The research urgency is caused by the tendencies of the modern information society which produces and consumes intelligence, knowledge and competences as the main educational product of labor market. These trends fundamentally alter the methodological basis of the educational process of the University, subjecting it to imperative goals: the…

The "English Standards of Learning Enhanced Scope and Sequence" for grades K-5 is a resource intended to help teachers align their classroom instruction with the content found in "English Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools," adopted by the Board of Education in November 2002. In addition, the Enhanced Scope and…

Two exercises are described for teaching about perception and knowledge in an introductory sociology course. One involves the use of a series of anomalous playing cards; the other uses a series of printed statements. Both force the students to experience perception and knowledge as socially constructed and problematic. (Author)

Reviews some differences in the educating approach of environmental education and environmental interpretation and the cognitive processes involved. Also presents an interpretive field study based on the cognitive processes reviewed. The study evaluated the ability of 150 users of forest trails to recognize interpretive messages experienced during…

The "English Standards of Learning Enhanced Scope and Sequence" for grades 6-8 is a resource intended to help teachers align their classroom instruction with the content found in "English Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools," adopted by the Board of Education in November 2002. The Enhanced Scope and Sequence…

Describes six strategies for teaching vocabulary: exclusion brainstorming, knowledge rating, connect two, semantic feature analysis and semantic gradients, concept ladder, and predict-o-gram. (HOD)

To help plan effective teaching strategies, it is important to determine students' existing knowledge about the topic to be taught. Interviews with New Zealand students showed that they hold nonscientific ideas about soil. These student views should be respected by teachers. They should be discussed and compared with scientific viewpoints. (RM)

The study found that instructing 13 learning-disabled junior high students in the necessary prior knowledge (information and vocabulary concepts) led to superior reading comprehension performance. Textually explicit text structure also improved reading comprehension. (DB)

This paper discusses the two important domains affecting the success of learning strategy training for students with learning disabilities or other mild handicaps: students' knowledge of critical skills and information potentially related to strategy use, and students' motivation to learn and use the strategy. The paper presents an eight-stage…

The booklet offers general suggestions, a quiz, specific activities, and a checklist to increase children's awareness of the needs and characteristics of persons with disabilities. Preferred terminology is explained and ways to provide children with direct experiences with persons with disabilities are suggested. The brief quiz serves both to…

Noting that many prereading discussions lead teachers to "mis-estimate" students' prior knowledge about a particular topic, this paper describes the Pre-Reading Plan (PReP) designed to help both students and teachers become aware of what students already know about a specific topic. Following an introduction, the first portion of the…

Many science educators are concerned with students' ability to understand science as a process and with their conceptions of scientific knowledge. Preliminary work has shown that the use of a model organizer can result in student perceptions of improved understanding, but the reason for this effect is not known. This research was undertaken to…

Schema Theory, the use of the learner's background knowledge for the building of new knowledge, is applied to improving reading comprehension skills and teaching vocabulary words and concepts to learning disabled students. Semantic mapping is a vocbulary strategy which produces the interaction between prior knowledge in a graphic form. For…

The report documents the evaluation of a New York City program, the State Incentive Grant to Improve Pupil Performance, in which high school special education teachers received training in general education curriculum and instructional techniques to fulfill a new regulation allowing high school special education students to meet general education…

This book sets out a constructivist, inquiry-based approach to instruction. The approach builds on clear understandings of children's current levels of knowledge, where their learning should progress to, and the means by which children learn early numeracy topics. The methods presented in this book have been used extensively by practitioners in…