We report on responses to a series of four questions designed to identify pre-existing abilities related to debugging and troubleshooting experiences of novice students before they begin programming instruction. The focus of these questions include general troubleshooting, bug location, exploring unfamiliar environments, and describing students'…

Teaching ecological concepts in schools is important in promoting natural science and environmental education for young learners. Developing educational programs is difficult, however, because of complicated ecological processes operating on multiple levels, the unlimited nature of potential system interactions (given the openness of systems), and…

A number of studies have focused on how students and instructors feel about digital learning technologies. This research is focused on the substantive difference in learning outcomes between traditional classrooms and classrooms using clickers. A randomized block experimental design involving four sections of undergraduate Operations Management…

The professional expertise of educational leaders has been defined through the lens of problem-solving processes. Problem-based learning has therefore become an increasingly popular instructional approach in principal preparatory programs. As such, this study represents an initial attempt to explore learning from success (i.e., success-based…

This paper reports on a small-scale pilot study undertaken at a secondary school in England, exploring how children learn about and construct distant places. Using drawings, concept mapping and interviews, the research examines the process of learning about Brazil over a period of formal learning, and how teaching and resources influence…

Previous research has shown that 3- to 4-month-old infants form a global categorical representation for cats that includes female lions, whereas 6- to 7-month-old infants differentiate between cats and lions. Three experiments using familiarization-novelty preference procedures attempted to determine whether the differentiation of a global…

Psychological research indicates that rote learning involves a good deal of what is commonly called conceptualizing, and conceptual learning demands a large amount of what is often considered rote repetition. (HMD)

The present investigation compared three models of learning and generalization of related abstract categories: the prototype, the common feature, and the distinctive feature model. (Editor)

The ability to make relational discriminations, i.e., to solve problems by responding to the relationships between cues rather than to the absolute properties of individual cues, is examined. The laboratory analogy of this type of problem is referred to as a conditional discrimination problem. Mr. Grogg empirically demonstrates the difference…

Argues that though there is a clear distinction between the aims of teaching and training, there need be no such distinction between the methods and mental processes involved, and that customary definitions have distorted the concept of training, which should be seen as a particular and worthwhile aspect of education. (WL)

This article discusses Freire's concept of conscientization or social learning, various levels of consciousness described by Freire, and how this concept compares to the theories of the educational theorist, John Dewey. (RK)

Observationally induced concept acquisition and generalization were studies in 132 second graders, using a clustering task. Groups were provided with a live or target model and different types of verbal coding. (ST)