Discussion of electronic performance support systems (EPSS) focuses on performance support engineering and its role in designing performance support systems. Highlights include the organizational performance/learning cycle model; a systems approach to EPSS; computer-based training and other EPSS methodologies; and future possibilities. (LRW)

Explores the principles and theories relevant to the design of effective hypermedia courseware. Proposes a hypermedia design: micro-(node) design, dealing with the creation of discrete information screens; and macro-(links), dealing with the connections between them. Presents a prototype courseware template and a courseware unit based on design…

Considers the potential of Lego TC Logo, a product that integrates Lego building materials with computers, for creating contexts for learning that give elementary school students a sense that their work is authentic. Topics include the concept of authentic learning situations; consequences of unauthentic classrooms; cooperation; and evaluation.…

Presents a conceptual framework and notation for learner modelling in intelligent tutoring systems based on the computational distinction between behavior, behavioral knowledge, and conceptual knowledge and between the system, the learner, and the system's representation of the learner. Approaches to learner modelling based on a review of the…

Describes how a project initially designed to improve the quality of student writing in an introductory finance class led the teachers, as the project unfolded, to examine their assumptions about learning, shifting their attention from details of English usage to considerations of the context of which students wrote and the mindsets they brought…

The Urban Learner Framework stresses four themes: the importance of students' cultural strengths and learning experiences, culture's influence on cognitive development, the importance of motivation and effort, and resilience as a characteristic of urban learners. Barriers to change include belief systems, district size, regulations, multiple…

Describes how an English teacher asks students to reflect and respond about their learning after each unit of instruction. Students in different classes planned a short story unit and a poetry unit. Cites students' writings. Despite the reluctance of students to write their reflections, the process is seen as a valuable component of the learning…

This paper argues that it is not the technology itself, but instead a learner-centered approach to the use of computers, that will provide the greatest opportunities for students. Three examples from New Zealand primary classrooms are described that illustrate how a learner-centered environment may be structured. (Contains 27 references.) (LRW)

This article uses a case study of a deaf-blind infant to examine issues in the early cognitive development of such infants. The study used an ecological approach involving naturalistic observation, videotaping, anecdotal accounts, and the use of four global developmental scales. (DB)

Develops a metaphor of qualitative research as jazz to illuminate qualities that are embedded in the processes of qualitative inquiry. The jazz metaphor is said to create a pathway for making explicit the tacit understandings that permit qualitative research to flow and to be guided by the new findings and emerging understandings it uncovers. (GLR)

Presents an overview of this special journal issue which discusses the evaluation of computers in education, based on a workshop held in Scotland in January 1990. Evaluative methods in general are discussed, distinctions between evaluation and measurement are described, types of evaluation are explained, and the use of measuring instruments in…

Although Reuven Feuerstein's programs for culturally deprived, retarded, and autistic children have taken him 50 years to refine, this aging practitioner/philosopher/scholar looks forward to making further breakthroughs in helping "hopeless" youngsters grow and prosper. His Learning Potential Assessment Device, instead of pegging…

Discusses recent advances in cognitive theory and the design of computer-based instruction and suggests implications for the design of authoring tools and tutoring system shells. Highlights include the design of courseware; advanced organizers; knowledge representation; design evaluation; models of knowledge; models of errors; and models of…

Describes Success for All reading program, its development in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and recent study evaluating its replication in 15 schools in 7 states. Program clearly improves student reading performance. Evaluations for previous years show program's effectiveness in Baltimore and Philadelphia. The longer a school remains in the program,…

Discusses the theoretical links between motivation and learning and the use of information technology resulting from the installation of a new computer network in a secondary school. Results of evaluation by both teachers and pupils show improved teaching and learning and increased enjoyment of learning. (Author/LRW)