What matters about an educational activity is how learners respond to it. This article examines a program concerned with the learners' needs, through the expression of learners' own meanings, and advances the concept of investigative research as a suitable vehicle for more autonomous learning, through a change in learner status. (26 references)…

Presents suggestions for helping students broaden their learning skills: tell students you plan to help them learn to learn, hold class discussions where students share learning strategies, give students practice using unfamiliar learning strategies, pick a complex learning exercise and present it in steps, and vary your approach over the course…

The article presents a metacognitive intervention for teaching mainstreamed learning-disabled students four learning strategies for thinking before, during, and after class discussions. Instructional and assessment procedures used for teaching the strategies are described. (Author/DB)

In the spring of 2001, illegal drug use had risen by 40% among teens in the town of Springdale, Utopia. School administrators and the Springdale Police Department decided to implement a crackdown on teen drug use in all high schools in Springdale. A high school principal received a tip on a hotline that Jamie Davidson, a senior, had been seen…

Discusses the role that children's ideas and questions have in learning science. Explains four techniques which aim to promote primary students' question-asking. Also suggests specific approaches that were developed in the Learning in Science Project to assist teachers in making use of children's questions. (ML)

The difficulties that students with learning disabilities experience in cooperative learning activities include failure to attend to their peers, low levels of participation, inappropriate interactions with peers, and inactive learning. Three techniques are suggested to improve performance during cooperative learning activities. The first…

Based on the notion that teaching vocabulary extension in isolation makes little impact on students, a three-part exercise, designed to develop students' vocabulary through poetry while providing meaningful enjoyment, uses the poem "The Hawk" by A. C. Benson. In the first class period, students are introduced to both the exercise and the poem and…

Successful implementation of a Collaborative Learning (CL) strategy is much like planning for a journey. The more people are talked to and the more background research is done about the journey, the more successful it will be. Teachers who want to start using CL techniques should observe a teacher or teachers who are experienced and proficient in…

POSSE, an instructional procedure for a reading comprehension curriculum, structures classroom dialogue about text meaning. Students with mild handicaps predict what the story will be about, organize their knowledge, search for the text structure, summarize, and evaluate. POSSE's successful application is dependent upon effective lesson dialogue…

Presents guidelines for promoting and using cooperative learning in physical education. To establish cooperative learning, teachers must plan for specific group dynamics. Physical educators need to understand their roles with groups and how groups should be structured. The article offers two cooperative learning lesson examples. (SM)

Assesses the effectiveness of methods used by instructors in Collin County Community College's psychology department to increase student involvement in learning: a laboratory component, extensive writing to learn, classroom research, and business/industry apprenticeships. Concludes that active participation promotes synthesis and integration of…

Guidelines for implementing a problem-solving approach to teaching mathematics concepts and skills to students with mild disabilities include: establish connections to daily life; use visual presentations; use manipulatives; use peer-mediated instruction; provide models, cues, and prompts; teach self-management techniques and learning strategies;…

Cooperative learning may be defined as a structured, systematic instructional strategy in which small groups work together toward a common goal. It differs from collaborative learning in its emphasis on highly structured techniques for ensuring positive interdependence within groups and its insistence on individual accountability rather than…

Describes the successful efforts of elementary school children in Salt Lake City, Utah in forcing officials to clean up a hazardous waste site. Argues that social studies skills should be moved outside the classroom to focus on solving problems in the community. Suggests common criteria for problem-solving activities. (DB)

Discusses the educational benefits of cooperative learning, critiquing cooperative learning techniques and approaches. Identifies steps involved in successful teacher implementation of cooperative learning. Provides an elementary and secondary cooperative lesson plan and activities from the Learning Together approach on the U.S. Constitution,…