Explores how students' epistemological ideas about the nature of science interact with their conceptual understanding of a particular domain as reflected in written explanations for an event of natural selection constructed by groups of high school students through a technology-supported curriculum on evolution. Highlights the need for an…

This paper examines research studies that have concluded that elementary school children can learn more difficult and abstract social studies concepts than are taught in the traditional social studies curriculum. Research studies that focus on constraints on cognition, the use of embedded concepts, and understanding knowledge restructuring and…

This research addresses the actual goals and intentions from which students plan and organize their work in a course of study. Representations can either facilitate or hinder learning and problem solutions. Several salient aspects of adult students' representational systems and how they influenced university study were examined in two studies. The…

Developing prerequisite learning skills and strategies and providing knowledge necessary to further learning in a particular discipline are the dual roles of a middle-grade content-area teacher. This paper demonstrates how these dual roles can support each other in developing readiness for learning. The importance of readiness for learning is…

Young children become vulnerable to stress and depression when they are forced to be over-achievers. Suggestions are offered for helping children enjoy life and develop at their own pace. (DF)

Readiness to learn occurs when a child has achieved cumulative learning of component subskills and the developmental maturity necessary to integrate these subskills into the desired skill. Readiness is relative, however, not only to the skill, but also to the technique of instruction. Thus, readiness for learning a particular skill by different…

This is the author's personal document in which he tries to simply see what learning is about. He draws heavily on Fritz Heider for his phenomenological analysis, by which he means an analysis of learning based solidly and integrally on what can be simply seen by all men. The paper distinguishes a learning process found in the developing child,…

Discusses a study done using the Productivity Environmental Survey that reviews the learning style preferences of adults in a university setting. Twenty learning styles with three predictors were used. It was found that three styles (structure, evening, and afternoon preferences) were most effective. (Contains 20 references.) (MZ)

Brain research has illuminated several areas of the learning process: (1) learning as association; (2) learning as reinforcement; (3) learning as perception; (4) learning as imitation; (5) learning as organization; (6) learning as individual style; and (7) learning as brain activity. The classic conditioning model developed by Pavlov advanced…

A unified model of teaching and learning, representing a synthesis of internal and external forces influencing learning processes, diagrams interrelationships between the following processes: activator, situational evaluation, anticipated ends, stress, action, outcome, external evaluation, feedback, internal assessment, curiosity, and internal…

Describes the science buddies program that pairs a 7th grade life science class with a 2nd or 3rd grade class in a yearlong partnership of science adventures. Includes sample activities and National Science Education Standards related to the activities. (Author/KHR)

This paper discusses the change in educational philosophy and practices in preschool and kindergarten education before and during the "Sputnik" era. Presented are four major factors that have exerted pressure on the schools to change from a developmental to an academic approach in preschool education: (1) the wave of adverse criticism of American…

Examines public library services to young children and their families and the possible effects of those services on preschool learning. Topics include library-community partnerships to promote literacy; readiness to learn; and children at risk for difficulties in acquiring literacy, including socioeconomic factors and ethnic and language…

Attempts to make sense of the complexity of mathematics teaching and its development at secondary school level. Conducts a partnership between teachers and researchers in U.K. schools and analyzes interactions between the teacher and students at whole class and small group level. Uses the teaching triad as an analytical device and reflective agent…

In this collection of papers, the use of psychoanalytic techniques in the classroom for the development of children's personalities is discussed. The opening section on historical perspectives includes an account of past work in the field and a translation of Bernfield's classic "On Sexual Enlightenment." A section on curriculums focuses on the…