How does the mind work--and especially how does it learn? Teachers' instructional decisions are based on a mix of theories learned in teacher education, trial and error, craft knowledge, and gut instinct. Such knowledge often serves us well, but is there anything sturdier to rely on? Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field of researchers…

The Innovative Teaching for Effective Learning (ITEL) Teacher Knowledge Survey is the first international study to explore the nature, function and development of teachers' pedagogical knowledge, i.e. what teachers know about teaching and learning. In-service and pre-service teachers exhibited higher knowledge on the classroom management portion…

This study examined learning differences for students who were given instructor-provided examples during a lesson compared with student-generated examples. In an experiment, 348 students were exposed to an online lesson about fear appeals and were randomly assigned to either a condition where (a) examples of key concepts were provided by the…

Contemporary debates on effective pedagogies for K-12 mathematics have called for shifts in the way teachers and teacher educators conceptualise mathematics as a subject and how it should be taught. This is reflected by changes in the curriculum including the inclusion of a strand called Working Mathematically within K-12 mathematics curriculum…

The present study examined the impact of divided attention on children's and adults' neutral and negative true and false memories in a standard Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Children (7- and 11-year-olds; n = 126) and adults (n = 52) received 5 neutral and 5 negative Deese/Roediger-McDermott word lists; half of each group also received a…

One of the ongoing challenges teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing face is managing the visual split attention implicit in multimedia learning. When a teacher presents various types of visual information at the same time, visual learners have no choice but to divide their attention among those materials and the teacher and…

Adolescents face numerous challenges associated with increasing instructional curricular demands at the secondary level. Exacerbating an already difficult time for students with high-incidence disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities, emotional disabilities) is the fact that the majority spend at least some part of the day in general education…

"The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st-Century Schools" serves as a bridge between research and practice by providing a cohesive, proven, and usable model of effective instruction. Compatible with other professional development programs, this model shows how to apply relevant research from educational and cognitive neuroscience to classroom…

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field of researchers from psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, and anthropology who seek to understand the mind. In this article, the author considers findings from this field that are strong and clear enough to merit classroom application. He examines how technology has…

As an aid to increasing teacher effectiveness, this paper outlines findings derived from the field of cognitive psychology on the way in which memory operates, provides examples, and suggests a variety of ways the information can be applied in teaching. Among the findings cited are the following: (1) some types of information can be encoded (i.e.,…

A study examined the efficacy of using various types of worksheets (representative of those typically used in instruction) that had been specifically designed to elicit differing achievement effects and to promote cognitive processing at the semantic level. Fifth grade students from five classrooms were divided into groups of high, middle, and low…

This book uses an analogy of "The Wizard of Oz" to offer information about cognitive research, sharing simple tactics for implementing these ideas in the classroom. The book discusses expert findings about brain growth, structure, and functions to help teachers and administrators foster a love of learning in all students. Key features…

The relationships between classroom performance and five possible predictor variables were studied. The ways in which these variables relate to performance in a classroom learning situation were examined, with the hypothesis that attributional style and motivation would be the best predictors of classroom performance. The variables were: (1)…

This guide addresses issues concerned with the reintegration of students with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) into the classroom. It first provides a definition of TBI and identifies characteristics of students with TBI. The guide then discusses cognitive consequences of TBI, with emphasis on deficits of executive function, attention, and memory.…

Issues 1 and 2 (combined) of the 1995 journal contain these articles: "Accelerated Learning in a Beginning College-Level French Class at the University of Houston" (Patrice Caux); "The Psychobiology of Learning and Memory" (Don Schuster); "Do the Seeds of Accelerated Language Learning and Teaching Lie in a Behavioral…