Survey of 279 students entering the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario revealed a structure of beliefs about learning and knowledge having 10 factors that were nearly orthogonal with each other. Most students endorsed a view of learning that included both constructivist and transmission-oriented themes. Contains 58…

Describes a teaching technique that uses word processing software to automate the process of providing feedback about psychology assignments in a microcomputer-based laboratory course. Automation of the feedback process is explained, benefits to students and instructors are discussed, and student reactions are reported. (six references) (LRW)

Discussion of learners' preconceptions of media focuses on a study that investigated preservice teachers' preconceptions of the ease of achieving various learning outcomes (i.e., psychomotor, affective, verbal, and intellectual) using the media of interactive video, computers, television, and books. It also examined whether preconceptions varied…

Many recent studies have examined the effectiveness of various types of input enhancement. The following study expands this line of inquiry to include technological applications of language learning by comparing the effectiveness of the computer application of diacritics to a traditional pen-and-paper process among beginning students of French and…

In the Student Development Tutoring Model (SDTM), tutors engage students with content in such a way as to both increase their understanding of content as well as their ability to use learning strategies independently in the future. To develop and evaluate a procedure for preparing tutors to use behaviors consistent with the SDTM, New York's Bronx…

This study investigated whether Science Curriculum Improvement Study or more recent interpretations of the learning cycle could be used by teachers to engage students in social constructivist learning. Two researchers and six science teachers implemented instruction based on the reciprocal use of language and action. Changing beliefs and practices…

The aim of the current research was to examine pre-service, general and special education teachers' attitudes to and knowledge of metalinguistics (awareness of language structure) in the process of learning to read. Effective teachers of reading, writing, and spelling need to understand the relationship between speech and print because these basic…

Taking a report on the effects of cooperative completion of cloze by Jacobson (1990) as its point of departure, this study used English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students to investigate the potential of the cloze procedure and of group work for learning, including its usefulness as an instructional or self-instructional procedure for language…

The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) published a new learning style instrument in 1986--the NASSP Learning Style Profile (LSP). The LSP yields independent scores on 24 discrete elements of learning style. Its purpose is to provide educators with a well-validated and easy to use instrument for diagnosing cognitive styles,…

This study investigated the experience of learners enrolled on an Open University (UK) French course, and included personality factors, motivation, and tutor and student roles. The data gathered via multiple elicitation methods gave useful insights into issues of special relevance to distance language education, in particular the lack of fit…

To determine the most effective imagery method for facilitating kindergarten children's recall of prose content, a study investigated the effects of three mediums for presenting literature to children: storytelling, television, and dramatization. Subjects, 210 kindergarten students, were assigned to one of three gender-balanced treatment groups…

Prepared for a 1984 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conference, this report begins by briefly describing research findings and proposals and recommendations for research on education and the new information technologies in selected member countries, i.e., the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Australia;…

Three purposes of this study were to: (1) propose some organizing theoretical and observational definitions of the anchor construct; (2) present some initial findings from a diagnostic test designed to uncover anchors for high school physics instruction; and (3) provoke an initial discussion of the new methodological issues that arise in this…

This action research paper describes a program initiated by teacher researchers to improve academic achievement and interest in social studies. The targeted group consisted of fifth graders in a lower middle class community in the Midwest. Analysis of the problem-causes data show three main factors: curriculum, attitude, and effect. In regard to…

This dissertation is embedded in a deconstruction of the field of Mathematics Education in order to reconstitute the mathematics student as a generative mathematical learner. The purpose of the dissertation is to understand how generative adolescent mathematical learners (GAMLs) maneuver through their mathematics courses while maintaining such a…