Argues that epistemological beliefs of community college students can impact their learning processes. Explains that epistemological beliefs interact with other knowledge structures. Reports on a study that explores the association between students' epistemological beliefs and learning processes. Suggests there are relationships between Fixed…

Describes research techniques in chemistry education that are based on listening to learners. Gives a brief history of think-aloud techniques and works through an example study to show considerations that must be made when doing this kind of research. Issues raised include conceptualization of research studies, preparation for their…

Individual differences in retention, with an emphasis on their relationship with learning speed and other cognitive factors, were studied in 685 military recruits. In all of the forgetting conditions, the fastest learners remembered more and relearned faster. Results support the existence of individual differences in retention. (SLD)

During the past two decades, three schools of research have increased our understanding of how individuals interact with their environments, abstract relevant data, interrelate new experiences with existing knowledge, and apply accumulated information to new tasks. New developments in learning styles, brain behavior, and thinking skills research…

Presents an elaboration of the theory on levels in learning with special emphasis on the relationships between the cognitive and the affective aspects of the learning process. Outlines an illustration of this theory based on empirical results and demonstrates how this theory can be integrated with other learning principles such as constructivism.…

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Discusses the overall conveyed message: The human cognitive system is a thematically organized knowledge base with agentive causality as the main mechanism for explain phenomena and analogy as the main mechanism for promoting conceptual…

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Suggests that different approaches to knowledge acquisition and conceptual change should be carefully examined in light of their implications for the teaching of science. Discusses critically the issues advanced from the Japanese…

Examines the concept of learning from both constructivist and sociocultural perspectives and introduces a third perspective based on K. R. Popper's philosophy of science. It is argued that constructivism cannot adequately account for the immaterial objects that Popper located in his World 3--abstract mathematical and scientific objects. (GLR)

Investigated effects of spatial and literacy content on learning through social interaction. Pairs of kindergarten children in three interaction episodes solved spatial and literacy problems. Gains were made in spatial understanding independent of the type of social interaction used. Spatial understanding appeared to be affected more by how…

Thirty-six children from grades 1, 3 and 6 observed and rewarded a peer who played an experimental game. Children experienced a developmental shift in the criteria they used to reward a peer's performance. References to intention-act matches increased with grade and with children's understanding of controllable and noncontrollable tasks and causal…

Describes research on young children's long-term memory under 2 conditions of acquisition: direct imitation followed by a 10-minute delay, or deferred imitation. Children were able to encode and retain as much from visual pickup of modeled acts as from feedback obtained through imitation. (Author/GH)

Two experiments examined the origins of joint visual attention in 6- to 11-month-olds with a training procedure. Results indicated that joint visual attention does not reliably appear prior to 10 months; from about 8 months, a gaze-following response can be learned; and simple learning is not sufficient as the mechanism through which joint…

Seeks to discover whether listening to songs over an extended period of time contributes to a greater integration of words and music in memory among preschool children. Finds more accurate recognition of songs performed without text when they had heard them previously with texts and that melodic content influenced song-recognition ability. (DSK)

Reviews research on learning among visitors to museums and other interpretive sites. Discusses central and peripheral information processing, need for cognition, intrinsic motivation, visual memory, and metacognition. Describes an evaluation model for exhibits and programs that incorporates visitor learning. (SAS)

Examined the effect of functional values of stimuli on orienting response elicitation. Subjects were 50 4-month-old infants and were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions. Results suggested the importance of taking into account the functional value of stimuli when analyzing infant attention. (MOK)