

The National Education Department of South Africa has mandated a policy of outcomes-based education for all learners and educators in this country. Two of the most important principles of outcomes-based education are collaborative work in groups and continuous assessment by the teacher and peers. In Computer Studies, taken on the higher grade, learners are expected to construct algorithms and programs by themselves. In the real world such algorithms and programs would be constructed by groups of people working together. The researcher’s purpose of conducting this study was to breach the gap that exists between what is done in accordance with the outcomes-based curriculum in schools - and what is expected in the real world where collaborative work is the norm. The researcher used Bloom’s high-order thinking skills as his point of departure for this study and examined the implications of how they contribute to real-world situations in the school environment. To evaluate the South African curriculum for Computer Studies on the higher grade, the researcher compared the South African curriculum was the curriculum used in Australia for learners of the same age group. The results led to an intervention in which South African learners were examined on high-order thinking skills and programming in the real world. / Dissertation (MEd (CIE))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2019 / There is a universal consensus among educationalists and cognitive development theorists that integration of higher order thinking (HOT) in language teaching has farreaching positive implications in learners‘ future. Their extensive body of research clearly indicates the interrelationship between language and thinking. It shows that to develop well-rounded learners who can later deal capably with varying demands of the 21st century, teaching them linguistic and cognitive skills concurrently is a prerequisite. However, there is still a dearth of language teaching classroom-based data to be collected to ascertain which language pedagogic practices promote thinking or not. Hence, a qualitative exploratory case study was conducted to address this gap. The study was undertaken in five intermediate English FAL classes in Mankweng circuit. The aim was to establish whether HOT is encouraged in the intermediate English FAL classes. The study used two data analysis techniques: firstly, Tesch‘s inductive coding technique was used to analyse semi-structured interview results sourced from five English FAL teachers. They were sampled for the study to assess their conceptualisation of HOT and its application in their language classes. Contrastingly, Anderson and Krathwohl‘s (2001) framework was used to analyse one Grade 4 English workbook. To determine if its exercises‘ instructional verbs were promoting HOT or not; to check if the questions in its exercises were equally distributed over all the six levels of Bloom's revised Taxonomy of the cognitive domain; and to evaluate if there was an incremental introduction of HOTs in its exercises through the year. The results revealed the following: the five teachers could not conceptualise HOT and showed poor knowledge of how to teach it in their classes. The instructional verbs did not comprehensively encourage HOT; those which did were only pitched at the third level of thinking i.e. apply; most of the questions were in favour of low order thinking and there was little incremental introduction of the three top levels of Bloom‘s revised taxonomy in Grade 4 English FAL workbook specifically analyse, evaluate and create/design. Key words: High order thinking skills, cognitive domain, high order thinking and Bloom‘s revised taxonomy.

FEUERSTEIN'S INSTRUMENTAL ENRICHMENT PROGRAM FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS The presented doctoral work covers the programme of cognitive stimulation created by Reuven Feuerstein. It aims to describe the effects that the teachers are triggered with by this programme. The work presents Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) in context of all the Feuerstein's work. It explains its theoretical grounds in detail, and connects them with broader questions from educational psychology field, that are related to the teaching of thinking skills. There is compared the Feuerstein's theory of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) with L. S. Vygotsky's theory of mediation in the work. It also refers to the work of J. Piaget in many passages. The research part of the work is based on interviews and two small semantic- differential scales. The research group contained 9 experimental and 6 control teachers from primary schools. The main aim of the carried research was to map what form gain the influences that FIE has on the teachers. We also worked on the teachers' opinions regarding the implementation of this programme at mainstream schools. Besides the description of effects, we were also describing and comparing opinions of both groups on teaching thinking. The closing part of the work is...

