A Holistic Approach to Improving Thinking Skills

Author(s): William A. Sadler, Jr. and Arthur Whimbey

Source: The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 67, No. 3 (Nov., 1985), pp. 199-203
Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20387580
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A Holistic Approach

To Imp roving

Thinking Skills

by William A. Sadler, Jr.,

and Arthur Whimbey
Breaking thinkig skills into discrete units
is not the right path to follow in the teaching of
thinking skills, say the authors. Teaching people
to think is like teaching them to swing a golf
club: it's the whole action that counts.
-_TS; HEWIND IS shifting ineduca
tion, sending us on a new tack
in our approach to learning
and teaching. We believe this
change in direction will help us solve
many of the problems besetting our so
ciety and our educational institutions.
The new tack, a focus on improving
thinking skills, is more noticeable in
some places than in others. Such nations
as Venezuela and Israel have already
made impressive commitments to it. In
the U.S., strong recommendations for
I~" : ,qs =^, | Fthinkingskills at thecollege lev
teaching
_rew
el have been provided by two recent
documents: Involvement in Learning,
from the National Institute of Education,
and Integrity in the College Curriculum,
from the Association of American Col
leges. A recent international Conference
on Thinking, held at the Harvard Gradu
ate School of Education inAugust 1984,
WILLIAM A. SADLER, JR., formerly a
^ _ J-vw
Or _ _y&_r
\ -
rows wof ofsociology
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~professor andhead ofthe Divi
_% _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~sion
} >_ of Interdisciplinary Studies at Bloomfield
^ Ad~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~College, Bloomfield, N. J., is now dean of the
X v SiL, % ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~college of Arts and Sciences at Lock Ha
!C ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ven University, Lock Haven, Pa. ARTHUR

i~~~~~~~~~~~~~i
*iS is the author of numerous books
~~~WHIMBEY
? Ad _ ^ -a ;| - . - - ^ ffi
z~~~~~~~~i~~i..;.. * articles about thinking and problem solv
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~and
~~~ing. Both authors work as consultants to in
_- A d z _ interestedin improvingthinking
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~stitutions

