Thinking Skills Program Research Articles

Young Children's Ability to Engage in Cognitive Therapy Tasks: Associations With Age and Educational Experience

In two linked studies we examined children's performance on tasks required for participation in cognitive therapy. In Study 1 we piloted some new tasks with children aged 5 to 11 years. In study 2 the effects of IQ, age and educational experience were examined in children aged 5 to 7 years. In study 1, 14 children aged 5 to 11 completed three tasks related to cognitive therapy; generating post-event attributions, naming emotions, and linking thoughts and feelings. Study 2 used a between-subjects design in which 72 children aged 5, 6, or 7 years from two primary schools completed the three tasks and the Block Design and Vocabulary sub-tests from the WISC III or WPPSI-R. Children were tested individually during the school day. All measures were administered on the same occasion. In study 2 administration order of the cognitive therapy task and the WISC III/WPPSI-R were randomized. The majority of children demonstrated some ability on each of the three tasks. In study 2, performance was associated with school and with IQ but not with age. There were no gender differences. Children attending a school with an integrated thinking skills programme and those with a higher 1Q were more successful on the cognitive therapy tasks. These results suggest that many young children could engage in cognitive therapy given age-appropriate materials. The effects of training in relevant meta-cognitive skills on children's ability to use concepts in CBT may warrant further research.

Dynamic Master Mind

Master Mind is a commercial game, popular in the 1970s, that has been extensively used in psychological and educational research. Here, a dynamic assessment format is developed in order to test metacognitive skills in individuals with mental retardation. The main objective is to obtain valid scores that adequately reflect individual differences among low-functioning individuals. Sixteen persons with mental retardation and 13 of average intelligence were compared on static and dynamic Master Mind scores. Scores for subjects of the mental retardation sample were also obtained on the ICAP adaptive functioning score (Bruininks et al., 1986), and on a metacognitive functioning scale, the Cognitively Enriched Behaviour Matrix(Mora and Mora-Merchán, 1995). The latter was administered while participating in a thinking skills programme, Comprehending and Transforming (Mora, 1997) following assessment with Master Mind. Differences between persons with average intelligence and mental retardation were statistically significant on all processes and both on dynamic and static scores. More importantly, dynamic scores on Master Mind were related to adaptive behaviour ( d= 0.482, p< 0.001), and predicted metacognitive functioning in the learning environment of the thinking skills programme ( d= 0.727, p< 0.001). Neither IQ nor static scores related significantly to these criteria.

Pautas de interacción en el aula y desarrollo cognitivo: los Patrones de Movilización Cognitiva (PMC).

Data presented here has been carried obtained within a broader study related to the thinking skills programme Comprehending and Transforming (C4T). Three groups of school-age children that participated in this intervention with differing positive pretest-postst gains were included. We hypothesized that it is the teachers' different interaction style in the classroom that explains the different results of each group. In order to confirm this, an observation instrument was developed and 26 programme videotaped sessions were analysed. Results are in agreement with the idea that certain aspects of interaction (which we call Cognitive Mobilizing Patterns) are relevant for the stimulation of thinking skills. Conclusions point to the need to incorporate these patterns in the training of persons responsible for the implementation of C4T.

Beyond Critical Thinking And Decision Making: Teaching Business Students How To Think

Teaching students how to think is a universal goal of educational institutions. Business schools have addressed this goal by injecting critical thinking activities into their programs, and by offering courses on managerial decision making. This paper reviews these efforts, and concludes that they are not adequate to the challenge of teaching business students how to think effectively. It proposes a comprehensive thinking skills program that includes critical thinking and decision making content, but also addresses the many other thinking tasks managers perform. The paper discusses programmatic issues and provides pedagogical advice pertaining to the teaching of thinking skills in business schools.

Evaluating the process of introducing a thinking skills programme into the secondary school curriculum

The first stage of a long-term, cyclic evaluation of one secondary school's introduction of a cognitive skills development programme into its mainstream curriculum is described. A traditional research design is rejected in favour of a more open-ended, semi-structured framework for evaluation within which aspects of the setting, the plans, the action and initial results are scrutinized. Important issues are raised about what might be considered positive outcomes of cognitive interventions and how these can be achieved. The broader and more long-term aspects of evaluation are also emphasized.

Effects of the Higher Order Thinking Skills Program on At-Risk Young Adolescents' Self-Concept, Reading Achievement, and Thinking Skills

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) program versus a traditional Chapter 1 program on fourth and fifth grade students' reading achievement, self-concept, and higher order thinking skills. The effects were measured longitudinally over one school year in a single school district in the state of Georgia. The subjects included 175 fourth and fifth grade Chapter 1 eligible students, 113 students in the experimental HOTS group and 72 students in the Chapter 1 group. The dependent measures used to assess the relative effectiveness of the treatments were the Self-Description Questionnaire-I, a measure of self-concept; the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a measure of reading achievement; and the Ross Test of Higher Cognitive Processes, a measure of higher order thinking skills. The scores on the instruments in this investigation were compared using analysis of covariance procedures. The findings suggest that the HOTS program is effective in raising students' self-concepts and some higher order thinking skills in the fifth grade. The findings also suggest that the program is more effective after two years of treatment, and that females in grade five are affected slightly more than males.

