Translating ethics knowledge into ethical behavior is much harder than it appears, writes Sternberg. In this article, he outlines an eight-step process that individuals must go through to act in an ethical way--for example, recognizing that there is an event to which to react, taking personal responsibility for generating an ethical solution to…

Conventional assessments do not meet the cognitive demands of the world today. WICS, an acronym for wisdom, intelligence, and creativity, synthesized, can provide a more meaningful model. Findings from the Rainbow Project, conducted by the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise, showed that assessing students for…

The way we define excellence dictates the way we achieve it. The author looks at four models of excellence that operate in schools today. The first looks only at the lowest-performing students, focusing all resources on getting these students to score above "proficient" on standardized tests so that the school will be in compliance with NCLB. The…

To identify diverse student strengths and to learn how teachers can build instruction on those strengths, the author and his colleagues have conducted multiple studies among students in Alaska, the mainland United States, Kenya, and other countries. In a series of studies in Alaska and Kenya, the researchers measured the adaptive cultural…

The triarchic theory of human cognition posits three types of cognitive skills: analytical, creative, and practical. Triarchic teaching means teaching to students' strengths and weaknesses. This article shows how the model can be successfully applied to improve schools' existing reading programs. (Contains 13 references.) (MLH)

Educators must teach and assess in ways that allow students to use their memorization, analytical, creative, and practical abilities. A Yale study of 199 high schoolers found that students whose instruction matched their abilities pattern performed significantly better than the others. Expanding the range of abilities tested expands the range of…

Creativity requires application and balancing of three abilities--the synthetic, the analytic, and the practical. Teachers should serve as creativity role models, encourage questioning of assumptions, allow mistakes, encourage sensible risk taking, design creative assignments and assessments, let students define problems, and reward creative ideas…

The state of Connecticut has introduced a fourth-grade mastery test that assesses thinking skills. The test was developed cooperatively by the state's Department of Education, a testing corporation, and several cognitive psychologists; several alternative models of thinking were synthesized to produce a theoretical foundation for the test. (MCG)

Reviews the research on the effectiveness of five thinking skills training programs: Instrumental Enrichment, Philosophy for Children, Structure-of-Intellect (SOI), Problem Solving and Comprehension: A Short Course in Analytical Reasoning, and Odyssey. Compares and contrasts the content of each program and describes the relative lack of adequate…

Intelligence is here defined in terms of component processes, and three programs are reviewed that train aspects of intelligence as specified by this theory: Feuerstein's "Instrumental Enrichment," Lipman's "Philosophy for Children," and the "Chicago Mastery Learning" program. Central suggestions are provided for adopting an appropriate thinking…

Summarizes the work of "information processing" psychologists who study cognition and contends that intelligence consists of a set of developed thinking and learning skills that can, to some degree, be taught. Nine such skills are listed including problem identification and strategy selection. (Author/MLF)

Teachers have many expectations for students that are never explicitly verbalized. The Yale Practical Intelligence for School curriculum is based on three kinds of tacit knowledge necessary for adapting to any environment: managing oneself, managing tasks, and working with others. Includes 16 references. (MLH)

A style is a preferred way of using one's abilities. People vary their styles to suit different tasks and situations. According to mental government theory, we organize ourselves according to certain government types. There are 13 styles under 5 categories: functions, forms, levels, scope, and leanings. Students receive more favorable evaluations…