PhotobyDavidB. Sutton NOVEMBER 1985 199

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 providedmore encouragingevidence that
the winds of change are blowing educa
tors from around the world in this new
direction.2
We were heartened to see an endorse
ment of this approach in a pair of arti
cles devoted to the improvement of think
ing skills, by Barry Beyer, in theMarch
and April 1984 issues of the Kappan.3
Beyer argued cogently that, until we
change the way we have been doing
things in education, we will not see an
improvementin thinkingskills.With that
we agree.
However, Beyer went on to argue that
a complete taxonomyof thinking skills
must be developedbefore theschoolscan
effectively improve thinking.Here we
disagree. We have found that the use of
a taxonomy of thinking skills merely mis
leads our understandingof the learning
process and interfereswith teachers'ef
forts to improve the analytical ability of
students.Trying to break thinkingskills
into discrete units may be helpful for di
agnostic purposes, but it does not seem
to be the right way tomove in the teach
ing of such skills. We believe that teach
ing people to think is like teaching some
one to swing a golf club. It is most im
portant to get the feel of the whole ac
tion. If you start by working on just one
small piece of the swing, you'll surely
make a mess of it.
As an alternative to the method Beyer
proposed, we will describe amore holis
tic approach, which is being used at a
numberof schools, includingBloomfield
College, in New Jersey, and Paul
Robeson High School, in Chicago. The
National Commission on Excellence in
Education has described the Freshman
Core Program at Bloomfield College as
one of 12 notable programs for fresh
men.4 In it, a holistic approach com
bines the teaching of analytical thinking
with communication in order to improve
a student's total intellectual functioning.
We have learned through experience that
neither reading nor analytical thinking
can be taught effectively without also
teaching communication, because such
complex mental processes depend on a
student'stotalintellectualfunctioning,not
on a set of narrowly defined skills.
This pedagogicalwork hasbeen helped
by the discoveries of modern psycholo
gy. For instance, the study of thinking
has shown thatlearningis an activeproc
ess. Although behavioristsand cognitive
psychologists disagreewith one another
inmany areas, they agree on thispoint.
Keller andSkinner,Bruner andPiaget -
all have emphasizedthe importanceof in
200 PHIDELTA
KAPPAN
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volving learners in the process of acquir
ing knowledge.5
Such psychological research, along
with 10 years of trial-and-error ex
perience in the classroom, have led us to
formulate the following six principles that
guide the holistic approach to teaching
cognitive skills used by teachers at Robe
son High School and Bloomfield Col
lege.6 By applying these principles, it
has been possible for us to develop gener
ic thinking competencies in a systematic
way, so that students really appear to
grow smarter.
1. Teaching active learning. One of the
most important features of our approach
to thinking is to teach students such strat
egies for effective learning as raising
questions. Past practices in the schools
have emphasized giving answers, and
students have often learned the bad hab
it of "answer grabbing" rather than pro
ductive thinking. They have not learned
to work things out for themselves. As
Jack Lochhead of the University of
Massachusetts has put it, students don't
need to be taught methods they can
mindlessly follow; instead, "they need
to be taught to think about whatever
problem-solving method they happen to
choose."7 Students have to learn how to
learn effectively on their own.
We have systematically structured
learning so that students are required to
raise questions about what they are read
ing or about problems they are supposed
to solve. For example, when listening to
a lecture or reading a chapter, students
can be taught to formulate questions that
are implicitly raised by thematerial. Thus
they can see that information is a re
sponse to a question. To truly under
stand, one must first ask the right ques
tion. By becoming question-raisers, stu
dents learn to assume responsibility for
their learning rather than to depend solely
on teachers or textbooks.8
We are also learning that, in order to
develop this skill to the fullest, students
must become conscious of their own
thinking. In this way they can monitor
their thought processes and provide them
selves with the feedback they need to
reach a conclusion. This is an important
insight,which leadsus toour next point.
2. Articulating thinking.A second im
portantprinciple of teachingstudents to
thinkis thatcommunicationis at theheart
of theprocess bywhich intelligence(and
learning,which is a primary formof in
telligence)develops. Early in thiscentu
ry, such thinkers as George Herbert
Mead emphasizedthatthinkingoriginates
and develops through verbalizing ex
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
perience.9 We are now clearly aware
that an inner dialogue within the learner
must accompany the external dialogue
between teacher and student. Thus a
practicalapplicationof the importanceof
communicationto learningto think is to
provide opportunitiesfor studentsto ar
ticulate their thinking and to receive a
great deal of feedback. In contrast to
quietly performing discrete behaviors,
students can be encouraged to think out
loud, to communicatewith themselves
and others. In short, to learn cognitive
skills, studentsneed to become actively
involved throughboth questioning and
talking.Ernest Boyer is surely right to
emphasize the mastery of language; he
calls it the "basic of basics" because it is
so fundamental to the development of in
telligence. 10
One way we have found to facilitate
this process is to break our classes into
pairs or small groups. Teachers can help
students attack a problem by raising ques
tions that involve students actively in the
questioning process and thenby allow
ing them to reflect externally on what
they are learning.
Another tactic is to assign many short
papers or problems for students to work
on. This maximizes opportunities for
both expression and feedback, which are
essential components in communication.
For example, in theBloomfield College
Freshman Core Program, in which stu
dents are trained to perform analytical
thinkingat progressively higher stages,
they are required to write papers for al
most every class. The assignments usual
ly take the form of arguments. That is,
students must follow a question through
to a conclusion, giving their reasons for
establishing a set of points as they write.
Inworkshops and conferences, students
then have opportunities to explain to
teachers and other students why they fol
lowed a certain line of reasoning. The
goal of such exercises is to help students
take charge of their own learning by
monitoring theirown thinkingprocesses.
Another method that makes effective
use of the importance of communication
TOT E SPELLI
ES O' L& ,
