The challenge to the dominance of rationality in educational philosophy presented by John Dewey and Donald Schon is examined in this paper. The paper identifies basic assumptions of their perspective and explains concepts of reflective thinking, which include biography, context of uncertainty, and "not-yet." A model of reflective thought…

"Making connections" is an analytic tool that promotes the search of relationships between a concept to be taught and the elements that may affect its meaning. The ability to make connections prepares students to tackle new information, to discover its basic organization, and to reduce its complexities. It adds meaning to knowledge, aids…

This book discusses the act of understanding in mathematics. The first chapter, "Understanding and Meaning," inquires into the various senses and uses of the word "understanding" in ordinary language and discusses the notion of meaning and relations between understanding and meaning. The second chapter, "Components and…

Interviews are the central focus of inquiry studies in the elementary school classroom described by an experienced teacher. The interview is the major source of new information and concepts. Through questions, discussions, role playing, and note taking, children make interviews a very active part of learning. Interviews help children see the…

A study was conducted to determine: why teachers think the way they do; what teachers know and what is transferred to students; and, how novice teachers and experienced teachers alike attempt to make sense of the world. The subjects of the study were 117 elementary education student teachers. A pretest was administered prior to student teaching…

This paper describes the research and development of a conceptual framework to use in restructuring rural schools. In reviewing the literature of school restructuring, citations were categorized under concepts related to fundamental change. Initial assumptions about school restructuring were identified, such as "learning is participatory."…

Nonformal education is explored in the context of development in order to provide researchers with fundamental tools for selecting nonformal educational activities that can provide a framework for analysis. Criteria that can be used to determine nonformal educational activities are identified; development as the setting of nonformal education is…

The conceptual development of schema theory, the way an individual organizes knowledge, is discussed, reviewing a range of perspectives regarding schema. Schema has been defined as the interfacing of incoming information with prior knowledge, clustered in networks. These networks comprise a superordinate concept and supporting information. The…

The role of planning in the design of digital circuits was studied in two experiments. One compared the planning-related activities of expert designers and beginning students of design, and the other looked at the effect on circuit-design processes of forcing students to construct a global plan. In experiment 1, five undergraduate students…

The main objective of this study is to construct models based on strategies students use to solve chemistry problems and to show that these models form sequences of progressive transitions similar to what Lakatos (1970) in the history of science refers to as progressive 'problemshifts' that increase the explanatory' heuristic power of the models.…

The claim that children's early word combinations are best described in terms of semantic categories such as agent, rather than abstract categories such as subject, rests on the assumption that 2-year-olds have a notion of agency that acts as a springboard for knowledge of more formal categories. The literature of developmental psychology suggests…

The nature of qualitative understanding and associated learning processes in the context of a computer simulation called the "Envisioning Machine" (EM) are investigated. The questions focused on in this paper include the following: What sorts of knowledge do students' construct? What role does prior knowledge play in the construction of…

Specific objectives of this study were to (1) obtain information about the pattern of young children's social studies concept attainment, (2) compare basic concept attainment with social studies concept attainment, and (3) compare basic concept development of children from two age/grade levels. A total of 24 kindergarten and 28 first graders of…

The research described in this paper leads to an instructional design approach which is an alternative to the consideration of such issues as mathematical skills or level of cognitive development. The approach uses an analysis of traditional instructional tasks to specify the underlying cognitive processes and structures necessary for the…

The purpose of this paper is to present classroom teachers with a succinct, practical explanation of how to teach reading comprehension. An approach to the systematic teaching of comprehension which is based on practical interpretation of current research and theory is presented. Examples are given that will assist any teacher who is responsible…