Study of processes by which Liberian apprentice tailors learn their craft is the basis for questioning the traditional dichotomy of "formal" and "informal" education. Used as an analogy to demonstrate that anthropologists need not leave the study of learning to the psychologists, but can make valuable contributions by pursuing…

Looks at what is entailed when education and experience are regarded as equivalent. Identifies faulty inferences resulting from learning by experience. Considers how experience can close avenues to conceptual and social change. Argues that ideas based on secondhand information are more likely than firsthand experience to manifest both the real and…

How do good science students perceive the process of learning science? What occurs in the learning process that motivates students to accept the challenge of pursuing a career in science? This paper reports on panel discussions held by teams of medical students, research science doctoral students, science education students, and high school…

Argues that mathematical learning should be viewed as a process of active individual construction and a process of enculturation into the mathematical practices of wider society. It further argues that the sociocultural perspective theorizes the conditions for the possibility of learning, whereas constructivist perspectives focus on what students…

Since the mid-1960s a new approach has dominated American research in the area of mathematics education -- information-processing theory. The author examines several examples of research in this new tradition and sketches the general features of an emerging information-processing psychology of teaching. Information-processing studies that employ…

Studies in intellectual development, brain organization, and learning are summarized. They show that neither intelligence nor giftedness are solely the result of cognitive functions. Both rely on the use of the total brain in an appropriate environment. Intelligence is dynamic. It must be used and developed or it will be lost. (PS)

Suggests that learning is a process undergoing change from infancy to adulthood and that the more consciously aware the learner is of the process, the more the learner can be in control. Presents the Performance Pathfinder Plan as a model of appropriate adult learning. (Author/DC)

Presents a view of the interplay among the various factors of personal experience, language, and socialization in the process of learning science in classrooms. Discusses the problematic relations among scientific knowledge, the learning of science, and pedagogy. (GLR)

Although teachers may sequence instructions carefully, they are unable to respond to the complex unique experience of each individual learner. Divergent production should be an instructional choice that enables individuals to learn through their own recall and idea construction. Learning is problem solving; when individuals do not know how to deal…

This report examines the learning styles of Caucasian and African-American students. While research supports the claim that low academic achievement is prevalent in the minority community, there is no consensus regarding the causes. There are two schools of thought that involve (1) the cognitive deficit or genetic cause, and (2) the cultural…

Using current mind/brain research, this paper explores the "hidden curriculum" in the contexts of teaching, learning and supervision. It explains ways in which current research on the nature of learning can fit into today's typical, "clinical" teaching techniques. The importance of respecting individual modes of learning is stressed; further to…