to thinking is paired problem solving.11 practicalapplicationof efforts to achieve
At Robeson High School we have helped intuitiveunderstanding.For example, in
teachers develop this approach at all lev
els and in all subjects. In each pair of stu
dents, one acts as the problem solver,
while the other acts as monitor. The first
must articulate each thought as he or she
works througha problem, giving reasons
for choosing one answer rather than an
other. The monitor can challenge what
ever is said, forcing the first student to
substantiate or clarify his or her reasons
for taking each step. Actually, there is
nothing sacred about the number two; we
have found that trios and quartets can
serve the same purpose.
Although it is too soon to certify the
long-rangeresultsof thepaired-problem
solving approach at Robeson, the short
term results in this all-black high school
have been impressive. An observer im
mediately notices that the classes are very
noisy, but also very productive.Students
are involved in learning. They even tes
tify that they like this kind of learning.
Tests and papers indicate such an im
provement in learning that theprincipal
has established a policy that all teachers
will receive special trainingin effective
lymanaging paired problem solving.
Moreover, the climate of the class
rooms has been changing, so that learn
ing has become a respected and impor
tant objective for most Robeson students.
Classroom noise and activity now signi
fy not lack of discipline but the develop
ment of serious learning, conceived as an
active process of thinking and com
municating.
3. Promoting intuitiveunderstanding.
A third insight into learning that we use
in our approach to teaching thinking is
that students need to have an intuitive
understanding of whatever they're work
ing on. 12One defect of the old-fashioned
drill method is that it ignores the impor
tance to learners of acquiring an overall
sense of materials, ideas, or operations.
Perhaps through countless repetitions
some of the better students might under
stand what a subject is all about, but
many others never do. This is one rea
son that so many students find it so diffi
cult to apply whatever they have suppos
edly learnedto new and unfamiliarsitu
ations. Too often studentsare not chal
lenged to figureout how tousewhat they
alreadyknow. Thus they fail to transfer
their learningto new situations.Our ap
proach encourages studentsto articulate
what they know and to break down as
signed problems into smaller ones that
they already understand.
-Again, many possibilities exist for
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a physics class students can discover
through their own experience what such
concepts as mass, volume, and density
mean. Using what is sometimes called the
"discoveryapproach,"theyvisually ex
perience squares covering a surface,
cubes filling containers, and the displace
ment of matter. Through simple experi
ments they experience the fact that den
sity is a ratio between mass and volume.
In contrast to students who merely plug
numbers into a formula to solve prob
lems, these active learnersunderstand which involvesanalyzingtheassumptions
why formulas have been developed and
how they can be applied in different sit
uations. 13
Similarly, in classes in the humanities
and the social sciences, teachers open dis
cussions about new topics by eliciting
from students their sense of what they are
working on and by encouraging students
to relate what they know from their own
experience towhat theywill be studying. proceedingto thenext step.However, we
Ideally, students should be able to work
from experience to new knowledge and
competence. Once students have an in
tuitive understanding of a problem or
task, they can move with greater confi
dence to become independentlearners,
able to transfer skills and knowledge to
many different situations.
4. Structuringcourses developmental
ly. The fourth principle on which we base
our teaching of thinking follows natural
ly from the third. We need to structure
developmental sequences for learners.
While some learning doubtless occurs
through intuitive flashes, ordinary learn
ing follows the cumulative pattern of
scientific inquiry: insights and compe
tences build on one another. Like many
textbooks, learning programs are too of
ten disjointed. They produce the scattered
thinking that is characteristic of poor
learners. To help students improve their
own process of cognitive development,
teachers can build a course around the
stages of learning.
For example, in developmental writ
ing classes at Bloomfield College, stu
dents are shown how to verbalize their
thinking by first articulating amain point.
Once theyhave learnedtoexpress clear
ly a positionon a topic, they learntogive
reasonsformaintainingit, alongwith evi
dence that supports it. After they have
learned to formulatea simple argument,
theyare readyto thinktheirway through
a more complicated one.
The same process works with amul
tiplicityof assignments.For example, if
an objective is to teachcritical thinking,
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
lo often students
arenot challenged
to figure out how to
use what they already
know. Thus they fail
to transferlearning
tonew situations.
and values of a stated position, students
need first to learn how to analyze ideas.
Otherwise, theirresponses to suchques
tions as "What do you think about that?"
will consist of opinions and blind reac
tions rather than thoughtful critiques. 14
As partof a sequentialdevelopmental
approach, it is also important to insist
on the mastery of a learning skill before
do not believe that mastery means per
fection. Students should be expected to
demonstrate a reasonable competence
within the context of a given assignment.
At BloomfieldCollege, teacherslook for
steady progress in learning in all areas,
but they have also developed a sense of
learning growth as a spiral. That is, what
is learned at one level comes up again and
is reinforcedat another,more difficult
level.This spiralpatternof reinforcement
helps produce a sense of thoroughness
that is essential to dependable intellectu
al competence.
5. Motivating learning. A fifth princi
ple of teaching effective thinking is that
it is essential to work on the motivation
of learners. Some scientific evidence -
and a lot of common sense - suggests
that people learn better when they are re
warded. But much experience also shows
that learning sometimes produces un
pleasant consequences, when, for exam
ple, people who have learned to think
hard about moral dilemmas are forced to
make difficult, even painful, decisions.
The motivation in this case is internal; it
comes from a developed sense of com
petence in thinking things through, from
an awareness of principles, and from a
sense of responsibility.This is the kind
of motivation thatis really importantand
needs to be developed.
In thebeginning stages, it is particu
larly importantfor teachers to concen
trate on studentmotivation. Recently,
students in a tough remedialmathemat
ics class made exceptional progress. In
explaining this achievement, the course
NOVEMBER 1985 201

