One of the most important questions I ask as both a cultural anthropologist and a university teacher is: How do people come to know what they think they know? In this article, I adopt a narrative approach to processes of learning and discovery in two very different locales, an indigenous society in the South Pacific, and a senior seminar on…

Students' interest and involvement in social studies may be increased by motivating them to write about important topics which relate to their own life experiences. This article presents a general approach to writing instruction which may heighten students' curiosity to discover important topics in social studies as a relevant outgrowth of their…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an experiential form of learning centered around the collaborative investigation and resolution of "messy, real-world" problems. This book offers opportunities to learn about problem-based learning from the perspectives of teachers, students, parents, administrators, and curriculum developers. Chapter 1 tells…

The role of block building in children's learning was studied by a student teacher who observed a teacher's block building curriculum in a combined first and second grade class. The purpose was to clarify the linkage between thinking and doing, spoken intention and actual consequences, and planning and spontaneity in the curriculum. The cycle of…

Based on reviews of 10 examples of multimedia design, this paper presents an introductory framework for reflecting on the issues involved in the design of interactive multimedia instructional programs for discovery learning. High school students, junior and senior high school teachers, and Center for Technology in Education (CTE) staff reviewed…

Information on the values of woodworking for young children and ways to introduce and manage a carpentry center for them are provided in this guide. The following topics are included: (1) the values of woodworking on child development; (2) how the teacher can use the center to provide for the integration, discovery, and development of woodworking…

Questioning strategies, whether teacher- or student-generated, can be a major tool in developing reading comprehension. Teachers can maximize the benefits of teacher directed questioning by (1) providing clues before providing answers to questions, (2) acknowledging appropriate responses with two or three seconds of eye contact, (3) allowing…

Describes a summer course in chemistry conducted by college teachers for children aged 9 through 12. The children were provided with simple laboratory equipment and performed actual experiments and recorded the results. A few demonstrations were given, but lecturing was kept to a minimum. (MLH)

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two instructional approaches on mildly handicapped and nonhandicapped students' science achievement. Students were assigned at random to one of two conditions: (1) direct instruction; and (2) discovery teaching. The content of the lessons remained constant across conditions and focused…

This report describes Palenque, an interactive, multimedia, optical disc research prototype developed for home use by 8- to 14-year-old children and their families. The report begins by providing an overview of the project, which is followed by a discussion of the target audience and context for use of the videodisc. A discussion of learning…

An answer to aliteracy involves literary inquiry in which teachers teach students how to ask their own questions in working through a piece of literature. Three approaches to such literary study are improvisational, interpretive, and intellectual inquiry. A literary schema that students can use as an instrument to get started on their road to the…

Many new directions for science teaching were developed during the post-Sputnik era. Hands-on science teaching remains a popular direction, yet may be seen as something complex or mysterious by those not familiar with some of the jargon which usually accompanies any discussion of science teaching. This paper responds to several questions teachers…

A testing procedure used by J. W. Getzels and M. Csikszentmihalyi (1964) to gauge the relationship between problem finding and creativity in art students was employed in a study designed to determine if the same relationship existed in writers. Subjects were middle school students identified as either creative or noncreative by two separate…