Solutions to the significant problems facing modern society demand a wide-spread, qualitative improvement in thinking and understanding. We are slowly and painfully becoming aware that such diverse contemporary challenges as energy, population, the environment, employment, health, the psychological well-being of individuals, and the meaningful education of our youth are not being met by the mere accumulation of more data or the expenditure of more time, energy, or money. In view of the increasing pressures imposed on our society by these problems, many responsible thinkers have realized that we cannot sit back and hope for some technological invention to cure our social ills. We need a breakthrough in the quality of thinking employed by, both, decision-makers at all levels of society and by each of us in our daily affairs. Robert Ornstein in Berman, 1991, (p.10)

The debate over what and how to teach has persisted since the height of the Greek civilization. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the lines grew more distinct. Most of the 20th century has been dominated by two major learning theories, both of which are outgrowths of psychology-behaviorism and cognitive learning theories. Although behaviorism dominated education for most of the 20th century, an understanding of cognitive psychology has begun to significantly impact the educational community. More and more educators have come to understand that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" (Hergenhahn, 1982, p. 245)

During the most recent decades, much research has been conducted on the brain using animals, people with brain damage or mental illness, and brain-imaging technology (Sylwester, 1995).

Recent brain theory research seems to confirm the view that learning is holistic and, therefore, supports the need for more integrated learning. In the past, the brain has been viewed as having differentiated parts for distinctive functions--one for reasoning, another for feeling, and so on--with relatively little communication among them, but each conveniently matched to a different type of school program (Beane, 1995). Several models, drawn from recent studies, dispute this separate-brain theory (Caine & Caine, 1995; Lowery, 1991; amp; Sylwester, 1991)

Gardner (1983) argued against the widely accepted concept of one intelligence delineated by a number derived from an IQ test. He suggested the existence of seven intelligences--linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Each of these is located in a separate area of the brain, but all function interactively for learning and problem-solving.

All of these theorists held some common views of learning in terms of brain theory. All saw the need for learners to interact with their environment, believed learning to be holistic and integrated, and valued problem solving and higher order thinking skills as the primary outcomes of learning.

Caine and Caine (1995) stressed the need for integration and the importance of patterning, the theory that the brain does not easily learn things that are not logical and have no meaning. They postulated that because our natural tendency is to integrate information, we resist learning isolated bits of information. Because specifics of instruction are always tied to larger understandings and purposes, we believe teachers must help their students see the meaning of new information (p.44).

Lowery (1991) believed that current curricula forced students into a constant continuum of skills, with no time to absorb and assimilate. He felt that educators needed a better understanding of the biological basis for thinking and needed to allow for developmental plateaus in order for the "new capabilities to become integrated, used, and made functional" (p. 115).

Edelman's jungle metaphor suggests that a junglelike brain might thrive best in a junglelike classroom that includes many sensory, cultural, and problem layers that are closely related to the real-world environment in which we live--the environment that best stimulates the neural networks that are genetically tuned to it (Sylwester, 1995, p.23).

To accommodate student's learning, then, Edelman suggested that future classrooms encourage students to think and construct their own knowledge and understandings rather than merely function as the repositories of the understandings of others.

Gardner (1983) criticized contemporary education for lack of depth. According to Gardner, "what is required is an approach to education that challenges naive beliefs, provokes questions, invites multiple perspectives, and ultimately stretches a student's mind to the point where it can apply existing knowledge to new situations and novel contexts" (Armstrong, 1994, p. 152).

Gardner implored educators to challenge students' limited beliefs by leading them to confront the contradictions in their own thinking.

Sylwester (1995) postulated that everything is connected to everything else. Our brain is a dense web of interconnected neurons. Any neuron is only a few neurons away from any other neuron, and all the organisms that inhabit our global village are now also highly interconnected (at least electronically)(p. 140).

Sylwester suggested that, just as the naturalist John Muir found connections between everything in nature, students need to discover through integrated curricula "who they are, where they live, and how things are connected"(p. 140).

Boyer's (1995) question persists. "What, then, does it mean to be an educated person?"(p. 16). A variety of studies, as well as reports from leading professional organizations, have demonstrated an unusual consensus of opinion in their answers (McTighe & amp;Schollenberger, 1991). The studies call for an emphasis on thinking rather than the accumulation of facts.

Reports from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicated that, although there is evidence of progress in student achievement in reading, math, and writing, these gains are primarily at the lower levels of achievement. NAEP suggested that the educational system in this country needs to extend its focus from the teaching and learning of skills and content to include an emphasis on the purposeful use of skills and knowledge" (Applebee, Langer, & Mullis, 1991).

