Noting that skills and knowledge taught in schools have become abstracted from their uses in the world, this paper clarifies some of the implications for the nature of the knowledge that students acquire through a proposal for the retooling of apprenticeship methods for the teaching and learning of cognitive skills. The paper specifically proposes…

This paper examines sixth-grade children's thinking related to solving ratio and proportion problems before these children had received any instruction in the domain. It explores unitizing and norming, one of the processes identified by both content analyses (Behr, Harel, Post, & Lesh, 1990); Harel, Behr, Post & Lesh, 1990) and research in…

Ongoing work toward developing a learning environment that will perform real-time diagnoses of students' difficulties in solving mathematical word problems is described. The learning environment designed consists of a microworld and expert modules. The microworld (or toolbox) is a collection of mouse-driven interfaces that facilitate a transition…

This paper describes a practicum in which a comprehensive daily writing program was implemented to determine the effectiveness of the writing process in improving the self-esteem as well as the reading skills of first-grade students. The target group was 11 first graders who, out of a class of 25 students, had failed the comprehension part of the…

This study focused on verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors of teachers, the relationship between immediacy variables and cognitive learning, as well as homophily, interpersonal solidarity, and student attentiveness at the senior-high school level. Subjects, 87 female and 73 male senior-high school students enrolled in interpersonal…

This research project was designed to explore ways of making computer text presentations more readable as a way of compensating for the constraints that computers impose on the display of text as compared with print-on-paper displays, e.g., limited screen resolution and display area. Forty-eight undergraduate teacher education majors enrolled in…

This paper summarizes a report designed to provide the National Science Board Commission with information about recent advances in cognitive/behavioral science relevant to mathematics, science, and technology education, as well as prospective contributions from these fields if adequate levels of support are available. Following a summary…

This study examined the role played by particular intellectual and physical environments on concept formation, focusing on conceptions concerning heat in a group of non-western subjects living in the interior of southern Africa (N. Sotho and Tswana peoples). In addition, these conceptions were examined in three contexts of the subjects' cultural…

This study sought information on the relationship between cognitive styles (conceptual level and field-independence/field-dependence) and entrance examination criteria of those accepted to teacher education at the University of Helsinki in 1980. The 96 subjects represented prospective class teachers and teachers of handicraft and home economics.…

A study examined the performance on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) for first grade students from a rural northwestern school who had received reading instruction via a structured, phonics-based reading program. Specifically, the study compared the performance of (1) three students scheduled for retention because of poor…

A study tested hypotheses concerning thinking in a foreign language. Specifically, it looked at whether (1) inferencing in a foreign language relies on mental models and propositional thinking; (2) the three stages of the theory of comprehension apply to understanding foreign-language discourse; and (3) propositional thinking manifests native…

Schools tend to have a built-in bias toward left brain activities (tasks that are linear and sequential in nature), so the introduction of right brain activities (functions related to music, rhythm, images, color, imagination, daydreaming, dimensions) brings a balance into the classroom and helps those students who may be right brain oriented. To…

The articles in this journal issue explore current theories of the reading/writing relationship and practices in writing instruction. The titles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Cognitive Processes in Writing and Reading" (Roderic C. Botts); (2) "Brainstorming and Writing" (Brock Dethier); (3) "Group Writing:…

This compilation consists of 26 consecutive issues of the journal "Seedbed," published from February 1979 through July 1986. Each issue contains articles written by teachers for teachers. "Seedbed" is an outcome of the Teachers' Center Project at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. It is designed to be neither scholarly nor trivial. Each…

This mathematics curriculum guide is to serve as a model and resource to Iowa school personnel as they develop or refine mathematics curriculum. It is based on research about how students learn mathematics and on recommendations from recent reports and studies. The philosophy and eight goals are identified. The second section of the guide concerns…