Describes a classroom activity featuring a simple stay-switch probability game. Contends that the exercise helps students see the importance of empirically validating beliefs. Includes full instructions for conducting and discussing the exercise. (CFR)

This paper discusses links among the process of creativity, symbolization, and learning. The importance of symbolization in thinking, in school learning, in child development, and in the behavior of creative learners is stressed. (DB)

Forty young adults with mental retardation (MR) were compared to 40 young adults without mental retardation in tests examining postpractice interference effects in naming colors of Stroop words. The study concluded that practice developed automatized reading suppression responses which held greater cognitive inertia for longer periods among MR…

Suggests that social interaction of a child in the role of tutor in guided environments allows the building of geometrical concepts in nursery school based on strategies formed in natural settings. Shows a systemic improvement in students' performances when different contexts of guidance were used. (DSK)

Introduces the topic of the journal issue--how college students learn--linking traditional educational research and contextual classroom research. The cognitive-mediation model of college student learning is briefly described in combination with some research that supports it. The article presents some implications for faculty development within…

Many deaf children and adults show lags in mathematical abilities. The current study examines the basic number representations that allow individuals to perform higher-level arithmetical procedures. These representations are normally present in the earliest stages of development, but they may be affected by cultural, developmental, and educational…

Between 5% and 8% of school-age children have some form of memory or cognitive deficit that interferes with their ability to learn concepts or procedures in one or more mathematical domains. A review of the arithmetical competencies of these children is provided, along with discussion of underlying memory and cognitive deficits and potential…

Synapses formed by the olfactory nerve (ON) provide the source of excitatory synaptic input onto mitral cells (MC) in the olfactory bulb. These synapses, which relay odor-specific inputs, are confined to the distally tufted single primary dendrites of MCs, the first stage of central olfactory processing. Beta-adrenergic modulation of electrical…

Personal epistemologies, individuals' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and how one comes to know, can facilitate and constrain cognition, motivation, and learning (Pintrich, 2002). They are especially relevant in teacher education because preservice teachers will become responsible for the knowledge and knowing of others. This study…

Instructional design (ID) in its short life has been dominated by behaviourist approaches despite critique focusing on issues of practice as well as theory. Nonetheless, little research has addressed two fundamental questions: "What constitutes good instructional design?" and "How do instructional designers create good design?"…

This paper presents the findings of a study exploring the self-regulated use of mathematical metalanguage in the early years. Young children were filmed on two occasions in the naturalistic context of their eight foundation stage settings, including both nursery and reception classes. The children were engaged in mathematical activities designed…

This paper explores the similarities and differences between complexity science's and cultural-historical activity theory's understandings of human learning. Notable similarities include their emphasis on the importance of social systems or collectives in understanding human knowledge and practices, as well as their characterization of systems'…

Although Robert M. Gagne's work is often thought of as learning theory, his contributions can most appropriately be considered as an "instructional theory." This denotes an integrated set of principles based upon learning theory, other relevant theories, and sound replicable research, that permits one to predict the effects of specific…

Examines experimental studies in which learning procedures such as reinforcement, direct instruction, and modeling are applied in an attempt to alter characteristics of children's information processing behaviors. Discusses whether the studies have demonstrated acquisition of generalized cognitive functions or merely elicitation of task specific…

Eleven kindergarten children, nine of whom had been identified at risk, were administered tasks involving word and sentence reading with and without pictures, writing of words and a sentence, print awareness, and book handling skills. Results suggested that children expect words to be a label for pictures, that articles and prepositions are not…