Reports on an exploratory study of a metacognitive approach to teaching low achieving secondary students. Asserts that the research team hoped to examine a process whereby a dialog about learning processes would develop. Finds that all students indicated that they were able to focus on learning as a topic of conversation. (CFR)

Presents a concise introduction and overview of "constructivism." Constructivists assert that knowledge is constructed by individuals; constructivists advocate classroom procedures that encourage students to identify the subjectivity and biases of existing interpretations and to arrive at their own conclusions. Examines four hypothetical teacher…

Summarizes interviews with British West Indies children concerning the production of art and the role of the artist. Demonstrates that children's perceptions undergo a shift from naive realism (pretty things make pretty pictures) to a more interpretive stance (the artist's efforts define the final product). (MJP)

Presents the results of an experiment that evaluated the efficiency of analogy in the conceptual restructuring of a science topic. The experiment involved a fifth-grade class studying water and heat flow. Discovered that analogy can act as an effective trigger for restructuring knowledge. (MJP)

This paper begins with a summary and analysis of Robert Glaser's arguments, presented in his paper "Education and Thinking: The Role of Knowledge," which contend there are strong interactions between structures of knowledge and cognitive processes, and that problem solving and reasoning are taught best in the context of the acquisition…

Higher order thinking skills are inevitably developed or exercised relative to some discipline. The discipline may be formal or informal, may or may not be represented in a school curriculum, or relate to a wide variety of domains. Moreover, the development or exercise of thinking skills may take place at differing levels of generality. This paper…

Reports on an interview with Frances Rauscher, a research psychologist and musician who has studied the effects of music on the brain. Maintains that students who have studied music have enhanced spatial reasoning. Recommends that music education begin at younger ages. (CFR)

Describes the use of practical rationality from the vantage point of a graduate student and an elementary teacher in an urban school. Discusses how using the approach led to revised policies regarding reading strategies and discipline. Contends that practical argument philosophy can be useful in practical classroom applications. (CFR)

Reviews the current literature concerning prior knowledge in an attempt to clarify problems with the terminology. Identifies the three main problems: lack of definition or vagueness, nominal versus real definitions, and different names/same constructs or same name/different constructs. Includes a conceptual map of prior knowledge terminology. (MJP)

Noting that successful comprehension, problem solving, and decision making are dependent upon activation and appropriate application of relevant schemata of existing knowledge, this report examines the practice of oversimplifying information in the content areas to make teaching and studying easier, and the dangers inherent in doing so. The report…

Examines the influence of two factors of the process of graphing on rural students' (n=93) ability to comprehend kinematics graphs on constant velocity events. Students exhibited difficulty in constructing and comprehending graphs of derived variables and were unaware of their own graphing skills deficiencies. (34 references) (MDH)

The cognitive structure of an algebra test was defined and validated using the linear test model (LLTM) and quadratic assignment (QA) techniques. The LLTM is an extension of the Rasch model with a linear constraint that describes item difficulty in terms of the cognitive operations required to solve the item. The model permits the specification of…

Noting that conceptions of the cognitive representations and processes involved in discourse comprehension and production recently have undergone an important shift in orientation, this paper points out the importance of the shift to the conception of the nature of texts, of text understanding, and of cognitive processes in knowledge creation and…

Examines how cognitive modeling and self-efficacy affected preservice teachers' learning of teaching strategies. Two groups of students viewed videotaped training sessions with direct instruction or cognitive modeling. They then viewed either self-efficacy or task-oriented commentaries. Results indicated significant effects favoring cognitive…

Reports on a study of two secondary teachers who used the practical reasoning or practical argument approach to classroom management. Finds that practical argument techniques can benefit teachers by providing opportunities to question and revise their theories of learning and teaching. Recommends that teacher education programs employ the…