The work described here forms part of a project using models of musical ideas within an artificial intelligence and education framework whose goal is to encourage and facilitate music composition by novices. Formal knowledge of the domain (popular music) is too incomplete and fragmented to support a traditional expert-based tutor for precisely…

This discussion focuses on reading problems arising when bilingual children must learn two different scripts, and how the nature of the relationship between the two scripts may influence the child's ability to transfer and develop reading skills. First, models of normal and abnormal reading in English are described. The significance of these…

Based on multidisciplinary research findings, this report proposes an information processing model of employees' response to highly stressful information environments arising during organizational crises. The introduction stresses the importance of management's handling crisis communication with employees skillfully. The second section points out…

The presentational power of television gives it unique teaching characteristics and it is a source of a wide variety of learning material that would be unavailable to learners in any other way. For instance, it can be used to: (1) demonstrate experiments or experimental situations; (2) explain principles involving movement over space and/or time;…

Three aspects of bilingual code-switching are examined: (1) code-switching as an integral part of bilingual behavior, especially in early stages of language acquisition; (2) social factors influencing the child's ability to differentiate languages and make an appropriate language choice; and (3) hierarchical organization of these social factors,…

An examination of the policies and processes used to evaluate teaching in colleges and universities over the past several decades begins by identifying six key features of the research literature: (1) no formal definition of effective teaching has been generated to guide instrument development, data collection, and interpretation; (2) the purpose…

Drawing parallels with critical thinking and creative thinking, this document describes some ways that scientific thinking is utilized. Cognitive approaches to scientific thinking are discussed, and it is argued that all science involves an attempt to construct a testable mental model of some aspect of reality. The role of mental models is…

Based on the premise that multiple choice tests can be used as diagnostic tools for teachers in identifying and remedying student misconceptions, this study focused on the development of an instrument for diagnosing secondary students' understanding of photosynthesis and respiration. Information is presented on: (1) procedures of development of…

This paper reviews literacy and literacy assessment in America, in relation to the various National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessments. Literacy can be defined and assessed only in relation to literacy demands. A current concept of literacy distinguishes between reading comprehension as an outcome of lexical access and…

A multiple choice achievement test was constructed in which both cognitive level and degree of abstractness were controlled. Subjects were 75 students from a major university in the Southwest. A group of 13 judges, also university students, classified the concepts for degree of abstractness. Results indicated that both cognitive level and degree…

Research indicates that writing can be an important vehicle for integrating all the learning that occurs in a foreign language. However, a number of factors have conspired to displace foreign language writing as a critical skill: the push for oral proficiency, departmental fragmentation, larger class sizes, and heavier faculty loads. Second…

An English classroom contains both students of differing ideologies (that is, systems complete with centers that both express a desire and relieve anxiety) and teachers with their own ideologies. The potential for conflict is thus present. According to L. Althusser, however, the state provides certain apparatuses that prevent the formation of…

Working from both literary and composition theory, this book argues that American composition theory and pedagogy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is founded on the Platonic view that invention is a solitary act in which the individual, drawing upon innate knowledge and mental structures, searches for the truth, using introspective self…

Designed to support the premise that many important clues to the solution of the problem of teaching thinking skills in science are contained in the science process skill literature, this paper synthesizes research related to the teaching of science process skills. Studies which evaluate the effect of the new science curricula are described.…

Physical and Earth Science AB, a required senior high school course in the Los Angeles Unified School District, uses an investigative approach for developing scientific understanding and attitudes for students. Contents include: (1) summary of representative objectives; (2) teacher responsibilities; (3) the agenda; (4) guidelines for assignment of…