The computer and thinking skills: Rationale for a revitalized curriculum

Recent reports lament the devaluation of the baccalaureate degree; too often students fail to acquire the thinking skills needed after graduation. Fortunately, the computer, besides offering utilities that increase productivity, can deliver computer-aided instruction (CAl) that helps develop thinking skills by simulating the mental processes of academic experts. Liberal arts faculty sometimes dismiss CAl because they consider its algorithms too narrow and rigid to serve as problem-solving devices. However, such algorithms should not be viewed as capturing the essence of thinking skills, but as offering simplified problem-solving approaches that students can grasp-approaches that must be supplemented and even superseded by the professor in the classroom. Despite objections, three recent trends are likely to hasten the advent of courseware that models and develops thinking skills: improved integration of courseware into coursework, increased attention to the ways students learn and experts think, and the introduction of sophisticated authoring systems.