Ta l e 1 impressive gains in their ability to rea
Prts n PotetSTYre ofaRmdaC.g
ls o optainadApedrihetc
MA
coordinator said of the teacher, "Her stu
dents loved her so much, they would do
anything for her, even learn math." Giv
ing personal attention to students and
showing that you genuinely care about
their developing capacities greatly moti
vates them to improve. Unfortunately,
some otherwise useful materials on de
veloping cognitive skills have omitted
any consideration of motivation.
We have also learned some other
things about motivation. It helps to have
clearly set objectives, so that teachers and
students have aworking consensus about
what their goals are. Furthermore, the
goals should be linked, so that they make
internal sense and provide a basis for de
velopmental sequences. The methods for
learning should also be worked out, so
that it is clear how they agree with the
goals. In addition, the goals should pro
vide realistic challenges - hard but
reachable through perseverance.
In a tough cognitive skills course, stu
dents often express dismay at the diffi
culty of raising their level of competence.
But, through experience, they learn that
"can't" is an increasingly inappropriate
term. They can do it. Thus another moti
vating factor is an evaluation4roc-ess that
enables students to discover both the
areas in which they have made progress
and those in which they need to work
harder. This knowledge gives them a
sense of competence that is a powerful
motivator for continued learning.
6. Establishing a positive social climate
for learning. The sixth principle that we
feel is crucial to teaching cognitive skills
is the development of a social climate that
is supportive of teaching and learning.
Teaching cognitive skills is tough work.
The area is largely uncharted; the work
202 PHIDELTA
KAPPAN
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in a very low range. Yet all of them made
son quantitatively. It is remarkable how
some extremely weak students demon
strate competence to learn and perform
at above-average levels within less than
four months. Most of these Bloomfield
students go on to complete college-level
math and science courses.
In the Bloomfield College Freshman
Core Program, nearly 50% of the incom
ing students manifest weaknesses that re
quire at least one semester of remedia
tion. In the lowest-level developmental
reading and writing classes, students be
gin with a task of questioning fairly sim
ple material. Their assignment is towrite
a response to a question. The following
example is taken from one such class:
Q. According to Fisher, how do to
is risky; the opportunities for mistakes day's teenagers view shoplifting?
are many. Teachers and students need to A. According to Fisher, Today's
feel thatwhat they are doing is valued and teenager view shoplifting as no big
deal. (it is o.k. to steal). If they see an
that failure along the way is forgivable
item that they want and don't have
because it is part of the learning process. enough money to pay for it they will
decide to take it (shoplift). If they are
At Bloomfield College and at Robeson caught shoplifting theymay cry out not
High School, we have formed teaching because they are sorry for shoplifting
teams and have brought teachers into or humiliated; it is because they got
clinical workshops to improve their caught. They believe that they are
teaching skills. Teachers are also en heros. They are bold and to them to
couraged to visit one another's classes, take something that's not theirs is o.k.
and schedules have been designed to al
Many high school and college teachers
low them to do so. Afterward, they can
will recognize common mechanical and
discuss teaching strategies to promote
thinking deficiencies here. The student
communication and creative thinking
has lifted ideas from the material to re
about the learning/teaching
process. The
spond to the question without conceiving
task of improving cognitive skills should
an adequate argument. In fact, this stu
be a group experience, not a solitary ad
dent misses the point of the question.
venture.
There is no real argument at all; the
thinking is disorganized; the writing style
STUDENT GAINS is obviously poor.
After one semester of concentrating on
Inevitably, the question arises: How
the thinking/communication process, this
well does this new approach work? We
student was able to respond coherently
have seen remarkable progress in learn
to another assignment in a style and form
ing, not only in the achievement of in
that were clearer and more correct:
tellectual competence, but also in great
ly improved motivation and knowledge.
Q. Why was the principal tri
The results are probably most easily
umphant?
demonstrated inmathematics. Bloomfield A. The principal felt triumphant be
College students who score at about cause he was able to express his true
the seventh-grade level on standardized feelings with dignity. He spoke out for
mathematics tests show an average im what he believed was right.
provement of about three years after only The supervisor demanded the prin
one semester of remedial math. Table 1 cipal's resignation because he allowed
shows the pretest and posttest scores on a student to express himself. The stu
dent saw Christ as being black. He
College Board tests of computation and
painted a picture of a black Christ and
applied arithmetic for a recent class that
the principal gave him permission to
followed the sequential/developmental bring the picture to school so that he
approach of theWhimbey and Lochhead could share his views with others.
text, Developing Mathematical Skills.15 The principal believed that everyone
Some of these students originally scored should have the right to express him
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

