Education Commons^™

Using Stress Management To Promote Critical Thinking, Robert L. Schoenberg

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This paper examines the effects of distress upon critical thinking and offers a variety of stress management techniques to enhance critical thinking skills. A major theme throughout this paper is that one cannot think clearly when one is distressed. The harmful effects of distress upon critical thinking are discussed in the content of the works of several authors in the field of stress management and cognitive psychology. Several different types of stress reduction techniques are presented and discussed. The critical thinking skills of metacognition, frame of reference and methodological believing are reviewed with a focus on how stress management can …

The Academic Workplace (Spring/Summer 1992): Of Petals And Purposes: The Keene State College Reorganization Of Student Affairs, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Zelda F. Gamson, Delina Hickey, Howard Cohen

The Academic Workplace

No abstract provided.

The Academic Workplace (Spring/Summer 1995): Today's College Students: Myths And Realities, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Zelda F. Gamson, Arthur Levine

The Academic Workplace

No abstract provided.

The Characteristics Of Faculty In Comprehensive Institutions, Ted I.K. Youn

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

This paper compares the characteristics of faculty in comprehensive institutions with those of faculty in other college and university categories as identified by the Carnegie Foundation. Its 1987 Carnegie Classification groups institutions on the basis of level of degree offered—per-baccalaureate to doctorate—and the comprehensiveness of their mission. Public and private institutions are included in each category.

This paper will summarize demographic features, working conditions, satisfaction and participation in academic work organizations, mobility and careers, and attitudes and orientations toward the profession and its organization.

The Academic Workplace (Fall/Winter 1991): Windmills & General Education Reform, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Zelda F. Gamson, Sandra Kanter

The Academic Workplace

No abstract provided.

Case Study #1 - Weservall University, Sandra Kanter

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

In the collegial environment of a mid-sized urban University, faculty and administrators struggle with devising appropriate strategies for developing a set of general education requirements that can meet the multiple needs of a campus with a history of decentralized decision making. While some colleges vie with each other for increased enrollments, other units see general education as an opportunity to reinforce discipline specific goals; in addition, the perception of professional schools influences the ways in which the discussions and decisionmaking process are shaped.

Case Study #3 - Mystic College, Sandra Kanter

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

In an effort to develop a more effective niche in a highly competitive higher education market, a tradition bound mid-sized private college known for its professional schools decides to overhaul its general education requirements. After formulating a bold curricular proposal, the institution is buffeted by the various demands and needs of campus politics and the inevitable challenges to tradition that such innovations bring. The proposal is subject to the contrary interpretations of policy and institutional history by board, faculty, and administration.

Case Study #2 - Littleton State University, Sandra Kanter

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

A small public liberal arts institution receives word that its accreditation is in jeopardy. Though Littleton State is proud of its strong academic and professional majors and its recent institutional efforts to attack a new market of students, it must now decide the best way to examine its general education requirements or risk losing its accreditation. The case study outlines the process which the college follows in its efforts to maintain accreditation while still preserving its traditions and commitment to academic excellence. The case exemplifies the importance of examining possible internal risks as an institution responds to external pressures to …

Changing Mathematics Learning Through Changing Teachers' Thinking, Pamela J. Cooke

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In the context of the goals for reform in mathematics education, as advocated by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, this thesis calls for elementary level students to be actively engaged in learning mathematics through the use of hands-on materials and problem solving situations which involve investigation, reasoning, and communication. These mathematical goals are discussed and then related to the more general critical thinking skills of identifying and formulating questions, asking and answering questions, investigating and analyzing data, deducing and judging deductions, inducing and judging inductions, defining terms, and interacting with others. This thesis is based heavily on the …

The Reference Connection: Teaching Thinking Skills Within The Library Reference Interview, Cynthia K. Fusco

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Library research is a thinking process composed of discrete, identifiable critical and creative thinking skills. These skills may be taught in school libraries as part of the reference interview, a conversation that occurs between librarians and student researchers. In order for this to take place, it is first necessary to understand the political importance of the definitional problems associated with the instructional role of the school librarian, to identify the steps in the research process and their related thinking skills, and to acknowledge the cognitive and affective aspects of the research process. School librarians who wish to include teachings part …

The Academic Workplace (Spring/Summer 1991): Stalking The People's Schools: The Roots And Harvest Of The Comprehensive Sector, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Zelda F. Gamson, Dorothy E. Finnegan, Craig E. Daniels, Janet D. Daniels

The Academic Workplace

No abstract provided.

Opportunity Knocked: The Origins Of Contemporary Comprehensive Colleges And Universities, Dorothy E. Finnegan

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Taken together, general statements concerning the nature of the contemporary American comprehensive colleges and universities punctuate the ambiguous state of knowledge about and recent research on this sector. This paper examines the origins of five major institutional types from which contemporary comprehensive institutions have emerged. The institutional types demonstrate that as an aggregate these colleges removed the gender, class, religious and racial barriers of the early higher education system by providing specialized curricula, by serving particular populations, or by combining these two traits. The origins of the five institutional types discussed are: normal schools/teachers colleges, sectarian colleges -- Protestant and …

Cooperative Learning On Mathematical Problem Solving: Reflections By A Traditional Teacher And Her Students, Diana Metsisto

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

As our society becomes more technologically complex, the educational system preparing our students to become citizens of this society must adapt to met changing demands. Mathematical literacy of the 21st century will require a different model of mathematics education than that which served in the past. This thesis argues for a model of mathematics education which includes as key components: problem solving, question posing, cooperative learning, concrete manipulatives, and teaching for thinking. This new model sets forth guidelines for a facilitative approach to the teaching of mathematics as opposed to the more traditional, authoritative model. This facilitative model is based …

