Highlights new directions in cognitive research. Instead of searching for universally valid principles, new style reseachers are studying how people learn particular things in particular environments. Findings need to be corroborated by numerous researchers using a variety of observational and experimental methodologies. Includes two references.…

Gifted students can learn to direct their thinking to maximize learning and creative production. They do this by stating what they intend to do, choosing strategies and appropriate conditions for thinking, and self-monitoring. The article describes techniques for developing self-directed thinking and applies these techniques to a class assignment.…

Comparison of external memory strategies in 31 children (ages 11 and 17) with mild mental retardation and 64 children without mental retardation found no differences between children with mental retardation and their age peers in frequency of use of object-oriented strategies. For all groups, external strategies were used more frequently than…

Using a computer-based tutorial called STUDY, students navigate through content and apply studying actions such as underlining, taking notes, requesting elaborations, and attempting test items whereas STUDY creates detailed time-stamped records of the learner's interactions in a log file. Log file data are analyzed using a methodology based on the…

This article contends that the debate about the necessity of vision in teaching cane travel to people with visual impairments is misguided and is dissolved once the focus is shifted from the instructor's teaching to the student's learning. A proposed alternative model of rehabilitation teaching stresses the role of the cognitive dimension.…

Discusses the role of visualization of information in learning. Theorizes that the comprehension of visualizations is a process of structure mapping between a visuo-spatial configuration and a mental model. Tests the model and finds differences in the use of text and picture information to answer different kinds of text questions. (DSK)

Discusses a connectionist, or neural network, model of learning and representation. Argues that the less musical representations are developed, the more listeners refer to nonmusical associations to understand music. Suggests that music education should begin by providing students with tools to deal with music based on experiences already familiar…

In this study, 48 college students studied quietly for 20 minutes before taking a questionnaire that assessed their motivational regulation, goal orientations, and use of cognitive strategies during that study session. Students who exercised greater motivational regulations were more likely to exhibit adaptive motivational and cognitive…

Interviews students majoring in mathematics who had passed a required introductory course on algebraic structures on students' difficulties with basic concepts in group theory as part of a research project. Reports data concerning cyclic groups. (ASK)

Formulates a framework for characterizing elementary children's (n=20) statistical thinking based on a review of research and a cognitive development model, and refines it through a validation process. Proposes four thinking levels which represent a continuum from idiosyncratic to analytic reasoning. Results confirm the four levels of children's…

Introduces a special issue of the Journal of the Learning Sciences on methodology in learning sciences. Focuses on how one begins to account for learning and the potential of a learning context to support learning. (Author/MM)

Advances a methodology for capturing and tracing the emergence, evolution, and diffusion of a practice, conceptual understanding, resource, or student-constructed artifact. Presents the Constructing Networks of Action-Relevant Episodes (CN-ARE) methodology which allows researchers to identify relevant data from a complex, evolving environment, and…

The learning of eight children (ages 8-13) with Down syndrome was compared with typical children. The control group reached a criterion of learning much faster on a given task. When amount of learning was controlled, children with Down syndrome seemed to have less difficulty in activity-change with the task. (Author/CR)

Four experiments investigated transformation problems with insight characteristics. In Experiment 1, performance on a version of the 6-coin problem that had a concrete and visualizable solution followed a hill-climbing heuristic. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the difficulty of a version of the problem that potentially required insight for…

Major discontinuities exist between the way learning is conceptualized in most school settings and the way learning and meaning-making happens outside of school. The author challenges educators to engage in a serious conversation about methods for mending the mismatch. The challenge for educators is not simply to imagine a different way of looking…