The focus of this paper is on some of the difficulties students experience in learning from texts and in solving other types of academic problems, because of their failure to distinguish between skills needed for everyday thinking and those needed for academic thinking. The paper discusses the types of processing problems children experience when…

Because many students find the process of neural transmission difficult to understand, a classroom exercise was designed in which students bodily form themselves into the structure of a neuron and act out the process of neural transmission. The effectiveness of this exercise as a learning aid was tested by comparing two groups totalling 65…

The ways in which students in grades five and six solve problems is the focus of this paper, which provides background for the staff of the Skills Essential to Learning Television Project, (a multi-level series of video and print resources for classroom use). It considers the problem-solving process categories of understanding, transformation, and…

This paper compares three analyses of stimulated-recall data gathered in interviews with 24 elementary school teachers who were reporting their interactive decision making (IDM). Two analyses were quantitative--one an experimental design, the other a content analysis--and one was qualitative. The experimental study found that teachers' reflection…

This theoretical paper utilizes cybernetic-­based approaches (Bopry, 1999; Wiener, 1954) and communications theory (Habermas, 1984, 1990; Krippendorff, 1994) to advance knowledge of constructivist learning. I argue that past educational research literature on constructivist learning is partly responsible for limiting how educational designers…

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself, "wrote Leo Tolstoy. Have you ever thought about how learning changes your brain? If yes, this paper may help you explore the research that will change our learning landscape in the next few years! Recent developers in the neurosciences and education research…

Examines the way children learn from each other in the science classroom, and in particular deals with the question: "What can we do in teacher training to help teachers learn how to foster child-child learning?" (JR)

This paper presents the thesis that information gained from the extensive research on conservation training can be utilized in planning curriculum content and teaching strategies, especially in concept acquisition. It is suggested that precise teaching techniques have been created and evaluated in studies of conservation training, and that every…

Documentation of classroom processes and interaction plays two roles; it is helpful in classroom/program evaluation, and in the continuing personal and professional growth of the teacher. Documentation in the evaluation context is not primarily concerned with narrow objectives or with standardized tests, but rather seeks to determine meaning over…

Presents research evidence that children with a high verbal-low spatial ability profile tend to respond in the "usual" way to social reinforcement or praise, whereas children with a high spatial-low verbal profile do not find praise reinforcing. Implications for teaching considered in detail. (Author)

The introduction reviews and compares the audiolingual and cognitive code-learning methods. An experiment was conducted using audiolingual methods to show that learning behavior diverges considerably from the expectations set up by that method. Several charts and diagrams present the analyzed results. (Text is in German.) See FL 507 969 for…

The purpose of this document is to survey at least some of the important research literature on solving linear equations in order to identify information that might suggest ways to improve teaching effectiveness. The studies that are examined employ a wide range of research techniques, are based often on quite different perspectives, and span over…

The two main objectives of the present study were to get a better understanding of sixth-graders' solution processes with respect to arithmetic word problems and to investigate the possibility of improving children's problem-solving ability through instruction. As background for the study, a hypothetical model of the problem-solving process was…

This paper, intended to show some misgivings about the potential of the Piagetian research orientation for improving science education practice, was presented at the 1978 meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). The research orientation discussed is that derived from the developmental theory of Jean Piaget. The…

This document reports data from a study designed to identify student behaviors related to academic success and involving 303 students enrolled in natural science classes at Kansas State University. Results of student responses to the Inventory of Study Practices are presented and implications for students, advisors, and teachers are identified.…