Discussion of the importance of cognitive strategy instruction is followed by consideration of reciprocal teaching as an optimal method for teaching both reading and writing to middle and high school students with reading/writing difficulties. Reciprocal teaching emphasizes teaching learners how to ask questions, clarify issues, summarize text,…

Discusses the ways in which young children's minds can be engaged through play with a variety of manipulative objects and experiential activities in the day care environment. Such engagement encourages children's thinking and increases awareness and understanding of the world. (NH)

The effects of teaching strategy, relevant knowledge, and strategy length on high school students' mathematical learning ability were studied. Performance was found to increase as levels of relevant knowledge increased. Characterization strategies were found to be more effective than exemplification strategies for students with high relevant…

Pedagogical intelligence is analyzed, with particular emphasis on teacher decision-making strategies, the role of experience, and developmental aspects. Ways in which teacher educators can help foster pedagogical intelligence and specific examples of practices being tried are presented. (IAH)

Learning Aids stimulate formation of mental images of concepts by increasing sensory input. This article provides a rationale for employing learning aids to help elementary children understand physical fitness concepts, and describes several activities which employ the three categories of learning aids (visual, object, event). (IAH)

Attempts to clarify the role of grammar in second-language instruction. It is suggested that changes in language teaching have encouraged the view that grammar is one of several dimensions along which learners need to progress to achieve greater proficiency but that it should not be dominant. (22 references) (CK)

Discusses what the author regards as important instructional advancements that have occurred over the past 30 years. The advances come from research on cognitive processing, on teachers whose classes made the highest achievement gain compared with the classes of other teachers, and on the teaching of cognitive strategies. (SM)

Exposure of an experimental group of (n=33) college freshmen to teaching experiments dealing with stoichiometry problems based on the concept of limiting reagent showed greater improvement in posttests than the (n=39) student control group and observed that some students protect their core beliefs by ignoring conflicting data. (Author/MKR)

Learning place geography is an important part of school geography. Reports on research findings addressing effective ways to teach place geography. Finds that research indicates significant differences between mnemonic and non-mnemonic treatment groups. (CFR)

Reciprocal teaching is an instructional procedure designed to teach students cognitive strategies that might result in improved reading comprehension. This review of 16 quantitative studies generally supports the efficacy of reciprocal teaching but also indicates the need for further research into cognitive strategy instruction. (SLD)

Describes a writing instruction project called the "landmark method" that fosters writing skills in students with learning disabilities. Outlines specific strategies that have proven effective in teaching writing to students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities. (HB)

A triarchic model for identifying, teaching, and assessing children who are gifted is presented. The model involves three abilities: memory-analytic, creative-synthetic, and practical-contextual. Results are presented of the Yale Summer Psychology pilot project that is based on this model. Expanding the model to other fields beyond psychology is…

Describes a process approach to teaching and learning in preschool settings. The approach uses child-initiated play in a prepared environment, and encourages children's formation of symbolic mental representations through social interaction and mediation. Offers guidelines for the implementation of the process approach. (MM)

Discusses research findings that relate to teaching fractions for conceptual understanding. Gives teacher/student dialogues that illustrate the thought processes of students as they form part-whole and improper fraction concepts. (MDH)

Six validated principles of instruction are applied to the development of guidelines for using computerized instruction with students with special needs. The six principles are direct instruction, mastery learning, overlearning and automaticity, cooperative learning, monitoring student progress, and learning styles. A table lists guidelines for…