In his extensive study of American schools, Goodlad (1984) decried the lack of student participation, involvement in learning, and excitement found by his researchers in schools. In spite of district goals that often included thinking and problem solving skills, Goodlad found a predominance of lecturing, questioning, monitoring, seatwork, and testing that focused on the lowest levels of learning.

Wilson (1991) reported on a three year collaborative project to develop a curriculum to meet the needs of learners for the twenty-first century. This project, based on a Delphi study of approximately 150 national business, government, and educational leaders, assessed trends and made recommendations for appropriate curriculum restructuring and design. The report stressed that students must become lifelong learners. In order to be prepared for an ever-changing future, students must possess critical thinking and decision-making skills and the ability to access information and assimilate it to solve problems. They must be seen as risk-takers, explorers, and cooperatively engaged thinkers. Traditional classrooms will have to be integrated into interdisciplinary activities. "Conditions must be created for students to implement and practice thinking skills, processes of analysis and synthesis, critical and creative thinking, and decision-making....to manipulate content in order to extend its relationships and apply content to produce meaningful understandings to themselves and their world" (p. 30).

Leading professional organizations have demonstrated their commitment to fostering higher order thinking skills as a priority for the future. In Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics states:

Knowing mathematics means to be able to use it in purposeful ways. To learn mathematics, students must be engaged in exploring, conjecturing, and thinking rather than only in rote learning of rules and procedures. Mathematics learning is not a spectator sport. When students construct personal knowledge derived from meaningful experiences, they are much more likely to retain and use what they have learned. This fact underlies teachers\quote new role in providing experiences that help students make sense of mathematics, to view and use it as a tool for reasoning and problem solving (McTighe & Schollenberger, 1991, p. 4).

The National Council of Teachers of English affirmed the importance of thinking skills in Essentials of English.

Because thinking and language are closely linked, teachers of English have always held that one of their main duties is to teach students how to think. Thinking skills, involved in the study of all disciplines, are inherent in the reading, writing, speaking, listening, and observing involved in the study of English. The ability to analyze, classify, compare, formulate hypotheses, make inferences, and draw conclusions is essential to the reasoning processes of all adults. The capacity to solve problems, both rationally and intuitively, is a way to help students cope successfully with the experience of learning within the school setting and outside (McTighe & amp; Schollenberger, 1991, p. 4).

McTighe and Schollenberger reported that the National Science Board Commission on Pre-College Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology had declared in its 1983 report, Educating Americans for the 21st Century:

We must return to basics, but the basics of the 21st century are not only reading, writing, and arithmetic. They include communication and higher problem-solving skills, and scientific and technological literacy--the thinking tools that allow us to understand the technological world around us. Development of students, capacities for problem-solving and critical thinking in all areas of learning is presented as a fundamental goal (p. 2-3).

Other organizations, including the National Council for the Social Studies and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, have included recommendations for teaching problem-solving and other higher-order thinking skills (McTighe & Schollenberger, 1991). The new business paradigm supports the emphasis on integrated learning and problem - solving. Peter Senge (1990) stated that education must be about seeing the interconnectedness of all disciplines, as well as with the world. A translation into education of W. Edward Deming's well-known fourteen points emphasizes a systemic view with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary, hands-on learning, a variety of assessment techniques, and cooperation between all parties involved in the learning process (Forester, 1994).

In framing the question, "What do Americans want from their schools?", Goodlad (1984) asks:

Which way do we want it? Do we want schools and teachers to respond to the messages they hear, the messages telling them to work particularly hard on childrens' ability to read, write, and handle arithmetical operations? If so, we should not anticipate much change in what schools do now....Or do we seriously believe in and want for our schools at least some of what is implied in all those good statements coming after the one about reading, writing, and figuring? (p. 244)

He stated that, if educators believe the latter, they will have to restructure education. They must help students understand concepts, not merely recall facts; take ownership of their own work, not merely try to please the teacher, and learn to work cooperatively with others', respecting others rights and opinions. No longer will it be sufficient to teach some facts of geography, a little algebra, or the mechanics of language. The school subjects will become a means for learning that transcend them (p. 244).

In summary, research has shown that learning is complex and global, not linear as was once believed. Curricular structure and teaching models must reflect this research and emphasize integrated curricula along with problem-solving and decision-making skills, rather than rote learning. Leading professional organizations have demonstrated their commitment to developing higher order thinking skills as a priority for the future in education.

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