Many women in two-year colleges are returning to education after having been away from a school setting for an extended period of time. In a community college writing class, written comments to a teacher on the first day of class indicated that women were considerably less self-confident than the men, with several revealing fear of expressing…

The 18 author contributed papers examine orientation programs for foreign college and university students studying in the United States and for U.S. students preparing to study abroad. The marriage of theory and practice in addressing the two major issues of: (1) lack of agreement on standards for orientation; and (2) the common lack of student…

A review of the literature of second language teaching suggests that a significant gap exists between linguistic theory and language teaching practice. However, psycholinguistics has influenced development of language teaching policies to the extent that many language teachers have advanced a more semantic, social, and communicative view of…

Changes in instructional methods and ideologies depend on simultaneous changes in the physical environment for the practice of those methods. School architecture results from the type of activity dictated by educational theories. One of the principal ideologies of education is socialization, which perceives education as a process of preparing…

A teaching procedure and a curriculum construction model known as the learning cycle is described in this paper and research findings are discussed. Questions investigated include: (1) would students achieve more content understanding if taught with the learning cycle or exposition?; (2) would more content retention be evident if measurements were…

Policymaking is a subjective, cultural, and intellectually complex activity in a democracy and should be researched with the multidisciplinary approach. This paper focuses on theoretical implications of the multidisciplinary approach and on its opposing position, the structural-functional approach, in educational policy research. The paper briefly…

Surveys current research on learning and memory and associated brain functions. Suggests several models of olfactory recognition and memory. Explains several computer models being evaluated and lists possible flaws. Differentiates between noise and chaos in brain functions. Describes a challenge to the theory of chaos called adaptive resonance…

Discusses the goals of learning cycle laboratories in helping students acquire knowledge about a specific topic and to do so moving in a non-threatening way from the concrete operational level to the formal operational level. Describes an experiment designed for such laboratories dealing with the topic of oxidation-reduction. (TW)

The problem-solving approach to teaching and learning has proved especially useful in vocational education as a way to relate classroom learning to real-life situations or problems. The problem-solving method of teaching places the responsibility for learning on students. Educators and special reform groups in other subject areas refer to a…

This program is a self-guided professional development experience that explains how to use multiple intelligences (MI) theory to improve teaching, learning, and achievement in elementary classrooms and schools. The program consists of one manual and six VHS videos, each of which corresponds to one of the six modules listed in the table of…

Presents a historical overview of the social and educational theories popular in 19th-century Russia. Educators and reformers constantly argued over the contradictory efforts to raise educational standards without threatening the status quo. Identifies preeminent educational movements and their leading adherents. (MJP)

Predicts that the paradigms of chaos theory will rapidly move into the social sciences, resulting in major changes in educational research and the study of the curriculum. Discusses the need for new metaphors and paradigms in the social sciences. Briefly characterizes previous educational principles and approaches. (MJP)

Argues for a redefinition of the goal of education as "aptitude development" in which students learn to think, reason, and solve problems. Reviews theories on the nature of intelligence, creativity, and motivation. Emphasizes the role of teachers and school principals in creating a new learning climate. (PAA)

Asserts that ethnography's development out of anthropology left it tainted with biases from colonialism and imperialism. Discusses several contemporary approaches, including critical ethnography, really useful knowledge, and action research. Suggests further incorporation of postmodernist ideas into the field of ethnography. (MJP)

A study used factor analysis to categorize and describe learning strategies in 1,200 university students. Results are reported from the perspectives of information processing theory and social psychology, and specific implications for classroom practice are discussed. (44 references) (MSE)