As a popular co-curricular activity, forensic participation is considered as an effective educational tool in sharping students’ logic thinking abilities (Allen & Berkowitz, 1999; Bellon, 2000; Lieberman, Trumble & Smith, 2000). However, in China, compared with the growing enthusiasm in debate among the Chinese students, research in this field is relatively thin. Therefore, in order to gain an in-depth understanding of how forensic participation influence students’ critical thinking abilities, I conducted this multiple case study which was grounded in the Paul-Elder Model of Critical Thinking. My respondents are three national or regional champions from a well-known forensic team in Eastern China. My major data collection include three one-on-one interviews with the respondents, some secondary interviews with their coach and teachers, observations on their debate training, and some online data such as the official blog of the team, my e-mail correspondence with the students and information culled from their personal social networking sites. My two research questions are “How does college students’ thinking change as a result of participating in forensics?” and “What features of forensic participation support students’ development of critical thinking?” In terms of research question one, I have found that first, as a result of forensic participation, my respondents’ questioning, critical reading, analyzing and evaluating skills have improved. Second, they developed some intellectual traits that are indispensable to their critical thinking abilities. Third, forensic participation has to some extent helped them to get rid of ego-centric and socio-centric thinking, which paved the way for them to become an accomplished and responsible thinker. As to research question two, I found that both the educational and epistemic features support students’ development of critical thinking. I also found out motivation plays such an important role in students’ critical thinking development that it could be added into the framework of Paul’s Model of critical thinking. My recommendations include improving the instruction methods in debate courses and enhance both the quantity and quality of the intercollegiate and national competitions.

For a number of years the educational community has recognized the importance of teaching critical thinking skills to all students; however, a shift in educational pedagogy and philosophy has occurred. Through recent legislation the funding of educational institutions that demonstrate competencies and gains from standardized test scores has been mandated. Although performance measurement regarding the effectiveness of learning environments is useful, students must learn critical thinking skills to compete globally, problem solve effectively, self-actualize, preserve democracy, and promote human rights. The relationship between content and critical thinking presents a unique challenge in American education. This study examined the shift in focus from critical thinking to standards-based assessment in American education and focused on data garnered and analyzed from The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST). The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in the 5 dimensions of critical thinking based on colleges and gender based upon 1,455 graduating seniors for the 2009-2010 academic year on the (CCTST). This study used descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze data. In this quantitative study, data from the (CCTST) were gathered and distributed to the researcher for compilation and statistical analysis. Findings from this study indicate that gender and major college of study significantly influence the means on the dimensions of the CCTST. This study provides information regarding critical thinking skills in a higher education setting and is useful for higher education practitioners in facilitating the development of critical thinking skills. The results of this study add to the body of knowledge regarding critical thinking.

The purpose of this study was to determine what, if any, association exists between Thinking Maps® instruction and student achievement in fifth grade students in Reading/Language and Mathematics as reported by the State NCE scores of the criterion referenced portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) Achievement Test in 3 Title I elementary schools in northeast Tennessee. The association was examined after 2 years of Thinking Maps® implementation and instruction. Using a quantitative design, the quasiexperimental study included fifth grade students' State NCE scores from 2005 and the same students' State NCE scores from 2003. Scores obtained by fifth grade students who received Thinking Maps® instruction were examined for differences in Reading/Language and Mathematics and were also compared with scores obtained by fifth grade students who did not receive Thinking Maps® instruction for the same 2-year period. Paired t-tests and a 3-factor repeated measures design, repeated on 1 factor, were used to investigate differences in achievement as categorized by Thinking Maps® instruction or no Thinking Maps®instruction for 2 years. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference for the Reading/Language means for students after 2 years of Thinking Maps implementation but not a significant difference for Mathematics. There was not a significant difference between the two treatment schools in either Reading/Language or Mathematics. The 2 treatment schools had different percentages economically disadvantaged students. The results of the study also indicated that there was a significant 2-way interaction for Year by School in Reading/Language between 1 treatment school and the control school, the 2 schools with similar percentages of economically disadvantaged students. The findings of the tests of simple effect for the differences between the 2003 and 2005 Reading/Language means for the treatment school showed the 2005 Reading/Language mean was over 7 points higher than the 2003 Reading/Language mean. The findings of the tests of simple effect for the differences between the 2003 and 2005 Reading/Language means for the control school were also significant with the 2005 Reading/Language mean being 6 points lower than the 2003 Reading/Language mean.