Describes the process of active learning--consolidation and internalization of information that is personally meaningful and conceptually coherent. Discusses downshifting (a self-protective response that includes reversion to routine behaviors) and the educational practices and conditions that lead to it or reduce it. Describes 12 principles of…

Describes The Lab School's (in Washington D.C.) use of the arts to provide nontraditional learners with new routes to learning. States that the arts give these special children a chance to express their creativity, feel good about themselves, and learn skills they cannot learn traditionally. Looks at art as salvation, diagnostic tool, and teacher.…

Documented strategies preschool children used in completing complex, multipiece puzzles, which included focus on color, design, or shape. Found that all children could benefit and enjoy working on larger puzzles in the classroom and that the activity encouraged social literacy, completing a long-term project, scaffolding, and child development.…

A study investigated the learning style preferences of 214 students (ages 10-17) with visual impairments and their sighted peers. Students with visual impairments more frequently preferred practical, thinking, or organized styles. Boys with visual impairments tended to prefer extroverted styles and girls with visual impairments tended to prefer…

Presents a checklist to see whether it can help shed light on English-as-a-foreign-language students' use of language learning strategies by looking at their diaries. Reveals interesting differences between successful and less successful students, and discusses questions about strategy use in general. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on using effective instructional analogies, or explicit, nonliteral comparisons between two objectives, or sets of objects, that describes their structural, functional, and causal similarities. Describes the structure of analogies; common analogies to help younger learners become excited about searching for information in the library; and…

Examines the effectiveness of a personalized learning assistance intervention to overcome developmental students' procrastination in a computer-based introductory psychology course taught with the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI). An evaluation of the intervention suggests that it was effective in getting the procrastinating students to…

Investigates a first-year undergraduate program in TESOL consisting of three strands: a language-based course, a theme-based course, and a sheltered-content course. Learners rated different aspects of their development in language, skills, and strategies--as well as motivational factors--over two semesters. Author/VWL)

Analyzes visual and symbolic strategies developed by students to express generalizations of number patterns and connections between them. Compares approaches adopted by students working through parallel task sequences which integrate different computer tools in different ways. Makes suggestions as to how students might be encouraged to exploit…

Analyzes second-language learners' processing of linguistic data within the target language, focusing on input and intake in second-language acquisition and factors and cognitive processes that affect input processing. Input factors include input simplification, input enhancement, and interactional modifications. Individual learner differences…

An experiential approach to environmental studies courses in institutions of higher education would better prepare students to address the environmental problems of the new millennium. Research shows that adults prefer experiential and task-centered learning. Experiential learners are more efficient workers, achieve higher grades, are more…

Investigates 529 Hong Kong students' beliefs and strategies in learning English using a questionnaire to discover whether a relationship exists among belief and strategy and language proficiency in English. Reveals positive correlations with English proficiency for: (1) management and meaning-focus beliefs; and (2) form-focus and meaning-focus…

Discussion of the triarchic theory of intelligence focuses on a study of ninth graders that explored the relationships between student abilities and the cognitive and attitudinal outcomes that resulted from student immersion in a computer-based inquiry environment. Examines outcome variables related to content understanding, problem solving, and…

Discusses a study that assessed the learning styles of students age 25-83. Finds that (1) most adults favored a structured learning environment and were not self-directed; (2) African Americans preferred to work with more environmental sound than did white Americans; (3) Hispanics displayed a preference for greater food intake while learning; and…

Reviews psychological research on learning by doing, noting the role that learning-by-doing can play in education and training. Discusses how one University of Pittsburgh professor/researcher and his colleagues and students implemented this approach and describes lessons learned from the experience, explaining how improved forms of…