Researchers recognize adaptive teaching as a component of effective instruction. Educators adjust their teaching according to the social, linguistic, cultural, and instructional needs of their students. While there is consensus that effective teachers are adaptive, there is no consensus on the language to describe this phenomenon. Diverse…

Few terms have been as misused and as overused as the term "competence." This article attempts to clarify the meaning of the term by describing four common conceptions of competence. (Author/CB)

The four articles in this theme issue provide an overview of assessment in the social studies and the rationale behind the movement for a more authentic assessment of learning outcomes. In the first article, "Thinking as an Unnatural Act," William T. Daly offers a clear rationale for social studies teachers to re-examine the methods of assessing…

The paper reviews research which presents evidence that learning disabled (LD) children, like other groups that show performance deficiencies, do not spontaneously employ appropriate goal directed task strategies in many situations. (Author/PHR)

Faced with the absence of a conceptual framework and the terminology for establishing evaluation criteria in the substance abuse prevention services field, this special issue is devoted to exploring the topics of accountability and performance measures. It discusses the requisite components (i.e., theory, methodology, convention on terms, data)…

Attainment of five earth science concepts by high school seniors depended on the amount of previous science coursework by the students and on the size of their school's enrollment. Seniors in Texas high schools were subjects of the study. (Author/PP)

Describes simple conceptual framework for academic intervention that extends functional-analysis procedures to basic academic skills. Organizes research into five hypotheses that can guide interventions. Presents treatment for six academic interventions and procedures for testing effectiveness. Discussion of procedures includes design issues,…

This paper reports on an empirical study of educators' perceptions of learning concepts, reviews the cognitive learning literature, and argues for an expanded view of conceptual knowledge and its role in education and training. The report begins with discussions of changing views of concept learning and declarative and procedural components of…

Summarizes findings on infants' capacity for object segregation. Maintains that infants can use featural and experiential information for segregation and individuation purposes long before 12 months of age. Disputes the claim that formation of object categories awaits early word learning, but acknowledges that language may play a key role in…

This review of the concept learning literature indicates that the greater effectiveness of field-independent learners is related to memory efficiency and the ability to conduct combinatorial analysis. Short-term memory and free recall studies suggest factors contributing to the less efficient memory of field-dependent learners. (Editor/SJL)

Children with mental retardation are particularly prone to failure on relational tasks such as oddity and match-to-sample, suggesting a differential sensitivity to relational information. This paper reports on several studies in which characteristics of stimulus arrays were enhanced. Results demonstrated the theoretical and practical significance…

This study is an annotated bibliography of literature dealing with the effects of teaching mathematics by mastery learning. It is subdivided into four areas: History and Development of Mastery Learning; Mastery Learning, an Alternative to Traditional Instruction; Implementation of Mastery Learning; and Studies of Mastery Learning in Mathematics.…

Reviews selected research on children's early formation of categories. Finds sophistication in how children group objects and think about those groupings. Notes findings related to type of grouping (thematic or taxonomic), multiple classifications, overgeneralization, the role of background knowledge on classification abilities, the…

This paper presents an instructional model for thinking skills and discusses implementing the model. Based on a unitary theory of human cognition and some basic assumptions about the conditions for successfully intervening in public education, the model can be implemented at any grade level within any instructional framework. Currently used models…