A focus of early mathematics education is to build fluency through practice. Several models of skill acquisition have sought to explain the increase in fluency because of practice by modeling both the learning mechanisms driving this speedup and the changes in cognitive processes involved in executing the skill (such as transitioning from…

Discusses metacognitive and associative models of children's strategy discovery and use. Contends that models based on only one type of mechanism cannot entirely account for observed variability and constraint revealed by microgenetic studies of children's strategy change. Proposes a new model of children's strategy development in which…

The cognitive movement emphasizes perception and memory and deemphasizes learning, retention, and transfer (as in traditional associationism). A general reconceptualization of learning and retention makes these concepts subordinate to the concept of transfer and emphasizes prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes. A general information processing…

Medical education must put more emphasis on teaching that improves students' abilities to make associations. Two teaching methods that can promote development of the necessary association skills in clinical contexts--"wait time" and "concept mapping"--are briefly reviewed. (Author/MLW)