Kolb's experiential learning cycle is typically applied in short-term, episodic snapshots of time, while understating the implications of continual, longer-term learning. This fixed-frame, episodic usage may diminish the knowledge that learners bring into an educational experience and the continued shaping of knowledge through future experiences.…

This book seeks to illustrate the research on mathematics competencies and disposition in China according to the conceptual development and empirical investigation perspective. Mathematics education in China has a distinguishing feature a focus of attention to mathematical competency. Paradoxically, there has not been an explicit, refined, and…

The perpetual connectivity made possible by twenty-first-century technology has profoundly affected instruction and learning. Emerging technologies that upend traditional notions of communication and community also influence the ways we design and evaluate instruction and how we understand learning and learning environments. In "Instruction and…

Teaching and learning are highly social activities. Seminal psychologists such as Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bandura have theorized that social interaction is a key mechanism in the process of learning and development. In particular, the benefits of peer interaction for learning and motivation in classrooms have been broadly demonstrated through…

Describes a model of instructional theory relevant to individualized distance education that is based on Keller's Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), behavior analysis, and the instructional systems development model (ISD). Systems theory is emphasized, and ISD and behavior analysis are discussed as cybernetic processes. (LRW)

Discusses development of Didaktik, a teaching and learning theory which investigates relationships between disciplined-based and general teaching theories; discusses the need for concretization of general teaching models in terms of discipline-based teaching theory in distance education; and postulates the necessity of a theory of distance…

This paper is the introduction to an inquiry into the relationship of post-structural reader theories to cognitive theories in the study of educational media. Basic concepts in reader and cognitive theories are defined, including the notions of "meaning" and "learners." Similarities and differences in the theories are…

Considers how definitions of teaching and learning have informed educational broadcasters' rationales for their work and how these are manifested in the textual strategies of specific programs. A theoretical framework for accounting for the ways educational television seeks to implicate its viewers in the learning process is then developed. (RP)

Describes one way of structuring an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) in light of developments in artificial intelligence. A specialized intelligent operating system (SIOS) is proposed for software for a network of microcomputers, and it is postulated that a general learning system must be used as a basic framework for the SIOS. (Author/LRW)

Describes three studies concerned with learning to operate a control panel device and how this learning is affected by understanding a device model that describes its internal mechanism. Results indicate benefits of a device model depend on whether it supports direct inference of exact steps required to operate the device. (Author/MBR)

This report uses mental model theory to create a taxonomy of picture functions in order to relate these functions to learning theories. A rough outline of picture functions is presented, consisting of a retrieval function, a focus function, a construction function, and a supplantation function. It is suggested that this taxonomy could be helpful…

An overview of theory and research in memory as it relates to developmental differences is offered in this paper, which is intended to provide background information for the staff of the Skills Essential to Learning Television Project (a multi-level series of video and print resources for classroom use). A model for viewing information processing…

The facts and ideas of subject matter are of little or no value unless such facts and ideas are used to promote thoughtful discourse. Those who teach with this idea in mind can be said to be thinking-skills centered or procognitive; those who teach without this idea in mind can be termed content-centered or procontent. The procognitive viewpoint…

This paper argues that during the past two decades, research on teaching effectiveness can be identified with three differing paradigms: (1) the technical/"scientific"; (2) the humanistic; and (3) the person-centered paradigms. It is further proposed that if teaching is viewed as an art or craft and learning as an ever present process,…

Resource mechanisms that coordinate school systems are loosely structured. Three resources are examined for effects on teaching and learning reading in the first grade: time allocation, curricular materials, and array of students in schools and classrooms. Administrative decisions on resource allocation constrain teachers' use of resources, which…