Re:Learning, a major national effort to redesign the total school system, is grounded in the belief that school renewal efforts must focus on schooling's primary purpose--to help all students learn to use their minds well. In July and August 1989, 13 focus groups were convened in Colorado for the Education Commission of the States' Re:Learning…

A comparative study is presented of three types of teaching methods: cooperative, competitive, and individualistic. It is pointed out that while studies related to this topic show that the cooperative method seems to be the most widely used and perceived as the most beneficial for teaching students, competitive and individualistic teaching methods…

In this discussion on differences between white and black students in academic achievement, it is pointed out that apparent differences in scholastic ability may actually be differences in ways of thinking and relating to schooling which arise more from cultural background than from innate cognitive ability. It is suggested that disparities that…

Soar, an architecture for problem solving and learning based on heuristic search and chunking, has been applied to a variety of tasks during the development of the Soar project, the goal of which is to build a system capable of general intelligent behavior. The hypothesis being tested in this aspect of Soar research is that chunking, a simple…

This paper focuses on the mechanics and dynamics of questioning techniques as aids to trainers/teachers in "getting across" subject matter and interacting effectively with learners. The mechanics include three levels of questions--knowledge, application and problem-solving. Each of these levels is designed to foster different and…

The development of computer-based instruction will be greatly facilitated by the use of an effective and efficient design model. Five components of such a model are: (1) the objective; (2) the content; (3) the questions; (4) the boundaries; and (5) the entry skills. A good objective describes either something observable that learners do, the…

The developmental memory research with children indicates that highly variable rehearsal leads to better overall recall and that the strength of interitem associations may play some role in improving recall. This paper reports on two experiments to investigate the interplay between the number and strength of interitem associations, and how each is…

Recent years have seen a substantial growth in research that probes children's ideas about natural phenomena. This paper places that research in a context which enables comprehension of how it informs and influences the practice of science education. To this end, past, present, and future styles of research are considered to: (1) demonstrate links…

Behavior analysis has contributed dramatically toward educational improvement. It has helped to produce impressive increases in rates and durability of simple and complex learning among students with widely disparate capabilities and levels of preparation. Behavior analysis has demonstrated that: (1) everyone can learn; (2) complex skills can be…

A description is given of an inservice course designed to acquaint teachers with current constructivist thinking and research in cognitive and developmental psychology. The focus was on sensitizing the teachers to the challenges of creating a "thinking environment" in their classrooms. The course was designed to engage students as…

Two instructional design alternatives are described and discussed: (1) the supplantation model of Ausburn and Ausburn (1978), where learning strategies are built into the instructional materials; and (2) a generative design model, where strategies are "built" into the learner. These contrasting models are proposed as representing the…

Suggestions are offered for applying learning techniques for a variety of learning situations. The approaches are applicable to learning medical school content as well as other advanced educational content. Ways to control external distractors are suggested, including a systematic approach to completing large tasks, such as writing a research…

A study compared the relative effectiveness of analogical study guides, essay writing, and self-generation of questions in learning factual information. The subjects, 31 female undergraduate English education majors at the University of Georgia (who had already demonstrated their competence to complete the experiment), read three pairs of…

This discussion of the contributions that cognitive psychology can make to the next generation of instructional design methods begins by comparing behaviorally-based and cognitively-based instructional design systems. Some possible improvements in instructional design are then presented, and it is argued that cognition, or student thought…

The literature and theories of the role of self-assessment in the metacognitive development of children with learning handicaps is reviewed. Self-assessment is seen to be a prerequisite for metacognitive growth. The literature on purposes of self-assessment and ways to assess a student's actual use of self-assessment indicates that learning…