Reviews the educational reform and philosophy of Confucianism, the communist ideology, the psychological characteristics of the Chinese, and the Chinese language as the cultural context of school science teaching and learning in the People's Republic of China. Focuses on the effects of cultural influences. Contains 28 references. (DDR)

Details an instructional approach to understanding another culture through the use of kits that enables children to learn at their own pace. This approach focuses on similarities among and between cultures and allows students to explore a variety of science concepts and understandings. (DDR)

Investigates the effects of Spanish-English bilinguals' first-language syntactic knowledge on the guesses they make about the meanings of new words encountered in English contexts. Examines a particular type of transfer to understand the process of vocabulary acquisition in second-language readers. (48 references) (Author/CK)

Discusses the concept of cooperative learning and its application to library and information skills. Topics include Bloom's Taxonomy of Instructional Objectives; interpersonal skills; circles of learning; meaningful-use tasks, including decision making and problem solving; and suggestions for cooperative activities for library information…

Describes reform efforts in science education at Northern Arizona University that emphasize active, inquiry-based learning in introductory biology classes. Recommends the use of a number of strategies to involve large classes in thinking about and doing science. Contains 20 references. (DDR)

Argues that there are many kinds of understanding and many ways to reach these different understandings. Suggests that this is the reason why articulating general rules that can consistently lead to understanding is difficult. Discusses the relationship between brain structure and learning. (DDR)

Reports on a school project that focuses on a lake's ecosystem and engages students in data collection and analysis. Data are shared with the local government to assist with the monitoring of water quality. Includes tips on group cooperation and assessment. (DDR)

Describes an integrated problem-based learning experience for first-year medical students and assesses the effectiveness of the process in identifying basic science issues relevant to biochemical principles. (DDR)

Describes and analyzes a short teaching episode in a multilingual secondary mathematics classroom in South Africa where the teacher uses a participatory-inquiry approach. Argues that such an approach to teaching and learning mathematics creates dilemmas of mediation for teachers. (AIM)

A first-year elementary teacher explains how she helped a slow learner work up to her potential. Two experts suggest strategies for teaching slow learners: setting up an at-risk program; peer tutoring; adapting teaching to the learner's capabilities; and understanding individual learning styles. (SM)

Reports on a study of college students (N=276) that tested a model to identify a goodness of fit between students and educational environments. Findings indicate the importance of motivating students to engage in reciprocal relationships with their learning environments to enhance human capital skills. (RJM)

Building on the prior work of Sanaoui (1995), this article reports on the results of administering a self-report questionnaire to students of English as a Second Language to discover the vocabulary learning activities that learners engaged in outside class. Discusses why a structured learning approach did not predict either greater vocabulary…

Presents the results of a survey conducted at the State University of New York Albany to explore library patrons' use of the Internet and their use of the library-sponsored Internet instruction program. Results indicate that most Internet users chose to learn on their own; different instructional needs, based on gender and learning style were…

This study compared the motivational orientations and metacognitive abilities of 143 Grade 7 intellectually gifted students in an Australian selective school with 133 average-achieving age peers attending comprehensive schools. Gifted students had greater confidence in their own control over successes or failures in school tasks, demonstrated more…

Examines assumptions underlying the use of groupwork in the teaching of English as a foreign language (FL) in China. The article concludes that the primary role of small group discussion in FL learning should be in the development of collaborative learning strategies to master content rather than interpersonal communication in the target language.…