The effectiveness of three instructional approaches was investigated in a study of how best to facilitate vocabulary acquisition. The three approaches were (1) the cognitive approach, a method employing dictionary worksheets and patterned after the most commonly used method of teaching vocabulary; (2) the affective approach, which urged students…

This paper is focused on a relatively new emphasis in education research: the nature of academic work contained in the curriculum of elementary and secondary schools, how that work is organized and accomplished in classrooms, and what modifications in academic work are likely to increase student achievement. The paper is divided into two major…

A critique is offered of three papers on the student's role in learning. The first, by Robert Sternberg and Richard Wagner, makes connections between cognitive processing of information and the metacognitive processing of one's own approach to a situation and the information contained therein. The second, by Deborah Stipek, implies that…

This three-part report discusses the concept of intelligence and its importance for educators. Part 1 considers the basic question of what intelligence is. Part 2 discusses the implications of notions of intelligence for schooling, dealing with both the training of content knowledge and the training of intellectual skills. Each of these first two…

Current writings on the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain are examined, focusing upon possible implications for improving present educational techniques. It has been generally accepted by researchers that the organizational and verbalizing processes are functions of the left cerebral hemisphere, while creative and intuitive…

The 594 studies referenced in this volume, the first of a two-volume set, synthesize reading comprehension research conducted from 1974 to 1984. The 12 chapters cover the following topics: (1) the necessity for both quantitative and qualitative meta-analysis for a complete state-of-the-art understanding of any domain, (2) the background of the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 25 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effect of reading ability, mode of presentation, and passage familiarity on the general and precise comprehension of expository text; (2) a constructivist…

This study explores a learning model which suggests that a concept is acquired first through manipulation of concrete objects followed by transformation of the concrete objects into semi-concrete representations, followed by internalization of the concept through abstract representations. Microcomputer simulations of manipulative activities were…

Museum objects can be the springboard for exercising critical thinking. There are four main thought processes associated with critical thinking: (1) fluent thinking, the ability to produce many ideas; (2) flexible thinking, the ability to view something in different ways; (3) original thinking, the ability to produce unique ideas; and (4)…

This 10-part resource book contains 54 articles which address topics related to helping students become effective thinkers. The articles are organized under these categories: (1) the need to teach students to think; (2) creating school conditions for thinking; (3) definitions of thinking (including goals for a critical thinking curriculum); (4) a…

This paper synthesizes some of the many ideas and issues pertaining to research on the development of writing skills, and on creating new technologies for writing. Such technologies include computer-based production tools, videodiscs, and other mass storage technologies with potential for knowledge storing and structuring. The discussion also…

The purpose of this study is to a) explore connections among number sense, mental computation performance and the written computation performance of elementary preservice school teachers; and b) explore the correlation among mental computation skills, computation skills, effect issues and number sense. The sample was composed of students in six…

One important line of inquiry in educational psychology involves the study of change of individuals' cognitive-motivational processes. The conjunctive use of longitudinal data with latent growth curve modeling procedures has, for example, allowed researchers to identify initial levels and to trace trajectories of theoretical variables such as…

This paper reports on an experiment to determine: (1) the effects of two different styles of television program format on the ability of preschool children to recall program content and (2) the cumulative effect of sustained viewing of particular programs upon spontaneous play behavior. Three groups of preschoolers (totaling 58) were exposed to…

The Conceptual Learning and Development (CLD) Model suggests four successive levels of concept learning: (1) concrete--recognizing an object which has been encountered previously; (2) identity--recognizing a known object when it appears in a different spatial, time, or sensory perspective; (3) classificatory--generalizing that two items are alike…