Aligned with recent changes to syllabuses in Australia is an assessment regime requiring teachers to identify what their students "know" and "can do" in terms of the quality of understanding demonstrated. This paper describes the experiences of 25 secondary science and mathematics teachers in rural schools in New South Wales as…

This book aims to provide interested practitioners with a little of the theoretical underpinnings of modern educational practices that center on learning. The book is divided into three sections. The first two chapters show how and why learning has gradually replaced education in the educational vocabulary. The next five chapters explore some of…

This paper describes a teacher preparation instructional unit on the "Structure of Knowledge" that was designed to help students learn to think like Jerome Bruner and David Ausubel rather than merely acquire knowledge about them, while simultaneously improving students' thinking skills. The unit used Sternberg's triarchic theory to…

A conditions-based approach to the development of microlevel organizational strategies for instruction is explored. The conditions model reflects the idea that differences in learning tasks, primarily qualitative differences in the cognitive processing required of different learning tasks, can suggest different ways by which instruction can either…

An extensive literature review led to the formation of a framework for vocabulary instruction that can be used to analyze the relationship between knowledge of word meanings and comprehension and to suggest more effective means of vocabulary instruction. The framework posits two types of information students hold about words--definitional and…

A specific teaching strategy to effect conceptual change used with a single class of fifth grade students was evaluated. The Rand McNally SCIIS "Communities" unit used in this study can be characterized as a conceptual change strategy because it is organized around a three-phase learning cycle designed to move students from…

Describes a highly effective reading program that focuses on learning strategies and the thinking process. (RB)

This study is concerned with teaching in an apprenticeship setting--the architectural design studio. The research examined teachers' planning, particularly as it focuses upon project assignments. The study yielded information about teachers' conceptual frames for their teaching, the personal aspects of teaching, the teachers' conceptions of…

This paper argues for connecting two domains that have remained relatively isolated within their respective disciplines--research on thinking and the social origins of cognition. Both enterprises have become enmeshed in education. Neither have considered in any serious way the power and implications that an integrated perspective could contribute…

By engaging in philosophical discussion in their writing, freshman composition students can discover that writing is a mediating tool between the self and the objective world, a means to examine the nature of reality and their thinking processes. Introducing philosophical issues opens the door for the investigation of difficult and abstract topics…

A theoretical framework is proposed to guide the reflective thinking of practitioners in the classroom. In this paper, the teacher's work is considered to be a series of acts intentionally performed for the educational benefit of all individuals interacting in the classroom. A discussion is presented on the theory of personal knowledge developed…

Citing several reasons why computers offer the potential to enhance instruction, this paper suggests that the teaching of thinking skills should be integrated into various subject areas by using software programs that involve the use of the skills required in the particular subject area. To illustrate this matching strategy, three software…

This paper presents an overview of research on academic tasks in the classroom and describes some of the themes that are emerging from studies in this area. The concept of "academic task" is defined along with problems associated with using this theoretical construct in classroom research. Three conceptions of how content should be represented to…

This paper discusses several critical issues concerning feedback in instruction and proposes a text synthesis research paradigm to investigate these variables. The paper is based on the assumption that feedback, a significant adjunct aid in instruction, is currently by and large ineffectual except in some simple instructional contexts. Section 1…

Cognitive theories of problem solving and suggestions made by cognitive psychologists regarding how to teach problem solving are reviewed. Theories and suggestions from creativity research are also considered. The results are summarized in terms of a description of how high levels of proficiency in problem solving are acquired and how problem…