The feasibility of guiding students of moderate aptitude to select appropriate learning strategies while they are learning an imaginary classification system was investigated in a study that contrasted the effect of system-assigned strategies for learning concepts with strategies selected by students. Subject-matter content was based on a set of…

If education is concerned with imagination, it is important to know how educators perceive the term. For this purpose, an attempt was made to categorize ways in which teachers conceptualize imagination. Responses were obtained in a survey from 120 teachers who were registered in a graduate course on creative thinking. Participants ranged in age…

This essay clarifies what it means to know mathematics by examining ways of knowing multiplication and explores what those ways of knowing imply for the teaching and learning of mathematics in schools. It reviews the perennial argument about whether computational skill or conceptual understanding should guide the school curriculum. A mathematical…

Noting the growing interest in how writing activities might complement current teaching techniques and improve learning in mathematics, this paper presents a progress report on the use of writing assignments in freshman precalculus courses at a Minnesota university. The paper first presents a rationale for this teaching technique and the original…

Investigated were: (1) sex differences in the ability of 20 boys and 20 girls between 8 and 9 years of age to draw a plan of their house; and (2) variables related to such differences. Subjects were tested on four Piagetian tasks (verticality, horizontality, and two Euclidean space tasks), plan drawing, and vocabulary. After children completed the…

Vocabulary development, operationally defined as the isomorphism between an individual's store of concepts and the labels society uses to represent those concepts, is akin to concept development. Therefore, vocabulary development can be facilitated if presented in clusters of related concepts. One approach used to reinforce such basic concept…

Methods of optimizing instruction through the use of course knowledge portrayal methods were studied, based on a series of experiments conducted over 6 years. Sixteen university courses in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities were investigated through the application of cognitive theory to instruction. Attention was first focused on…

Discussed is the design and development of a physical education curriculum, incorporating principles discussed in the "Basic Stuff" physical education series. Four tasks are suggested for planning the curriculum: (1) develop a unit for activity instruction, where the concepts inherent in the sport or activity skills may be identified; (2) develop…

To investigate young children's understanding of metaphorical language, 90 chidren from preschool to third grade were read stories ending with metaphorical sentences of varying degrees of difficulty--sentences representing more or less predictable story outcomes and differing in the complexity and explicitness of their figures of speech. After…

In order to determine when children distinguish the real from the fictional in television programing, 170 adults and 157 children from 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades were shown 40 "bits" of television, each 5 seconds in length and representative of a wide range of program types. Subjects were asked to classify as real or make-believe 18 "factual" bits,…

Ideas concerning reflection in general, the role of reflection in cognitive apprenticeship, and reflection in action are discussed. The notion of reflection in a particular setting is presented for two cases: the professional education and training of physicians, and a teaching improvement program in which a teacher-teacher coach facilitates the…

A dangerously simplistic reductionistic movement, with a stress on the teacher as a technician, operating increasingly in a mechanistic way, is evolving in teacher preparation programs. This paper is constructed in light of the distorted consciousness likely to be acquired by prospective teachers as a result of this constraining movement. It has…

This study identified students' conceptual difficulties in understanding concepts and processes associated with cell water relationships (osmosis), determined possible reasons for these difficulties, and pilot-tested instruments and research strategies for a large scale comprehensive study. Research strategies used included content analysis of…

Reviewed are findings on misconceptions in mechanics and their instructional implications. Many misconceptions are widespread and resistant to change but students have useful intuitions and reasoning processes that could be used more fully. One strategy for dealing with misconceptions is described. It stresses anchoring intuitions, analogical…

This paper examines the area of teachers' practical arguments (arugments consisting in the search for a plan of action), considering questions such as: How does rationality manifest itself in practice, and in specific human practices like teaching? Is practical reasoning in teaching moral? Do values of theoretical reasoning, such as universality,…