Reports on two aspects of the SIMULATE (Simulation Authoring Tools Environment) project: an account of the learning processes that are involved in learning with computer simulations, and an inventory of learner attributes. Topics discussed include ISLEs (intelligent simulation learning environments), prior knowledge, motivation, cognitive style,…

Describes a survey of secondary school teachers that was conducted to determine their perceptions of their own computer needs and those of their students. The questionnaire, which was completed by 92 teachers, focused on their computer attitudes, needs, and experience. Responses showed that teachers viewed word processing as a high priority for…

Describes activities used in a 12th-grade literature classroom that develops students' prior knowledge to help them connect to the literature before reading it. (SR)

Recommends that numeracy be better coordinated and integrated across the curriculum and that teachers examine the image of mathematics presented to children. Discusses the value of eliciting children's ideas about and experiences with numbers and measuring. (DDR)

Investigated whether beginning adult learners, given auditory stimuli, were equally likely to represent French gender subclasses using phonological, morphosyntactic, and/or semantic representations. Data from adult English speakers learning patterned French and translation equivalent lists indicated that the construct of input for gender learning…

Examined current-events knowledge of high school students with and without access to daily television news in the classroom. Found that students with greater prior knowledge of current events had more interest in the news and sought external news sources. (Author/LBT)

Describes a study of the background knowledge of students in respiratory physiology courses. Finds that instructors tended to both overestimate and underestimate students' knowledge by large margins on individual questions. (Author/WRM)

Discusses the application of the theory of contingent tutoring to the design of a computer-based system for algebra. Considers help seeking and analyzes interactions between secondary school students and the computer-based tutoring system to explore the relations between individual differences in learner-tutor interaction, learner's prior…

Presents the results of a study that elucidates children's developing powers of explanation as they relate to global warming and ozone depletion. Discusses the results using charts and provides questions from the questionnaire used in the study. (DDR)

Presents the Integrated Thematic Instruction Model for translating brain research into practical applications in the classroom and school. Describes the specific neurotransmitters involved in learning. Discusses the key role of emotion and the importance of prior experience in the learning process. Recommends the types of sensory input needed for…

Examined the effect of background knowledge and second language proficiency in relation to two sets of specific reading materials. One came from an IELTS reading module related to science and technology; the other was from a highly-specific popular science text. Results showed that both language proficiency and background knowledge predicted…

Analyzes the differential skills and competencies required of faculty teaching distance education courses via the World Wide Web. The faculty perceptions of needed skills and competencies varied greatly and were found to be primarily influenced by their prior knowledge of instructional design strategies and distance education theories. Survey…

Performance of 142 sixth graders in modular technology education using multimedia was significantly predicted by quantitative and verbal ability and prior knowledge. Cognitive style and intrinsic motivation had less significant relationships with performance. Identification of low verbal ability and lack of prior knowledge could improve students'…

Introduction: Academic writing for publication is competitive and demanding for researchers. For the novice English-as-a-second-language (ESL) researcher, the pressure to publish compounds the difficulties of mastering the English language. Very few studies have used ESL graduate and post-graduate students as academic writing research subjects.…

In this study the assumption was tested experimentally, whether prompting for reflection will enhance hypermedia learning and transfer. Students of the experimental group were prompted at each navigation step in a hypermedia system to say the reasons why they chose this specific information node out loud whereas the students of the control group…