The details of a 6-year investigation entitled the Education Testing Service (ETS) Collaborative Research Project on Reading, which brought researchers and educators together in classroom studies of young children learning to read, are presented in this book. The first four chapters of the book describe the theoretical rationale, design, and…

Fifty-four high aptitude undergraduates and 46 moderate-to-low aptitude undergraduates were divided into four treatment groups and were given a pretest during which they learned and recalled a map of a small town in five successive trials. Two weeks later, each group was given a different treatment with a varying degree of explicitness of…

Drawing upon data from a series of studies, this paper analyzes children's verbalizations about a wordless picture book to discover any relationships between a child's learning style and his or her comprehension of events in the book. Using the definitions of learning style established by M. Rosenberg, the paper also compares the behavior of…

Synergistic psychology has been proposed as a meta theory for synthesizing different psychological theories into an explanation of how social, cognitive, and biological factors interact in human behavior. The basic theoretical assumption in synergistic psychology is that internalized social interactions become higher mental functions that regulate…

The Scientific Theory and Method Project (STAMPS) is concerned with students' understanding of two areas of science in secondary schools. One is understanding what a scientific theory is, and the other is understanding the methods used in conducting scientific research. In the science curriculum these topics are often described as the process of…

British students in four age groups--4 to 5, 7 to 8, 11 to 12, and 15 to 16 years old--were observed in their classrooms in order to explore the relationships among the learner, knowledge, and thinking, and the role that writing plays in what is learned. In the infant classroom, writing was quite visible in the form of labels, questions,…

This paper presents research on the concept of idealized learning environments called Havens that facilitate learning, introduces the topic of technologically-created Havens, and discusses various components of Havens that can facilitate comprehension. Three experiments involving college students at Vanderbilt University are described. Designed to…

The study described in this volume investigated the talk of thirteen-year-old boys and girls, recorded while they were working in small groups on tasks set by their teachers. Specifically, research focused on the interplay between cognitive and communicative functions of speech in contexts planned for learning. "The Children and Their Talk"…

In recent years, gradually increased acceptance and heightened attention have been granted to extrasensory perception (ESP) research as a legitimate branch of scientific inquiry. This research holds significant implications for education despite difficulties involved with its consideration. Extrasensory perception, an organism's apparent access to…

This autobiographical essay depicts a process of development through which an elementary school teacher becomes both expert and professional. With an MA in Medieval History and no teacher education coursework, the writer adopts a personalistic, "unorthodox traditional" approach to instruction. Exposure to controversy among…

AN INQUIRY (SPECIFIC DISCOVERY) APPROACH TO LEARNING WAS SUBJECTED TO A RIGOROUS TEST AND EVALUATION PROGRAM, INVOLVING ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. STUDENTS IN THE FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH GRADES SERVED AS SUBJECTS. EVALUATIVE CRITERIA WERE (1) SCIENCE CONCEPT ACHIEVEMENT, (2) DIVERGENT THINKING OR CREATIVITY, AND (3)…

The selection of wrong answers for multiple choice tests appears not to be blind guessing, as the current theory assumes, but represents systematic choice based upon the ways in which learners extract meaning and solve problems. It appears the departures from "expected" answers arise when the learner interprets the question in a manner different…

This booklet discusses the many psychological factors involved in the learning process. The author offers suggestions on the following problems: (1) the technology of teaching and the psychology of learning; (2) programs and rewards; (3) motivation; (4) learning and behavior control; (5) the role and responsibility of the teacher; (6) standards of…

The role of perceptual organization in motor learning is discussed, the literature is reviewed, and research findings are summarized. Measurement problems are discussed, including observations about motor skill learning. Four experiments are described which compare organized and random movement sequences. It is shown that organization (whether…

Learning and retention may be influenced by subtle instructional stimulus characteristics and certain visual memory aptitudes. Ten stimulus characteristics were chosen for study; 50 sequences of programed instructional material were specially written to conform to sampled values of each stimulus characteristic. Seventy-three freshman subjects…