Background: The construct of ?eld independence (FI) remains one of the most widely cited notions in research on cognitive style and on learning and instruction more generally. However, a great deal of confusion continues to exist around the de?nition of FI, its measurement, and the interpretation of research results, all of which have served to…

Tiryakian's "school" approach is used to analyze the evolution of Kohlberg's study of moral development over the past 25 years. The first part of the paper contrasts the paradigm approach (Kuhn 1970) to the schools approach in defining the development of the social sciences. Specifically, Kuhn's definition of a paradigm…

Embedding samples of items designed for program evaluation in course exams improves student motivation and faculty acceptance of assessment procedures. Sources of information on learning are discussed including: course examinations, course-based observations, locally developed comprehensive examinations, and externally developed comprehensive…

Mentally retarded persons in sheltered workshops in West Virginia were studied in order to determine their learning styles and how these learning styles related to the populations studied by Witkin and others. (Witkin classified learning styles as either field independent--i.e. task oriented--or field-dependent--i.e., oriented to the social…

Research summarized here demonstrates how similarity thinking can be used in training programs to help ethnic minority children acquire basic skills. Current achievements are often attenuated by poor language skills, especially when English is not the first language of the child. Similarity thinking assesses the child's ability to learn without…

Recent theorists have begun to re-conceptualize the construct of "intelligence." This paper reviews recent theories of intelligence and indicates implications for practitioners, educators, and individuals. Theories and theorists discussed include the following: (1) Robert Sternberg has advanced the "triarchic theory" of…