This posthumous paper attempts to clarify curriculum fundamentals such as boundaries, conceptual units, relationships, principles, and ethical dimensions. Presents an ontological approach viewing curriculum as a highly complex and dynamic interaction of events and acts and stressing the importance of the learning environment. (MLH)

Discusses the uses of the computer and how it is changing society. In the classroom computers teach new skills and can provide instructional microworlds and minilaboratories in which students carry out experiments. Includes suggestions for preparing written assignments and an outline for a course on preparing teachers for using computers. (MD)

Outlines two hypotheses about the reasons for obscurity in expository writing and notes that neither accounts for the general results of an exploratory study of the writing of postgraduates nor for the individual cases presented. Argues that a crucial factor is a person's implicit model of expository writing. (FL)

Provides evidence for the development of grammatical sensitivity across grades one, two, and three. Shows that grammatical sensitivity is significantly related to reading skill level. (FL)

To overcome learner dependence when modeling cognitive processes, one teacher used direct teaching of specific thinking skills with her middle school language arts students. The teacher introduced the skill of analyzing for personification to her students. The class experimented with the skill, completed the task, and applied the skill to…

Defines education's new paradigm as schooling based on decision making, the critical thinking skills serving it, and the knowledge base supporting it. Outlines a model decision-making process using a hypothetical breakfast problem; a late riser chooses goals, generates ideas, develops an action plan, and implements and evaluates it. (4 references)…

The performance of multilingual subjects was contrasted to that of bilingual and monolingual subjects on two tasks that involved learning a miniature linguistic system. Results indicate that multilingual subjects have strategies that help them allocate processing resources more efficiently in formulating informal rules of limited scope under…

Describes three experiments that examined how children (4- to 11-year-olds) use their knowledge of the attributes of living things to infer whether particular objects are alive. (HOD)

Examines children's understanding of what variables and relations are important in problem structures, and their use of these variables and relations in problem solving. (HOD)

Compares grammatical phrases to dance patterns and suggests exercises for students that will strengthen and develop their understanding of those concepts. (DF)

Explains the merits of "brain-compatible" learning, especially Proster Theory. Describes a pilot program at a New Jersey elementary school that transformed conventional, graded classrooms into "multi-teacher interactive learning units" that promote thinking in terms of programs and patterns. Summarizes pedagogical changes and…

Explains that the concept of message discrimination was originally developed as a means of determining actual units of content that individuals extract from encounters with mass media and describes the relationship between message discrimination and the two related concepts of systematic information availability and knowledge. (DF)

Thirty-four third graders matched 14 foldout shapes (nets) with seven polyhedra. They had more success associating nets containing triangular regions than nets with only rectangular regions. It was easier to identify nets of pyramids and of a triangular prism when the lateral faces were distributed around the bases. (MNS)

Presents an application of Hilda Taba's "Interpretation of Data Strategy" using a computer database example from the social studies. (JDH)

Investigated the cognitions of low, moderate, and high test-anxious children under naturalistic test-taking conditions and examined the role of classroom environment in the test anxiety-performance relation. Results indicated high test-anxious children showed more task-debilitating cognitions during testing, including more negative…