Merging Instruction In Thinking And Writing, Victoria L. Morse

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Two largely independent bodies of literature exist on both teaching to promote students' critical and creative thinking abilities and teaching to promote the shift between novice and more expert writing. The author looks closely at both bodies of literature and merges common principles to create an extended curriculum unit designed to teach simultaneously toward expert thinking and expert writing. The unit contains such diverse activities as: 1) an acrostic puzzle; 2) reading articles on themes related to Hamlet; 3) the use of dialectical notebooks; 3) an explicit investigation into the nature of problem solving; 4) using emphatic role-playing to bring …

Critical Thinking In Reading: A Whole Language Approach, Deborah Anne Adkins

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The importance of good instruction in reading education has long been recognized. What constitutes good instruction and what materials should be used have been the focus of much debate, however, over the years. Two relatively new movements in education have recently added fuel to that debate, namely the movements in critical thinking and whole language. The fundamental purpose of the thinking skills movement is the development of higher level thinking in students. In the area of reading this means that students should be challenged by questions and problems in literature which cause them to go beyond a literal understanding. They …

The Academic Workplace (Fall/Winter 1990): Faculty Shortages: Are They Here? What Can We Do About Them?, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Zelda F. Gamson, Dorothy E. Finnegan, Ted I.K. Youn

The Academic Workplace

No abstract provided.

Implementing General Education: Initial Findings, Sandra Kanter, Howard London, Zelda F. Gamson

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

The article reports on the first year activities of the Project on the Implementation of General Education. The project, conducted by the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE), is funded by the Exxon Education Foundation. The focus of the research is to examine how general education curricula is actually developed and implemented on college campuses that have limited resources.

Assessing Faculty Shortages In Comprehensive Colleges And Universities, Zelda F. Gamson, Dorothy E. Finnegan, Ted I.K. Youn

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

In the last two years, the national media and higher education publications have begun warning of faculty shortages. In the fall of 1989 Edward Fiske and Elizabeth Fowler wrote in the New York Times that colleges and universities would be facing major faculty shortages in the humanities and social sciences (Fiske 1989; Fowler 1989). A few months earlier, Joseph Berger (1989) warned in the New York Times that the "Slowing Pace to Doctorates Spurs Worry on Filling Jobs." The Chronicle of Higher Education has been running a series of articles on various aspects of the faculty labor market --concerning the …

The Academic Workplace (Spring/Summer 1990): Notes On Teaching Pluralism, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Zelda F. Gamson, Michael Morris, Bobbie Knable, Nancy Stoll

The Academic Workplace

No abstract provided.

The Academic Workplace (Fall 1989): The Roots Of Faculty Dissatisfaction, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Zelda F. Gamson, Sandra E. Elman, Ernest A. Lynton

The Academic Workplace

No abstract provided.

The Academic Workplace: Perception Versus Reality, Sandra E. Elman

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Why are faculty becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of the academic workplace? What accounts for burnout and low morale among so many college and university faculty? Is work life for professionals any more satisfying in the business world? What can academic leaders learn from business executives who work vigorously to reenergize their enterprises? Are corporate strategies aimed at enhancing the quality of work life applicable to improving satisfaction and productivity in our colleges and universities?

These concerns were addressed by a number of education leaders at a conference on faculty work life jointly sponsored by the New England Resource …

Introducing Problem Solving Through Literature At The Elementary Level, Margaret S. Harbert

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

There has been much publicity the past few years, regarding students' lack of basic skills, their inability to think clearly, and their poor use of problem solving strategies. To focus on this need, the following program has been designed to help elementary teachers introduce problem solving in an organized manner adding very little, if any extra material to the curriculum. The program aims to help students solve problems, critically, creatively, and systematically. Problem solving was chosen as the target area since the skills and strategies used are closely related to those used in reading comprehension, answering questions logically, and general …

Teaching Critical And Creative Thinking Skills As Part Of The Technical Communications Curriculum, Anne Harrington

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

I incorporated critical thinking instruction in the writing curriculum by using three writing projects: journal writing, a policy paper on AIDS, and an assignment to evaluate grammar checkers. In their journal writing students both generated and evaluated ideas. In the AIDS project, they reinforced these convergent and divergent thinking skills within the context of a real-world issue. For the software project, students practiced thinking skills in an arena that was more technical and objective, but in which they were evaluating fundamental writing criteria. These diverse assignments, based on a philosophically compatible approach to the teaching of writing, helped students develop …

Writing Toward Understanding, Dianne Gregory

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The author -- a writer and student of creativity -- sets out to record her creative process while writing a novel and then match it to prevailing creativity theory. However, in her process notes she finds none of the typical concerns of cognitive psychology, such as problem-finding, risk-taking, breaking set, and other heuristics. The three theorists -- Amabile, Perkins, and Howard -- who seemed impressive to the author as a student, turn irrelevant when she reads them through the eyes of a writer-storyteller. From the fatty flesh of her notes and unformed recollections, elements of the author’s own personal process …

Dorchester: The Community Teaches, A Resource Book Of Information And Activities, Institute For Learning & Teaching, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Institute for Learning and Teaching Publications

We have prepared this manual of resources and activities so that Dorchester teachers and children can explore their community. We have done so in the belief that community studies can be a valuable addition to the curriculum. They involve children in thinking about and taking part in the affairs of their community. Through community studies, children in the process of becoming citizens can learn how to participate in and have an impact on their community. In this time of widespread apathy, despair, and resignation about community problems, education for citizenship is a top priority.

When children are learning about their …

Alternative Concepts Of Geology And Time In Secondary Science Education, Ralph K. Calitri

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This study examines students’ concepts of time and geologic processes and probes for alternative conceptions in these areas which would be of relevance for science education.