It helps to
have clearly set
objectives,so that
teachersand students
have aworking
consensusaboutwhat
their goals are.
self according to his race and culture.
He was also proud of his race and
wanted to share black culture with the
students.
At the price of losing his job, he was
able to express himself with dignity and
he felt victorious.
In the selection above, the student has
formed her own concepts about dignity
and courage and applied them to the sto
ry to explain it. In addition to a notice
able gain in reasoning power, the writ
ing has improved considerably. Such im
provement is typical.16
xW
r STUDENTS have
THEN
demonstratedmastery of
the basic steps in reasoning
and communicating, they
move to a higher-level course in which
the same operations are required even as
new ones are being taught. Thus, at the
end of the series of courses - the last two
being college-level general educationre
quirements - Bloomfield College stu
dents can construct an analytical discus
sion of a difficult modem novel or social
sciencemonograph.
The following sample from an intro
ductory paragraph typifies the level of
their work. This student was asked to dis
cuss a character change in Nick Carra
way, the narrator of The Great Gatsby.
Here is how he began his essay:
Q. Has Nick changed?
A. Nick haschanged. When he first
introducedhimself to us, he seemed
verysnobbyandclosedminded.Grad
ually,hebecamelesssnobbish,andfi
nally,madea gestureof friendshipand
love.Also, Nick never seemedvery
perceptive.He saw lifeby its surface
andnotbeyond.He was simplyblind
toothers'feelingsandthemotivations
behindtheiractions.
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In this passage the student has gener "RedefiningLiberalEducationThrough Skill De
alized from his reading of the entire nov velopment," Journal of Learning Skills, Winter
1983, pp. 4-15. Additional information may be ob
el; he has formed clear and precise ideas tained by writing William Sadler at Lock Haven
and supported them with evidence gath
ered from his own reading. There are
University, Lock Haven, PA 17745.
5. A brief, spirited argument for this point was giv
clear indications of sound analytical en by Fred Keller in the Journal of Learning Skills,
Fall 1982, pp. 12-17. Skinner has made this point
thinking, effective communication,and
acceptablewriting skill.
in numerous works; see B. F. Skinner,
Behavior (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts,
Verbal
At BloomfieldCollege diagnostic tools 1957) and TheTechnologyof Teaching (Appleton
were developed that make it possible to Century-Crofts,1968). An impressiverestatement
assess the growth of a class as well as in of Jerome Bruner's views can be found in his au
tobiography,InSearchofMind (NewYork:Harper
dividual progress. There are also estab & Row, 1983). Some of Piaget's key ideas are
lished stages or steps thatmust be passed presented briefly in Jean Piaget, The Child and Real
successfully (with grades of C or better) ity(NewYork: Penguin, 1976).For a fullerdescrip
tion and a critical discussion of Piaget's ideas about
in order for students to move to higher
learning, see JohnH. Flavell, TheDevelopmental
level courses. So the Freshman Core Pro Psychology of Jean Piaget (Princeton,N.J.: Van
gram produced an ongoing, objective Nostrand, 1963).
verification of achievement and failure. 6. This approach has been used much more wide
This evaluation process has made it ly than just in these two institutions. We have previ
ously described the approach within the context of
easier to construct developmental learn
its development in America inWilliam A. Sadler,
ing sequences, and it has provided Jr., and ArthurWhimbey, "TeachingCognitive
teachers and students alike with consis Skills: An Objective for Higher Education," Nation
tent motivation for completing tasks al Forum, Fall 1980, pp. 43-46.
and improving intellectual functioning. 7. Jack Lochhead, "An Anarchistic Approach to
