There is a healthy research community focused on individual differences to tailor serious games for maximum effect for each person. But there is a comparative lack of research on the scalability of serious games for maximising knowledge saturation in a population. Scalability is critical in many real applications. The authors detail this neglected…

Some bad ideas never seem to die, despite research showing they do not actually work. It can be hard to spot them at first. Those dispelled education theories that research shot down long ago. They creep up in studies, shuffling around mumbling in the reference lists, or moan loudly in blog posts. The author often stumbles across these…

Executive function (EF) predicts children's academic achievement; however, less is known about the relation between EF and the actual learning process. Furthermore, more research is needed to better understand how different aspects of the learning environment interact with EF to influence learning. The current dissertation includes two studies to…

This study investigates how individual differences in 7- to 9-year-olds' curiosity relate to the inquiry-learning process and outcomes in environments differing in structure. The focus on curiosity as individual differences variable was motivated by the importance of curiosity in science education, and uncertainty being central to both the…

In a Virginia school grounded in Gardner's multiple-intelligences theory, K-12 students flock to the think tank, a hands-on discovery room, to explore their varied abilities. This well-equipped room synthesizes many ideas and theories, such as Socratic questioning and John Dewey's discovery-learning ideas. Because multiple ways of smartness are…

Synectics is a creative problem-solving process carrying participants from problem analysis to the generation and development of new ideas. The system recognizes three types of thinkers: apposite, divergent, and generative. Effective thinking is often limited by maintaining inflexible criteria concerning thinking, insisting on literal meaning,…

Educational mass marketing approaches are like fast-food franchises; they offer homogeneous, standardized products that cannot satisfy every consumer's needs. A niche market looks inside the masses to address more individual, specialized choices missing from the menu. Variability, not uniformity, should guide development of public schooling. (MLH)

Investigates the exploratory behavior of young children as it relates to individual differences in curiosity, the novelty of the objects explored, and the interactive style employed by an adult experimenter. (Author/MP)

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the relationships between individual difference variables and discovery vs. non-discovery instructional treatments in learning of an imaginary science. All subjects were able to learn the material, but presentation of examples and rules (non-discovery) led to more rapid learning. There was no…

A plea for educators to value the individual differences of children and to treat them with dignity. Traditional educational methods and objectives are examined. (ST)

Discusses the elements of Montessori education that distinguish it from traditional education for older children and from much current group experience for young children. Focuses on the respect for each child as a unique individual with unique interests and learning styles and on how Montessori education responds to that individuality to…

The relationship between locus of control and three dimensions of discovery learning was investigated. Mathematics students were assigned to treatments differing in level of guidance, inductive or deductive sequencing, or use of small groups. Aptitude-treatment interaction occurred between locus of control and small-group instruction. (Author/GK)

With the relationship between individual learning styles and the effectiveness of the experiential approach, it was hypothesized that the effectiveness of the experiential approach, as measured by student perceptions and student grades, was a function of learning style compatability. The results did not support this hypothesis. (Author)

Contract teaching is a method in which the student studies a particular course, independent of formal day-to-day instruction, by contracting to do a particular piece of work in the course of a semester. (Author/MB)