Describes an ethnographic study that traced the narrative thinking strategies successfully used by adolescents in two self-contained special education classrooms as they made sense of their textbooks and composed original stories based on subject matter studied. Notes role-playing and composing original texts inspired by structured play also…

The Wisconsin Emerging Scholars Program (WESP) is a nonremedial, multicultural workshop approach to learning calculus that emphasizes community and collaboration. This approach is designed to foster substantial participation of underrepresented ethnic minority students and alleviate the problems of isolation and lack of support in a large,…

Describes the development of a learning profile instrument prototype to help prepare college learners for learner-controlled instruction. Discusses learner strategies for increasing metacognitive and cognitive skills, academic motivation, required background knowledge, and self-efficacy, and reports results of testing that showed achievement gains…

Investigates the role of talk, writing, and talk and writing on the learning and retention of simple and integrated knowledge, and describes the mechanisms by which talk and writing mediate these processes. Suggests that talk is important for sharing, clarifying, and distributing knowledge among peers, and writing is an important tool for…

Examined the cognitive processes through which writing contributes to science learning among elementary school students. Analyzed four aspects of students' verbal learning strategies: writing operations, transitional sequences among writing operations, text features, and strategies for generating content. Concluded that for elementary students,…

Reports on initiatives taken to promote project-based learning by information and communication technology in both pilot and large scale projects. Reviews the history of paradigm shifts with regard to technological advances. (DDR)

Describes the development of a week-long summer computer camp for middle school students at the University of West Florida. Highlights include practicum experience for college students; the learning model; curriculum plans; day-by-day activities, including email, digital cameras, PowerPoint, Web pages, and technology integration; and suggested…

Describes an undergraduate student module that was developed at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) in which students made their own computer graphics to discover and to describe literary structures in texts of their choice. Discusses learning outcomes and refers to the Web site that shows students' course work. (Author/LRW)

Develops an eclectic paradigm of audioconferencing that incorporates the notion of transactional distance in flexible learning, caters for cultural contextualization, and includes aspects of objectivist, constructivist, and critical theory models of learning and teaching. Reports on a case study based on this paradigm involving indigenous…

Investigated the effects of presentation format (animation, still graphics, text) and the students' prior knowledge on learning a computer-based physics lesson in grades eight and nine. Results of an analysis of covariance indicated that specific presentation formats are not equally effective for the different prior knowledge groups. (Author/LRW)

Points out that a shift toward inquiry-based learning is one of the main tenants of a new approach to science education that also includes technology and the history and nature of science. Includes a sample lesson of how science educators can incorporate the Internet into the classroom. (DDR)

Underscores the need for mentoring in the challenging, early years of teaching. Addresses one aspect of mentoring: how informal (or "secondary") mentoring can enhance the formal processes that may be in place in many parts of the country. Describes various informal mentoring processes, including classroom observations and informal conversations,…

This article recounts the author's experiences with students in a Writing Center, and examines the troubles of traditional teaching styles that reflect the notion of a single norm of thought and experience. Asserts that prescriptive writing instruction stymies personal and scholastic development and undermines democratic learning. Contains 12…

Explores the demographics of faculty who volunteer to teach using distance-education technologies and discusses incentives for this participation. Finds that faculty have an interest in teaching with technology as a component of student learning, and they see internal rewards as the dominant motivation for involvement. Contains 15 references. (VWC)

Presents findings from research into listening strategies and tactics of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners from the People's Republic of China studying in an intensive English language and academic skills program in a university in Singapore. Showed that high-ability listeners used more strategies and tactics than the low-ability ones.…