Though we have no hard data to confirm Teaching Problem Solving," Journalof Learning
Skills,Winter 1982, pp. 3-12.
or deny it, teachers also feel that by us 8. A much fuller description of this method of
ing this approach they are growing smart teaching question-raising can be found inMarcia
er along with their students. Heiman, "Learning to Learn: A Behavioral Ap
The winds of change have been blow proach to ImprovingThinking,"paperpresentedat
the Harvard Conference on Thinking, Cambridge,
ing educators and the makers of public
Mass., 1984. Copies of this paper are available from
policy in a number of directions. We Marcia Heiman, c/o Learning to Learn, Boston Col
have been recommending that educators lege, ChestnutHill, MA 02167.
take a tack toward teaching cognitive 9. George HerbertMead, Mind, Self, and Society
skills, an approach supported by psycho (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1962).
10. Ernest L. Boyer, "Reflecting on the Great De
logical insight and growing experience
bate of '83," Phi Delta Kappan, March 1984, pp.
within schools anduniversities.We hope 525-30. Boyer also stressed the importance of mas
that the six principles we have discussed tery of language inHigh School (New York: Harper
here will help others move in this direc & Row, 1983).
tion and carry learners of all ages to 11. One text that stresses this principle is Arthur
Whimbey andJackLochhead,ProblemSolvingand
higher educationaland intellectualdes Comprehension (Philadelphia:Franklin Institute
tinations. Press, 1982).
12. JeromeBruner stressedthe intuitivedimension
of learning in The Process of Education (Cam
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960).
1. GlendaGreenwald, "Venezuelan Ministry Ends, The importance of intuition to acquiring insight and
IntelligenceProjectsContinue,"Hwnan Intelligence intellectualcompetencehas been discussed recent
InternationalNewsletter, Spring 1984, p. 1; and ly by Howard Gardner in Frames of Mind (New
Rachel Peleg and Chaim Adler, "Compensatory York: Basic Books, 1983).
Education in Israel:Conceptions, Attitudes, and 13. A similar approach to learning in the labora
Trends,"AmericanPsychologist,November 1977, tory has been developed at the University of
pp. 945-58. Washington. See a series of three articles by Lil
2. William Maxwell, ed., Proceedings of the Sec lian C. McDermott, "Helping Minority Students
ond InternationalInterdisciplinaryConference on Succeed in Science," Journal of College Science
Thinking,Held atHarvardUniversity(Philadelphia: Teaching, January, March, and May 1980.
Franklin InstitutePress, forthcoming). 14. Lawrence Kohlberg has made a similar point.
3. Barry K. Beyer, "ImprovingThinking Skills: At the Harvard Conference on Thinking, he said
Defining theProblem,"Phi Delta Kappan,March that for people to operate on the highest level of
1984, pp. 486-90; and idem, "ImprovingThinking moral thinking - what he calls the "universal
Skills: PracticalApproaches,"Phi Delta Kappan, ethical-principleorientation"- they need first to
April 1984, pp. 556-60. be able to perform formal operational thinking.
4. The National Commission's descriptionof the KohlbergDemonstration Workshop, HarvardCon
Bloomfield FreshmanCore Programwas present ference on Thinking, Cambridge,Mass., 22 Au
ed inCliffordAdelman, ed., Startingwith Students, gust 1984.
15. ArthurWhimbey and JackLochhead,Develop
Vol. 1 (Washington,D.C.: National Instituteof
Education, 1983), pp. 30-31. For more complete ingMathematicalSkills (NewYork:McGraw-Hill,
descriptions of the approach and its application to 1981).
higher education, see William A. Sadler, Jr., "A 16. Readerswho wish to see a statisticalanalysis
Model forGeneral Education,"Journal of Learn of studentgalns froma similarkindof programare
ing Skills, Winter 1982, pp. 35-40; and idem, referred toHeiman, "LearningtoLearn... 1
NOVEMBER
1985 203
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions