A comprehensive thinking skills scope and sequence plan provides three types of information. It identifies the thinking skills and strategies to be learned throughout the curriculum, locates them in the subject areas where they are to be taught, and arranges them in the proper sequence. This article describes basic principles and guidelines for…

Formats the course of children's fantasy in relation to time and experience. Describes a model for understanding the relation between fantasy and development. (RJC)

The summary writer must decide what to include and exclude, how to reword or reorganize information, and how to remain true to the original's meaning. This article discusses simple precepts teachers can use to help students learn to select important ideas and condense text. Includes 19 references. (MLH)

Provides an overview of this special issue on educational systems design. The International Systems Institute (ISI), a nonprofit agency that contributed the issue, is described; and summaries of the papers are presented, organized according to major themes covered (i.e., conceptual models and issues, design applications, and design learning). (LRW)

Investigated the manner in which information is acquired from maps. In two experiments, map elements placed more toward the periphery of the map were better learned than internally placed elements. In three experiments, map structure was varied to determine if the previous learning pattern resulted from map structure or learning strategy. Results…

Science teachers expect students to use information contained in books. This makes text-based learning strategies important for student success at school and beyond. This paper explores the potential of science as a vehicle for the development of such skills, considers a range of learning strategies, and suggests ways of integrating them into…

Offers comments on earlier articles that discussed constructivism and instructional development. Social negotiation of meaning and objectivity is addressed, a multiple-perspective continuum for reconceptualizing objectivism and constructivism is explained, and the implications of constructivism for assessment are discussed. (38 references) (LRW)

Discusses the use of annotated examples by performance technologists as an instructional aid or as a performance aid to focus a learner's attention on the most important characteristics of a written product. Four annotated examples are presented and explained, and steps to create annotated example are described. (three references) (LRW)

Describes two learning activities that help students understand the difference between main ideas and the topic of a paragraph or passage. (MG)

Reviews educationally relevant mnemonic strategy research, awarding "grades" to various mnemonic strategies and curricular applications. Mnemonic materials designed for factual content and mnemonic applications for educationally handicapped students are awarded A's, whereas teachers, mnemonic strategy critics, and mnemonic strategy…

Reports the use of different types of schemes to teach and learn science subjects. Identifies three different schemas: (1) curricula schemas; (2) schemas of educational content; and (3) algorithmic schemas. (Author/CCM)

Explores how people's understanding of a material is created and developed as they interact with it to find effective ways of promoting better image development when no prior information about a device is available. Reports that models from good learners who finished the task quickly were coherent and centered around the notion of…

Discusses two common student errors regarding fractions. Presents different solution strategies for finding a fraction. (ASK)

The role of distinctiveness in the differential memory performance of visual and verbal elaboration strategies was studied with 28 undergraduates who learned information about familiar and unfamiliar animals using visual or verbal elaboration strategies. Imagery-using students organized unfamiliar animal information into intact sets more than…

In addition to basic motor and perceptual skills, Internet users need mental models of how the system works and how it functions as a social environment. Even experienced Internet users need continuous learning, which is often obtained informally within the context of work groups. (SK)