Virtual reality environments are becoming increasingly popular as educational tools, but it remains unclear when these environments enhance learning or when they are a distraction from the learning process. We compared two different methods for teaching ecological concepts about the rocky intertidal zone by comparing an experimental (virtual)…

K-12 students enter physical education with many naive conceptions or misconceptions of how motor skills are acquired. One goal of physical education is to teach concepts that will help students learn and perform motor skills, but many practitioners don't know how to provide experiences that will teach students to apply their knowledge…

This research was based on the assumption that the teaching of broadly generalizable cognitive skills should be a primary goal of education--that students can be taught to be better insight problem solvers outside of school by training in school and that they can be given the skills necessary for efficient discovery learning. The subjects were 116…

This guide is designed to help observers of open classrooms find the attributes characteristic of this approach to elementary education. Checklists of characteristics are provided under the topics of ambience, teacher behavior, pupil behavior, cognitive, and organization. (KM)

This report comprises transcripts of tape recordings of (1) a short improvisation session conducted by a drama coach and (2) the subsequent seminar (edited) in which the 28 participants explore the relationship of improvisation to teaching literature. Topics discussed are the objectives of literature instruction, emotional experience as an…

This guide outlines an Option X course on problem solving techniques. The 16 learner objectives identified in the Mathematics Program Guide stress applications orientation to concepts about numbers and operations and common plane and solid figures. Techniques covered include working with diagrams, organizing information, using patterns,…

This book is a collection of papers on curriculum development in early childhood education. In Chapter 1, Bruner examines what is known about the effects of poverty on child development in Western culture, considers whether modern developmental theories aid in understanding the impact of culture (and specifically) poverty on children's growth, and…

This compilation is drawn from the IDEAS section that has been a feature of the "Arithmetic Teacher" since 1971. The contents are arranged in the following categories: Numeration, Computation, Geometry, Measurement, and Problem Solving. All selections are reprinted just as they originally appeared in the journal. On one side of each page is the…

This guide outlines an Option Y course, which has seven learner objectives geared to providing students with an introduction to the concerns and methods of statistics and equipping pupils to deal with the many statistical matters of importance in society. Topics included in the course are graphs and charts, collection and organization of data,…

The social studies curriculum guide for kindergarteners is based upon the idea that thinking is sequentially learned and developed. The aim of the program is to help children develop the tools of reasoning. Emphasis is on the introduction of cognitive tasks involving concept formation and requiring students to list, group, identify, and label…

This teacher's guide to the sixth grade social studies course on United States history, which is part of an articulated sequential curriculum for grades k-12, contains resource units which emphasize culture concepts in studying the American Indians and the Spanish, French, and British settlements. Cognitive and affective developmental skills are…

Designed so that 100 to 125 heterogeneously grouped 7th and 8th grade students and a team of 5 core teachers might experience and discover the natural and historical "treasure" in the Parker River area of Massachusetts, this interdisciplinary unit centers on a hike to Parker River (6.7 miles) and visits to a cemetery, a monument, and Old…