A 2-year study at the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec) investigated the changes in six medical students' clinical reasoning processes as they participated in a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. In each year, students performed a think-aloud protocol with two medical case problems to solve, one in cardiology and one in urology. In the…

Non-traditional learners, adult learners who are age 21 or older, have many obstacles to overcome in their quest for knowledge. This paper investigates affective forces that influence non-traditional learners in a traditional computer lab and in a satellite-delivered instructional setting. Study participants consisted of 58 graduate and…

Part of a larger research project, this longitudinal study analyzed differences between effective and ineffective high school and college language learners and changes in strategy uses over time. Related studies include a descriptive study, which identified learning strategies used in studying foreign languages, and a course development study, in…

The range and characteristics of learning strategies used in studying foreign languages were studied in a 3-year project involving 67 high school students of Spanish and 34 college students of Russian. This final report reviews second language acquisition theory and learning strategies, research in learning strategies, and a cognitive model of…

This paper explores the development of preservice student teachers' development of reflection, in the context of a teacher education course in which the teacher educator explicitly attempted to model reflective practice. Modeling took place through open access to the teacher educator's journal and through "thinking aloud" in class about…

This study, conducted in Singapore, was designed to determine pre-service primary teachers' (n=34) behavior in asking operational questions in science. In training the pre-service teachers in asking operational questions, the meaning of operational questions was first illustrated and clarified to them through the use of some examples during group…

This book adds to the growing body of knowledge and research suggesting that educators need to move beyond simplistic, narrow approaches to teaching and learning. In Part I, "Accessing the Brain's Potential," current educational practices are examined in light of critical findings of brain researchers. In Part II, "Facts and…

This issue contains abstracts and critical comments on 11 articles, plus an editorial comment entitled "A Teacher Shortage?". Studies included concern solution processes on addition and subtraction examples; numerical rule induction; individual differences in performance on manipulative, pictorial, and symbolic tasks; the effect of a…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 49 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the relation of cognitive ability and receptive language ability in primary school children; (2) verbal cognition; (3) contextual methods of teaching…

Comprehension for the foreign language learner is discussed, and it is claimed that comprehension is not a by-product of the other skills but should be taught and tested throughout a course of study. The channel or medium used in communication will influence the understanding of the message. Differences involved in reading and listening…

Faculty from fifteen colleges developed open-ended questions to assess group competence in four areas of learning associated with general education--communication skill, analytic thinking, synthesizing ability, and social/cultural awareness. A secondary purpose was to determine faculty expectations for learning in the general education component…

This volume is part of the series prepared in connection with the Survey of the Behavioral and Social Sciences (BASS). This report is the result of the efforts of a panel of scholars in the field of psychology to give a general view of the state of psychological knowledge at the present. The first part of the work discusses the major sub-fields of…

Creating ways to make a discipline come alive for those who are not experts--even for students who may not take more than one or two courses in the disciplines they study--requires rigorous thought about what really matters in a field and how to engage students in the practice of it. Faculty from Alverno College representing a range of liberal…

This study synthesized research from 1990 to the present on effective teaching for English Language Learners (ELLs), focusing on instructional strategies and methods found to have the most educational benefit and value to the greatest number of ELLs. A total of nearly 100 potentially applicable articles were retrieved, and 34 were included in the…

Members of the Department of Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia have developed a range of multimedia resources for undergraduate education students that allow the students to participate in authentic tasks that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to arrange for large numbers of students. The…