Examines how alphabetic readers learn to read Chinese. Explores the effect of the frequency of the characters in their curriculum on performance of a lexical decision and naming task. Finds that the beginning learners were sensitive to the structural complexity and composition of characters. Suggests that perceptual learning plays an important…

Reports on an investigation of listening strategy applications by Grade 7 students learning French. Examines types of strategies used and differences in strategy use by more skilled and less skilled listeners while they listen to authentic texts in French. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the dichotomy between rational and nonrational learning processes, arguing for an integration of both. Reviews information processing theory and related learning strategies. Presents a model instructional strategy that fully integrates rational and nonrational processes. Describes implications for teaching and learning of the learning…

This study of six adults with blindness tested a code that facilitates the interpretation of tactile outline graphics by reducing potential ambiguities in figure-ground, slope, and curvature. Results found all subjects learned the code in less than two hours and successfully matched coded graphics to targeted objects. (Author/CR)

Examines the work of people who design exploratory exhibits for science museums. Discusses asking good questions, meaningful learning, design criteria from "interest experts," and four concepts about ideal learning environments which include choice in formal and informal learning, expert jargon and natural language, skills and dispositions, and…

Features responses to a problem that appeared in the January, 2001 issue of this journal. The problem concerned finding all of the shape combinations of two colors of blocks in four-block combinations. (KHR)

Describes a teaching experience with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students who participated in a project designed to give students opportunities to use a variety of mathematical skills while creating a peaceful community of friends. Concludes with ideas for adapting the project for other occasions and involving other mathematics skills. (KHR)

Investigates student approaches to learning in a second year chemical engineering course by means of a qualitative research project which utilized interview and journal data from a group of 11 students. Identifies three approaches to learning: (1) conceptual; (2) algorithmic; and (3) information-based. Presents student responses to a series of…

Reports on middle school students' use of dynamic physical models to interpret functions. Includes student creations of symbolic variables and function equations. (KHR)

Reports results of a survey developed to assess the use of learner-centered techniques in undergraduate science and mathematics classrooms. Reveals that learner-centered techniques are used infrequently, but when used, they are applied to all aspects of teaching. Suggests that federal funding has been slightly effective in promoting its use. (KHR)

Implemented and evaluated a classroom-based research project designed to examine the impact of instruction in a question analysis strategy on the development of novice chemistry students' problem solving expertise. Results for students in 18 classrooms provide some indications that strategy instruction accompanied by strategic supports has a…

Responds to a paper titled "Learner Development in Language Learning," that offered an insider's view of a particular movement in language education in which the learner is seen more as a cognitive rather than social being. (VWL)

Describes new ways to structure course work that improve faculty and learner productivity and better serve the learning styles and needs of nontraditional students. The program involves five components: learning goals, measures of student performance, knowledge of how to achieve learning with the particular student population, knowledge of options…

Studied the impact of high (syntax and semantics) and low (graphemes) linguistic levels in the oral reading of running texts of 50 beginning readers in Sweden. The analysis reveals various strategies among the readers, both in the extent to which they were sensitive to higher linguistic levels and the extent to which they used particular…

Explored the contributions of subject matter knowledge, strategic processing, and interest to college students' educational psychology learning. In general, results for 77 undergraduates uphold the predictions of the model of domain learning (P. Alexander, 1997). Students' subject-matter knowledge, strategic processing, interest, and interactive…