Discusses issues related to psycholinguistics since second-language acquisition (SLA) research has emerged as a scientific discipline. These issues include the debate about the place of an innate universal grammar in language acquisition, basic cognitive mechanisms underlying SLA, and pedagogical implications of recent developments in the…

Describes a survey of Greek schoolchildren's alternative conceptions about weather and climate. Finds that misconceptions exist, including confusion between the meanings of the terms "weather" and "climate", inflated estimates of temperature, and a belief that yearly weather data define climate. Suggests ways to help students…

Describes the current situation of teaching and learning in China and the features of biology science; reviews existing theories of cognitive and learning styles as well as concept mapping. A Concept Mapping Training Course is outlined which incorporates concept mapping into biology learning. Students' different cognitive styles are taken into…

Investigated a kindergarten teacher's practice in order to understand her knowledge of her children's mathematical thinking, her method of knowledge acquisition, and the uses she made of that knowledge in making instructional decisions. Discusses the role of Cognitively Guided Instruction workshops in shaping the teacher's mathematical teaching.…

Analyzes assumptions underlying learner-centered, technology-based environments in light of how well learners appear to meet the cognitive demands for engaging them. Design implications include the following considerations: direct learner attention to key variables and visual cues; prompt and guide connections to prior knowledge; and provide…

Discusses whether it is worthwhile to refer the literal sense or origin of an unfamiliar figurative expression as it is encountered by a language learner in specialized reading. Cognitive semantic tools were applied to reading economic discourse. The hypothesis that an enhanced metaphoric awareness on the part of language learners can be…

Conversation is a basis for critical thinking. It is the thread that ties together cognitive strategies and provides students with the practice that becomes the foundation for reading, writing, and thinking. In recent years, proficient reader research has yielded information about what good readers do as they comprehend text. This article provides…

Revealing or visualizing the thinking involved in making clinical decisions is a challenge. A case study is presented with a visual implement for sharing the diagnostic process. This technique adapts the Bayesian approach to the case presentation. Pretest probabilities and likelihood ratios are gathered to obtain post-test probabilities of every…

Research on the executive functions of the brain supports a constructivist, experiential approach to teaching and learning.

Teacher education faculty need to bridge college course knowledge to actual practices in early childhood classrooms. Historically, faculty have lectured about best practices and then students have attempted to integrate these concepts into their own teaching with children. This article highlights one community college's use of digital photography…

Describes classroom exercises involving sociology students in the process of learning social construction of reality concepts. Focuses on stigmas and social interaction. States students gain deeper understanding of sociological concepts useful in real life situations. (KDR)

Learning can be viewed as a communication process that puts the learner in contact with concepts created by others. A result of communication is that an act of interpretation starts, which invokes a process of conceptualization. According to Mayes, successful conceptualization will need the support of learning activities. Hence, machine mediated…

In the context of U.S. and world wide educational reforms that require teachers to understand and respond to student thinking about mathematics in new ways, ongoing learning from practice is a necessity. In this paper we report on this process for one teacher in one especially productive year of learning. This case study documents how Ms. Statz's…

Focus in recent times on realistic pedagogy implies that we can no longer depend on a transmission model of training, either for teachers or learners. We need to develop strategies that will help teachers and learners to be co-participators in the learning process. Mental modelling is one technique suggested in this article. It is a technique…

Cognitive sciences are discovering many things that educators have always intuitively known about language learning. However, the important point is actively using this new information to improve both students learning and current teaching practices. The implications of neuroscience for educational reform regarding second language (L2) learning…