Describes one teacher's attempts to move her students from rote learning to reasoning. Elaborates on the use of a standardized multiple-choice test as a basis for evoking students' arguments concerning defensible answers and reasons they are defensible. (JAD)

Examines the six categories that make up the cognitive process dimension of Bloom's Taxonomy Table, as well as the 19 specific cognitive processes that fit within them. After describing three learning outcomes, the paper focuses on retention versus transfer of learning and rote versus meaningful learning, discussing how teaching and assessment can…

A small scale study using qualitative methodology is presented. The paper identifies differences in revising for exams between Greek first and fourth year psychology students. In-depth interviews, were conducted with eight first year and seven fourth year students. Students' studying activities in revising for exams were explored. The interviews…

The inquiry-focused learning is a process that provokes deeper thinking and investigation and greater student motivation to learn. Inquiry is a process of learning that embraces features such as learning experience, assessment, and questioning thus embodying an educational philosophy that directly responds to the national emphasis on high…

Describes the results of a survey of highly successful junior high and middle school students, which asked open-ended questions about their perceptions of spelling. Indicates that visualizing is the most common strategy for learning new words, followed by dictionary use and repeating words over and over. (SKC)

Emerging research evidence of an approach to learning that combines memorization and comprehension, particularly from Asia, is examined and possible explanations for it are discussed. It is proposed that this approach may explain the apparent paradox of high achievement is Asian cultures, where rote learning in stressed. (Author/MSE)

Explores the learning approaches of males and females and their subsequent biology understanding and achievement. (ZWH)

Six elementary-age children with learning disabilities were found to learn subtraction facts more rapidly when a rule teaching and correction strategy was employed, compared to learning facts by rote. A study of generalization of rule usage found that the two children studied did generalize the strategy to an additional problem. (Author/JDD)

Argues that more attention should be given to teaching students how to learn the rudiments of specific metabolic pathways. This approach describes a unique way of learning the glycolytic pathway in stepwise fashion. The pedagogy involves clear rote components that are connected to a set of generalizations that develop and enhance important…

Assessing the effect of memory improvement strategies upon long-term forgetting, two studies investigated the influence of popular mnemonic devices (the keyword method and the "method of loci") upon forgetting relative to rote rehearsal. The first study (79 subjects) compared the forgetting of French vocabulary words learned either by…

A relationship has been hypothesized between metamemory (the self-knowledge of memory processes that an individual can verbalize) and actual memory performance. To explore this relationship, a study was conducted, in partial replication of earlier studies, using the strategy choice paradigm for paired-associate learning (PAL) on a metamemory…

A 2-week study was conducted to determine what effect the practice of cooperative learning had on the rote memorization of 51 prepositions in ninth-grade English classrooms. One class of 15 students acted as a control group, memorizing the prepositions independently, in a traditional setting. Another class of 15 students acted as the experimental…

The Learning Activities Questionnaire (LAQ) was designed and developed to identify which of the following learning strategies were used by individuals in a variety of academic and training environments: rote (passive and active); physical; elaboration; and grouping. After undergoing two pilot tests, the final version of the LAQ was administered to…

Although rote learning is a heretical notion to many educators, memorizing, reciting, and drilling may be what is needed to improve test scores and provide students with the necessary skills for solving problems and developing complex thinking skills. Sidebars summarize direct-teaching methods for mathematics and a Core Knowledge curriculum…

Education Queensland's New Basics project has extended conceptions of "equity" to incorporate dimensions such as higher order thinking and student control of classroom activity. This requires a critique of the outcomes attained by even high achieving students. It is therefore useful to interrogate professional discourses that shape…