Errors can be considered concrete representations of stages through which one must go in order to acquire one's native language and a second language. It has been discovered that certain errors appear systematically, revealing an approximate system, or "interlanguage," behind the erroneous utterances. Present research in second language…

Critical and situated thinking in the respiratory care profession were examined through an exploratory factor analysis of the critical thinking behaviors of a sample of 868 respiratory therapists. The respiratory therapists completed a survey instrument containing 44-questions related to how well particular critical thinking behaviors are…

The Theory and Methodology Division of the proceedings contains the following 16 papers: "The Deep Audit as an Epistemology for the Watchdog: Computer-assisted Reporting and Investigative Journalism" (John E. Newhagen); "Race and Class in 1980s Hollywood" (Chris Jordan); "The Impact of Website Campaigning on Traditional…

Knowledge production and learning in engineering is a local, situated, negotiated, and thoroughly social process. Although engineering work entails the construal, production, and application of artifacts and technical devices belonging to the "object world," the process of designing is a process of achieving consensus among real or…

Effectively teaching low-achieving and learning disabled students is challenging. Concept-based instruction is recognized as a particularly effective technique for helping students in these populations attain high levels of achievement (Tindal, Nolet, & Blake, 1992). The maze (a reading selection where certain words have been deleted and…

How science understandings are communicated and how students construct meaning of these communications are central issues in epistemic research. Students' metacognition of the meaning-making process is embedded in this line of research. This paper reports a study to examine children's declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge of science…

This paper reports on three studies within a 6-year longitudinal study which explored the use of Piagetian sensori-motor substages as a curriculum base for individuals with profound mental retardation (MR). In the first study, a simple observational inventory, the Cognitive Marker Natural Observational Tool (CM-NOT), was developed and evaluated…

To prepare students for the 21st century, students must be taught not only how to think, but also to think from a global perspective. As an extension of the Sister Schools Project of Dade County, Florida, this practicum centered on developing a Moscow-Florida, cross-cultural educational linkage between a school in Moscow, Russia, and a middle…

A pilot study with 17 middle school science teachers at 15 schools was conducted to determine how to use interactive videodisc technology to develop student ability to use visual skills in processing science information, thereby improving science achievement. The first year's progress is described in identifying how visual images seem to affect…

The papers in this collection of 71 individual papers and 3 symposiums represent some of the most current thinking in educational communications and technology. For the first time, a selected number of development papers sponsored by the Division for Instructional Development are included. Topics discussed include the effects of various conditions…

This study examined students' active roles in constructing knowledge when learning new information in the domain of biological evolution. A computer-based connectionist methodology was developed to provide a way to present students with new information while the experimenter provides probe statements congruent with or contradictory to the…

Psychological factors that may underlie the consistent gender and ethnic group differences found in science achievement were studied in a sample of 557 college students (297 male and 260 female) taking the first semester of a 2-semester sequence in organic chemistry. About 70 percent were Caucasian, with 23 percent Asian and 37 percent African…

This volume contains 57 papers and 1 symposium, consisting of an introduction and 4 papers. The topics discussed range from the instructional effectiveness of various presentation formats and media to the social foundations of educational computing and school restructuring. Cognitive theory and several design theories are also addressed. Research…

This paper reports the analysis of data gathered during a six-week period in spring, 1983, in two junior high school classes in each of three subject areas: science, mathematics, and English. The purpose is to describe and propose some images or metaphors for depicting the processes associated with the enactment of tasks in these classrooms.…

Sentences are understood by outlining associative relations between the concepts representing the meanings of the words. When the words are received the activation spreads from their conceptual counterparts to the other concepts in memory, so that some implicit thoughts are often added to the mental representation of a sentence. As sentences are…