Discusses competencies necessary for structuring teaching-learning environments (data, stimuli, and strategies) in objective-referenced or criterion-referenced instruction. Teaching competencies (behaviors) listed are pointed toward music instruction, but are applicable for all subject areas. (Author/AH)

Outlines a course designed to teach students how to write descriptive and informative abstracts. (HOD)

This report discusses four different types of instruction which enable learning disabled or low achieving students to learn well enough to transfer the skill to a novel situation. After asserting that generalization depends on systematic instruction, the paper describes the four procedures: (1) teacher-directed generalization; (2) direct…

Intended for secondary teachers in rural areas, the paper examines ways to implement a learning center approach to meet a range of students' needs, including mainstreamed special needs, students, regular students, and gifted and talented students. The first section considers B. Bloom's Taxonomy as a basis for developing learning centers.…

The progression from simple interest to compound interest leads naturally and quickly to the number e, involving mathematical discovery learning through writing programs. Several programs are given, with suggestions for a teaching sequence. (MNS)

A plea is made that mathematics should be taught the way that mathematicians do it, using an exploratory approach rather than rule learning. (MNS)

The use of invertebrates as classroom "pets" can develop students' skills in scientific inquiry and instill respect for science. Few materials are needed for projects involving invertebrates. Suggested activities using snails, crickets, earthworms, crayfish, and guppies are offered. (DF)

By working through a series of problems, undergraduate psychology students in an introductory statistics course discover for themselves the main topic of the lesson. A lecture follows to conceptualize and clarify the topic. (RM)

This discussion of ways to use spirolaterals in the classroom includes making conjectures, hypotheses testing, and proofs, as well as a number of examples. (MP)

Attempts to synthesize various logical, psychological, and educational ideas to provide a useful guide for the classroom teacher to follow in using discovery curriculum. Outlines the discovery technique in six steps. (Author/RK)

The Math Lab is a creative approach to teaching math concepts. Students are introduced to skills through several conceptual levels. Concrete level activities are followed by semiconcrete, semiabstract, and abstract levels of instruction. Examples of teaching methods for each level are offered. (DF)

Children learn while they travel when they take a portable study kit with them. The suggested travel tote requires children to keep a daily journal, trace the trip on a map, and collect souvenirs. Examples are offered of this multidisciplinary approach that helps children learn outside the school. (DF)

The process of investigating some of the properties of diagonals and other geometric concepts with a group of 11-year-old girls is presented. Possible changes that could have been made in the lesson are discussed, and examples of individual student work are provided. (MP)

Typical difficulties involved in solving combinatorial problems are examined and seven common pitfalls are discussed. (MP)

Considers how elementary school classroom teachers can employ exploration methods (gathering, evaluation, and synthesis of data related to a specific topic) to help students develop readiness for intellectually complex problem solving. (Author/DB)