Developed to assess congruence of intent and practice (the teacher's ideal and students' perceived real) in instruction of the gifted in the Illinois program, the Class Activities Questionnaire (CAQ) includes 25 forced choice items evaluating cognitive emphasis, classroom conditions, and student attitudes and reactions. Cognitive items were shown…

A series of discussions are reported concerning the applicability of Piaget's ideas to special education. They are contrasted and compared with other approaches to educating the exceptional child ranging from behavioral modification to the Montessori classroom. Participants included Joachim F. Wohlwill, Francis P. Connor, Donald S. Baer, Thomas J.…

The study investigated the effects of reading level and stimulus presentation mode on the associative clustering and recall performance of mentally retarded adolescents. The subjects were administered a randomized list of twenty words from four conceptual categories. For each of four trials, these words were presented via the auditory, visual or…

The effects of conservation activities on children's acquisition of Piaget's conservation concepts were investigated. One hundred and twenty-eight seven-to nine-year-old children in four classrooms were given pre- and post-evaluation measures of conservation ability. The experimental group completed a set of 42 self-directed conservation…

The purpose of this study is to develop from naturalistic field observation data a set of concepts and hypotheses related to the teaching of thinking. The study conceptualizes and relates thought processes and instructional strategies by analyzing data collected from classrooms in which the Washington University Elementary Social Science…

This document, the first in a series called "Actualizacion Linguistica," seeks to establish the bases for testing a new methodology for teaching Spanish to Colombia beginning at the preschool and primary levels. The methodology initially uses a system of "logic blocks" of differing size, color, shape, and weight to devise games…

A set of articles presenting a broad base for displaying the thinking of outstanding researchers and scholars on the subjects of English and Reading is given. These articles were drawn from papers read at a series of institutes cosponsored by the University of Illinois and the National Council of Teachers of English. Each paper reflects elements…

Learning-disabled students deficient in classification and categorization require specific instruction in these skills. Use of a classification/categorization instructional model improved the questioning strategies of 60 learning-disabled students, aged 10 to 12. The use of similar models is discussed as a basis for instruction in science, social…

An Alabama school district implemented a thinking skills instruction program called Talents Unlimited through inservice education. Both workshop ratings by teachers and pretest-posttest scores by middle school and high school students suggested that Talents Unlimited can change teachers' understandings about higher order thinking skills and…

Several lines of needed research on teaching are discussed, including process-outcome research, structuring the content for clarity, teaching cognitive skills and problem-solving strategies, recitation and boardwork, seatwork and homework, conceptual change teaching, classroom organization and grouping, cooperative learning methods, sex equity,…

Discusses the value of studying errors made by students in the process of learning science. Addresses 20 research questions dealing with student learning errors. Attempts to characterize errors made by students and clarify some terms used in error research. (TW)

Long-term retention effects of two methods of instruction used one year earlier to teach field-dependent and field-independent sixth-grade students to control variables and to transfer this ability to novel tasks were investigated. Also examined whether or not uninstructed seventh-grade students had acquired this ability on their own. (Author/JN)

This study investigated the cognitive and affective student learning outcomes of 36 semesters (equivalent to 18 years) using the mastery learning approach in high school distributive education classes (n=7,179 students). Student achievement in the cognitive area is reported by increasing grade point averages, and test scores are presented to show…

Reviews results of an experiment comparing the comprehension and recall of four groups: those who watched a videotape without taking notes; those who took notes while watching; those who took notes on questions in advance; those who orally replied to questions while watching. Comprehension was higher in the interactive groups. (MJP)

Describes new college teaching techniques using the brain-compatible teaching and learning model. Demonstrates that learning is based on the process of detecting and making patterns. Suggests maximizing use of local memory function to reduce dependency on rote learning and varying methods of classroom presentation to target different learning…