A study focused on the relationship between instructional strategies and students' reported meta-skill attainment in an adult education context. Using the data collected from 2,507 end-of-course surveys of students in the Graduate Studies in Education program at Indiana Wesleyan University, analyses were run to test for correlations between the…

Describes the research rationale for the developmental course offered to entering students at Upsala College (NJ) called "Precise Thinking." This skills-development program integrates reading, writing, and mathematical skills with underlying metacognitive processes to teach students perseverance and strategies for problem-solving and self-directed…

Describes the importance of learning to connect separate universes of knowledge into a coherent whole. It is a mistake to emphasize connecting schools to the Internet without considering the kinds of thinking processes students need in order to learn from the information they access. (LMI)

Maintains that, before developing a curriculum to teach critical thinking in the social studies, it is necessary to conceptualize what critical thinking is. Discusses three definitions of critical thinking along with three strategies for teaching critical thinking. (CFR)

Reports on an exploratory study of a metacognitive approach to teaching low achieving secondary students. Asserts that the research team hoped to examine a process whereby a dialog about learning processes would develop. Finds that all students indicated that they were able to focus on learning as a topic of conversation. (CFR)

Described are problems of the teacher's management of computer use during the learning process and student acquisition of new knowledge that can be transferred to situations outside the software environment. Choices made to address these problems are illustrated as students learn axial symmetry using the microworld Cabri-gomtre. (MDH)

Presents the reactions of a mathematics educator and a mathematician to a seven-year-old student's response for finding square numbers. Reflects on the mathematician's focus on the mathematics of the problem and the mathematics educator's focus on the student's systematic way of working, and discusses the common focus of student creativity. (MDH)

Contends that a challenge of teaching humanistic geography is to encourage students' responses to landscapes in ways that may be different from their previous experience. Argues that conventional practices may not be appropriate instructional procedure in humanistic geography and describes an alternative approach. (CFR)

Asserts that teacher knowledge has become the focus of educational reform. Reviews research and professional literature on teacher knowledge. Concludes that the knowledge base of outstanding teachers is derived from divergent and complex sources and is buttressed by informed criticism on the part of the teachers. (CFR)

Presents a concise introduction and overview of "constructivism." Constructivists assert that knowledge is constructed by individuals; constructivists advocate classroom procedures that encourage students to identify the subjectivity and biases of existing interpretations and to arrive at their own conclusions. Examines four hypothetical teacher…

Presents the results of an experiment that evaluated the efficiency of analogy in the conceptual restructuring of a science topic. The experiment involved a fifth-grade class studying water and heat flow. Discovered that analogy can act as an effective trigger for restructuring knowledge. (MJP)

Utilizes the Gregoric Style Delineator (GSD) and other questionnaire instruments to determine the effects of learning styles on the effectiveness of music instruction via interactive audio CD-ROM. Results showed little statistical difference between learning styles. Includes concise descriptions of Gregoric and others' research into learning…

This collection of essays illustrates various aspects of the recent trend to situate accounts of cognitive development. The essays examine contextual sensitivity in relation to ecological theories of perception and cognition, and contrast intuitive reasoning in mathematical and other scientific domains with the child's difficulty with reasoning in…

This report examines the learning styles of Caucasian and African-American students. While research supports the claim that low academic achievement is prevalent in the minority community, there is no consensus regarding the causes. There are two schools of thought that involve (1) the cognitive deficit or genetic cause, and (2) the cultural…

This study was designed to determine students' abilities and difficulties in articulating the relationship between function and derivative. High-school students were presented 15 problems during two 75-minute interviews in which they were asked to construct functions experimentally in three different contexts: motion, fluids, and number-change. In…