In Q&A Pam Hook reflects on what drew her to SOLO taxonomy and why she is so motivated to develop its classroom-based use to enhance student learning. She explains what SOLO is and how it can help students to articulate their learning outcomes, understand the learning process, and set new learning goals over time. I also asked her to highlight…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are online courses aimed at global unlimited participation, originally conceptualised to carry no fee and offer no formal accreditation to the students (McAuley et al. 2010). Although their pedagogies vary, the most popular MOOC providers (e.g., Coursera, FutureLearn and EdX) are turning towards what Rodriguez…

The author interviewed Dr. Carolyn Callahan, an eminent scholar in gifted education. The interview focused on Dr. Callahan's work on implementing gifted program in rural areas, and illustrated her suggestions for teachers, researchers, and parents on how to advocate for gifted students.

Students with disabilities should not only be members of general education classrooms, but must also be able to learn meaningful skills in those settings, not just socialize with peers. This article reviews effective teaching methods and their contextual fit with the working of a general education classroom. The response to intervention (RtI)…

Examines the process of feedback between teacher and learner in distance education in the context of a model adopted by one Australian college of advanced education. Nineteen references are appended. (Author/LLS)

Rationale and related research are presented to support an individual curriculum sequence (ICS) model for the education and training of severely/multiply handicapped persons. The article discusses several major components of the ICS model: translating assessment into educational objectives, selecting materials for teaching skills, and the…

Discusses the need for and use of models in the design and development of instructional materials, providing an overview of the main characteristics of a unit model and three course models: a simple linear model, a refined linear model, and a branched model. (RAO)

The pedagogical model views trainees as passive recipients; andragogy assumes learner self-direction. A contingency approach to adult learning recognizes a need for individualized approaches based on an assessment of trainee characteristics. (SK)

Because of the need for models to illustrate some possible answers to practical courseware development questions, a specific, three-section model incorporating the Corrective Feedback Paradigm (PCP) is advanced for applying theory to courseware. The model is reconstructed feature-by-feature against a framework of a hypothetical, one-to-one,…

The facts and ideas of subject matter are of little or no value unless such facts and ideas are used to promote thoughtful discourse. Those who teach with this idea in mind can be said to be thinking-skills centered or procognitive; those who teach without this idea in mind can be termed content-centered or procontent. The procognitive viewpoint…

Research in the field of computer based instruction (CBI) has led to conflicting evidence on the efficacy of learner control over instruction. Typical implementations of learner control in CBI allow learners to proceed at their own pace, control the sequence of instruction, choose the amount of practice, or decide the level of difficulty…

Teachers continue to address the question of how to adapt instruction to recognize the existence of different learning styles yet provide quality education for all students. Traditionally, instructional models available to teachers and curriculum planners ranged along a continuum from lockstep to individualization. This definition has led to…

It is argued that computer assisted instruction might be an answer to the scheduling problems resulting from the implementation of mastery learning programs in the public schools. The mastery learning model proposed by Carroll and the transformation of this model into a working model by Bloom are described. The difficulty of implementing mastery…

Reviews research results and arguments supporting Keller's Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) as a paradigm for distance learning, describes a project at Athabasca University which compared various PSI configurations for distance learning, and discusses the advantages, disadvantages, and flexibility of PSI for such use. Nineteen references…

Three dimensions of humanistic education are used to examine the idea of educational accountability: the systemic-organizational, the interpersonal, and the personal. Implications of the personal dimension of accountability are presented. (JMF)