Missing in curriculum revision/school restructuring links is a curriculum paradigm that incorporates reflective intelligence while promoting social and utilitarian responsibilities. The "social-reconstructive wedge" model described in this article addresses this paradoxical issue by treating the school system as a social system where constituents…

Proposes a model for learning and training for intercultural communication competence. Discusses the five levels of the model. Presents five categories of questions to challenge cultural stereotypes. (RS)

The reasoning strategies that students used in understanding qualitative changes in simple biosystem models were investigated. Three important tools of thought were identified concerned with how students made assumptions, dealt with variable interactions, and attributed holistic properties to the system. Findings suggest that students' use of…

Discussion of evaluation of learning focuses on a constructivist approach to evaluation based on a constructivist learning model. Topics addressed include comparing traditionalist and constructivist views; traditional evaluation of learning; and constructivist evaluation strategies that include one-sentence summaries, concept maps, annotated…

Discusses the relationship between situated cognition and anchored instruction in response to criticism of a previous article. Topics addressed include school versus nonschool settings; learning by observing models; "real-world" problem solving; transfer of training; and future work. (26 references) (LRW)

Discusses helping students understand cases and classes through knowledge modeling. Discusses classification and human cognition, and classification and pictorial knowledge models. Provides classroom extension activities. (SR)

The articles of this issue argue that taking culture into consideration in research on learning can enhance understanding of a variety of phenomena related to learning. Discussion reinforces this position and further considers learning processes that are or are not determined by culture. (SLD)

Analyzes cooperative education for its applicability to components of the learning process (external conditions, internal conditions, and learning outcomes) and relevance to learning principles. Finds that co-op enhances learning and supports traditional educational values. (SK)

Tests G. Armstrong's and B. Greenberg's model of the effect of background television on cognitive performance, applied to reading comprehension and memory. Finds significant deleterious effects of background television, stronger and more consistent effects when testing immediately after reading, and more consistently negative effects resulting…

When teachers provide opportunities for thoughtful learning, students will demonstrate the insight resulting from deep understanding of subject matter. Three methods of teaching for understanding include teaching with mental models, coaching for understanding performances, and teaching for transfer. These approaches also help reconnect the…

Presents the results of an exploratory multi-method evaluation study and transcript analysis of an online forum. Highlights include use of a constructivist interaction analysis model to help understand and assess online learning; social interchange; and social discord and knowledge construction. (Author/LRW)

Models of how professionals learn include mental schema, skill acquisition, and reflective practice. Effective continuing professional education for the development of expertise should be dynamic, authentic, practice based, collaborative, and future oriented. (SK)

Describes the slot-filler model of taxonomic knowledge development in which preschoolers derive "slot-filler" categories from event schemas. Maintains that the model has received considerable support across methodologies, ages, and sociocultural contexts. Argues that Krackow and Gordon's theorizing and methods could not lead to reliable,…

Responds to claims regarding second-language acquisition (SLA) research. The claims refer to the existence of multiple theories in SLA research, relativism in the field and acceptability and testing of findings. The article argues that SLA is a process of exploration and speculation rather than one of discovery and proof and suggests that SLA is…

Describes connectionist model showing exclusivity asymmetries when categorizing visual stimuli, similar to pattern shown by infants. Examines asymmetries in terms of an associative learning mechanism, distributed internal representations, and statistics of feature distributions in the stimuli. Details test of model with infants, finding that…