Psychological science has much to contribute to enhancing teaching and learning in the classroom. Teaching and learning, in turn, are intricately linked to social and behavioral factors of human development, including cognition, motivation, social interaction, and communication. Psychological science also contributes to effective instruction;…

Adolescents face numerous challenges associated with increasing instructional curricular demands at the secondary level. Exacerbating an already difficult time for students with high-incidence disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities, emotional disabilities) is the fact that the majority spend at least some part of the day in general education…

Defining intelligence is a puzzle that has challenged educators and researchers for years. More recently, professionals are acknowledging that individuals possess many facets of intelligence and that learning is a complex combination of genetic factors, environmental influences, and life experiences that affect learning in unique ways (Salvia,…

The Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR) was used to gauge the relative effectiveness of three different methods of pedagogy, "Reading, Presenting, and Questioning" (RPQ), "Experimenting and Discussion" (ED), and "Traditional Methods" (TM), on increasing students' level of scientific thinking. The…

The purpose of this study was to describe the cognitive level of professor discourse and student cognition during selected college of agriculture class sessions. Twenty-one undergraduate class sessions were videotaped in 12 professors' courses. Results were interpreted to show that professors' discourse was mostly (62%) at the knowledge and…

The experience of the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy with a course in non-prescription drugs that emphasizes problem-solving through pattern recognition illustrates that when thinking skills are taught, students value, remember, and can use more of the concepts they study. (MSE)

Points out that children have difficulty learning time concepts. Presents instructional activities for concepts associated with clocks, calendars, and chronology. Outlines Jerome Bruner's three different stages of representation for each concept: enactive, iconic, and symbolic. (DB)

An approach to teaching university-level environmental education that uses structured controversy to challenge and enhance students' conceptions of environmental issues is described. Students are confronted with alternative viewpoints and evidence and engage in peer discussion to formulate their own position, understand other viewpoints, see the…

One aspect of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development was tested in this research project. It was hypothesized that an adult individual in the concrete stage of development is able to use seriation and classification in dealing with concrete objects, but is unable to think in terms of possibilities. An individual operating on the formal…

Asserts that students' emotions should be nurtured in the educational process to help foster positive reactions to instructional materials. States also that the relationship between the cognitive function of the mind and the affective, or feeling, dimension must be understood so that students will develop critical-thinking skills. (VWC)

Reporting on the development, design, and implementation of an approach for teaching reading to rural black children in the intermediate grades, this paper is organized in three sections that reflect the framework of the project. The first section discusses the delineation of the theoretical framework for teaching reading, resulting in a rationale…

Different research traditions on social cognition are reviewed to determine how they can be used in the study of classroom life. A structural-developmental perspective is more applicable to the study of the social cognitive outcomes of schooling than to the explanation of student behavior in the classroom. The information processing approach…

Discusses the importance of teachers of English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) in developing countries to understand the difference between teaching by rote and teaching for comprehension, primarily in the form of questions. A teacher training course that emphasized the importance of teaching for comprehension and promoting students' cognitive…

This book reviews issues concerning attention deficit disorders (ADDs) in the context of a systems perspective. ADDs are viewed as resulting from dynamic interactions of behavior, cognition, and affect, out of which emerge distinct and idiosyncratic ways of coping. Chapter 1 looks at the interaction of attention and behavior. In chapter 2, the…