A meta-analysis of 35 interventions to reduce diagnostic testing revealed that testing was reduced overall by 17.6%. Stronger effects were found for immediate reductions (31.7%) compared to reduction at follow-up times (18.7%) and stronger effects were found for interventions targeted at specific tests (23.2%) compared to interventions designed to…

External representations have a great impact on what and how students learn. One key manner in which environments can operate upon novices' knowledge is through helping them ground their problem solving in an understanding of the situation embodied by the problem. In this paper, students' difficulties in microeconomics problem solving were…

The learning difficulties that students experience with fractions begin immediately when they are shown fraction symbols with one numeral written above the other and told that the "top number" is called the numerator and the "bottom number" is called the denominator. This introduction to fractions will usually include a few visual diagrams to help…

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist, developed a way to systematically examine eight basic tendencies toward which different types of people tend to gravitate: introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving. This booklet examines what these tendencies mean and how people with different…

A study determined whether there are any differences in the adaptive competency acquisition between technology education teachers who have completed a school district add-on alternative certification process and technology education teachers who completed a traditional baccalaureate degree certification program. Non-probability sampling was used…

Describes two intuitive rules underlying students' conceptions in mathematics and science that are not always compatible with usually accepted scientific ideas. The intuitive rules are: "More of A, more of B" and "Subdivision processes can always be repeated." In teacher education, it is important to raise instructors'…

The relationship between psychology and the arts, and the role of the arts in the educational process are explored. The proposition put forth argues that the sensory system is a primary resource in cognitive life. The relationship of intuition to intellect, of how the whole and its constituent qualities relate, also is explored. The forms of…

Presents 13 examples in which the intuitive approach to solve the problem is often misleading. Presents analysis of these problems for five different sources of misleading intuitive generators: lack of analysis, unbalanced perception, improper analogy, improper generalization, and misuse of symmetry. (MDH)

In an attempt to devise a methodology for characterizing children's intuitive theories of drug action, 217 children in Grades 1 to 6 were interviewed about how two substances, alcohol and cocaine, cause behavioral changes in their users. Measures tapped both structure (Piagetian complexity of causal reasoning, coherence, and construction of a…

This paper discusses a radically different set of assumptions to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. It is argued that disadvantaged children, when exposed to carefully organized thinking-oriented instruction, can acquire the traditional basic skills in the process of reasoning and solving problems. The paper is presented in…

This "special report" is an alert for academic presidents interested in research findings on "Leadership Types". It is subtitled: "An Alert to the Potential for Enhancing Leadership Effectiveness by Personalizing the Administrative/Learning Climate." The paper describes the development of a teacher education program…

In order to take into account in a more productive, effective manner children's prior science knowledge in the development of science curricula and in the teaching of science, it is important "to know how to explore it, to know about its nature, and to consider the various ways it may, or may not be modified" (Gilbert, Osborne, and Fensham, 1982).…

Using current mind/brain research, this paper explores the "hidden curriculum" in the contexts of teaching, learning and supervision. It explains ways in which current research on the nature of learning can fit into today's typical, "clinical" teaching techniques. The importance of respecting individual modes of learning is stressed; further to…

In four parts, this discussion describes characteristics of the thought of infants, preschool children, primary school students, and adolescents. Topics briefly addressed in part I, on the thought processes/capabilities of babies, concern sensorimotor thought without abstraction, the importance of physical exploration, the development of…

One of three related documents produced in response to a need for direct instruction in thinking skills at the secondary level, this program for high school students bases its approach on involvement of students in direct experiences. Designed to build on the thinking skills that the student already possesses and, ideally, on the experience gained…