ABSTRACT
In a nationwide poll of public school teachers ( USA Today, 1986) regarding the main purposes of education, the alternative picked most often was teaching reasoning and analytical skills. Yet, as an article in a recent special issue of the American Psychologist has pointed out, “assessments of student achievement suggest that today's students may be failing to develop effective thinking and problem-solving skills” (Bransford, Sherwood, Vye, & Rieser, 1986, p. 1078). There is a gap between our goals and student performance.
