Cognitive style is one factor that may influence individuals' preferences for different learning methods and activities related to continuous professional development. Explores the cognitive styles and learning preferences of personnel practitioners (n=127) in the United Kingdom. Finds that the relationship between cognitive style and preference…

Examines the cognitive basis of one experienced English-as-a-foreign-language teacher's instructional decisions in grammar teaching. Based on extensive classroom observations and interviews, the article describes the teacher's personal stores of knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes that affect his instructional decisions. (Author/JL)

Investigated the effects of student working-memory capacity, preference for amount of instruction, spatial problem-solving ability, and school mathematics grades on eighth graders' recall of factual information and conceptual understanding. Pairs of students worked through 16 activities using a dynamic, computer-based geometry program. Presents…

Unique associations between three families of mathematical knowledge and individual differences in the mathematics skills of 103 seventh and eighth graders were studied. Conceptual and procedural knowledge adequately explained individual differences in fraction solving and problem set-up accuracy, but only conceptual knowledge adequately expressed…

Investigates the procedural understanding of first-year university science students in South Africa. Explores ideas related to the reliability of experimental data and discusses the types of reasoning underlying the responses. (DDR)

Discusses three educational ideas, demonstrating their incompatibility: (1) a focus on socialization; (2) Plato's notion that education is the process of seeking truth about reality; and (3) Jean-Jacques Rousseau's idea that the mind undergoes a developmental process and education furthers its development. Argues that education is learning to use…

Focuses on an area within pragmatics, that of speech acts, considers the underlying performance of such speech acts, and looks at the effects of explicit instruction in this area. The article makes distinctions in the description of speech acts, such as between sociocultural and sociolinguistic ability. (47 references) (Author/CK)

Assessed effectiveness of engaging students in a creative activity on a topic as a means of encouraging an active cognitive set toward learning that topic area. Creative task engagement was found to be an effective means of enhancing creativity (in the absence of evaluation expectation), intrinsic motivation, and long-term retention. (JBJ)

Discussion of the situational dynamism of user-centered relevance estimation focuses on a study that used magnitude estimation to express the relative importance of each document retrieved from an information retrieval system. Topics addressed include relevance estimation as a cognitive schema and the relationship between learning and user…

Four computer-based training strategies for geometrical problem solving in the domain of computer numerically controlled machinery programming were studied with 60 Dutch secondary technical school students for effects on training performance, transfer of performance, and cognitive load. Results support the utility of worked examples for transfer…

Tests the effectiveness of CONTACT-2, a revision of CONTACT strategy, which uses continuous, computer-assisted activation of learner conceptions in text processing. CONTACT-2 was found to be more effective as a process-oriented instructional strategy. Student subjects in grades five and six with the CONTACT-2 condition constructed better…

Conceptual and behavioral methods for developing student abilities to think and behave creatively are presented with suggestions for their application in entrepreneurship courses. Conceptual exercises as well as the use of musical experimentation, card games, and board games as metaphors for business situations are shown to teach a variety of…

Utilizes questionnaires to examine Carugati and Mugny's assertion that social representations of intelligence are organized both by social identity and unfamiliarity. Discovers a consensus concerning representations of intelligence organized by social identity. Includes a copy of the questionnaire, breakdown of the responses, and other statistical…

Examines correlations between student cognitive-motivational characteristics and perceptions of computer conferencing as a supplement to classroom instruction. Questionnaires were distributed to 209 students in eight introductory psychology classes. Results indicated perceptions positively related to intrinsic motivation, thinking skills, and task…

Argues that the unit operations laboratory provides an ideal setting to help chemical engineering students become better engineering practitioners. Describes a summer program at the Colorado School of Mines that incorporates experience into a unit operations laboratory. (DDR)