Creative thinking instruction for aboriginal children

Educational responses to the wide-spread failure of indigenous children in Westernised schools have not made the desired impact. In Australia, for example, an appropriate elementary education for many Aboriginal children cannot be guaranteed. Suggestions in the psychological literature that Aboriginal children might experience success in programs that value and promote creative thinking, motivated the design of the present study. This study, then, evaluates the effects of a general thinking skills program, de Bono's CoRT (Cognitive Research Trust) Program, which features divergent and creative thinking. The results reveal that the implemented CoRT program can enhance the creative thinking of Aboriginal children in mainstream classrooms, but not their scholastic aptitude, school achievement, thinking approaches, self-concept as a thinker, and internal locus of control. Issues of both implementation strategy, including the infusion of the thinking skills throughout the curriculum, and classroom practice are discussed with a view to enhance the children's success in thinking performance and transfer to other class activities.

Creative thinking instruction for aboriginal children

Educational responses to the wide-spread failure of indigenous children in Westernised schools have not made the desired impact. In Australia, for example, an appropriate elementary education for many Aboriginal children cannot be guaranteed. Suggestions in the psychological literature that Aboriginal children might experience success in programs that value and promote creative thinking, motivated the design of the present study. This study, then, evaluates the effects of a general thinking skills program, de Bono's CoRT (Cognitive Research Trust) Program, which features divergent and creative thinking. The results reveal that the implemented CoRT program can enhance the creative thinking of Aboriginal children in mainstream classrooms, but not their scholastic aptitude, school achievement, thinking approaches, self-concept as a thinker, and internal locus of control. Issues of both implementation strategy, including the infusion of the thinking skills throughout the curriculum, and classroom practice are discussed with a view to enhance the children's success in thinking performance and transfer to other class activities.

Thinking in Transition, Developing a Thinking Skills Program in the Middle School

Thinking in Transition, Developing a Thinking Skills Program in the Middle School

Developing a thinking skills component in the gifted education program

As a result of our experience in developing thinking skills components within gifted education programs, we have identified several key issues in the creation of an effective thinking skills program. We believe that although the development of improved questioning strategies and classroom environments to enhance thinking skills is a vital and often neglected aspect of cognitive instruction, the actual teaching of thinking skills is even more important. We define “direct instruction” as the development and use of lesson plans that describe, define and model the appropriate strategies for applying a particular thinking skill. Given the necessary training and planning time, teachers can learn to develop units of instruction to introduce, practice and transfer a given thinking skill. By observing as the teacher models the use of these strategies, and by engaging in guided practice, the student can be “coached” to attain skill mastery and will eventually be able to transfer this new thinking skill to appropria...

Choice and Perception of Control: the Effect of a Thinking Skills Program on the Locus of Control, Self-Concept and Creativity of Gifted Students

Thinking skills programs incorporate a range of objectives, including self-management of learning; independent thinking; effective problem-solving; increased creativity; increased accuracy; decreased rashness of judgement (de Bono, 1976). Implicit within many of these objectives is motivation to learn, both in terms of choice to participate and the way in which learning is structured within the program itself. This study aimed to investigate two levels of choice and control of learning: choice to participate (nominated and self-directed) and level of structure within the program (prestructured and flexibly structured)—serving as independent variables. A Block Design was used with the pre and post testing with random sampling and random allocation to two comparison treatments. Treatments included 10 hours exposure to CORT 1 Thinking skills (prestructured) and the Integrated Education Model (IEM) approach to thinking skills (flexibly structured). T-tests were computed on pre and post tests on dependent variables for both treatments. In the Cort 1 treatment, significant differences were found for locus of control, fluency, flexibility and originality. In the IEM treatment, significant differences were found for locus of control, fluency and fleXibility. Analysis of covariance showed no significant differences between the Cort 1 treatment and the IEM treatment of posttest scores across all dependent variables after adjusting for differences on pretest scores. A two-way analysis of variance for the block design between tructure of treatment and choice of participation showed a significant interaction on locus of control. Results showed that thinking skills programs can have a significant effect on locus of control but have no significant effect on self-cocept.

An Urban School District's Approach to Implementing a Comprehensive Thinking Skills Program

An Urban School District's Approach to Implementing a Comprehensive Thinking Skills Program

Materials Reviews: Reading, Thinking, and Reasoning Skills Program

Materials Reviews: Reading, Thinking, and Reasoning Skills Program

The Effects of a Creative Thinking Skills Program on Intermediate Grade Educationally Handicapped Children

The Journal of Creative BehaviorVolume 10, Issue 2 p. 138-145 The Effects of a Creative Thinking Skills Program on Intermediate Grade Educationally Handicapped Children LAWRENCE WESLEY SHARPE, LAWRENCE WESLEY SHARPE School Psychologist 1185 Avenida de las Palmas, Livermore, California 94550.Search for more papers by this author LAWRENCE WESLEY SHARPE, LAWRENCE WESLEY SHARPE School Psychologist 1185 Avenida de las Palmas, Livermore, California 94550.Search for more papers by this author First published: June 1976 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1976.tb01014.xCitations: 2AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume10, Issue2June 1976Pages 138-145 RelatedInformation