The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual basis for advocacy of an inquiry-based instructional model. Focusing on the teacher as inquirer, the paper discusses the nature of inquiry, presents its conceptual framework and describes in detail the use of question strategies in the preschool program. The definition of inquiry analyzes…

A study investigated the extent to which bottom-up and top-down conceptual frameworks of reading were held by primary grades teachers. In the first phase of the study, 66 teachers were given the Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile (TORP), which was designed to reflect belief systems of reading instruction organized around a continuum from…

This paper addresses the issue of how learning in classrooms takes place. The effects of different curriculum and different teaching methods in knowledge acquisition is examined, both as main effects and in interaction with student attitudes. The role of the teacher in communicating the knowledge to be acquired is described. Teachers are viewed as…

A brief review of the history of cognitive style research and a summary of definitions and terminology used by investigators in the area are presented. Most of the research on cognitive style has been motivated by work from three major groups: Witkin and associates; Holzman, Gardner, and associates; and Kagan and associates. Various definitions of…

This study investigates the role of labeling in developmental increases in picture recall. In two experiments, the memory for pictorial paired-associates of first graders or second graders, fourth graders and adults was evaluated by means of a study-test cued recall procedure. In Experiment 1, the stimulus presentation duration (on-time) and the…

This guide is designed to help elementary classroom teachers develop the knowledge and skills necessary to bring process skills to the classroom. The text is presented in two parts. The first part covers the basic science skills which are intended for grades K-3. The basic skills are observing, inferring, measuring, communicating, classifying and…

This paper presents a discussion, based on current research, of what can be done to help children achieve the highest level of cognitive development (Piaget's formal operations). The four factors which Piaget found to be involved in cognitive development are discussed in relation to recent research. These factors include: (1) organic growth and…

To assess the importance of visual attributes relative to acoustic and semantic attributes in children's encoding, a 64-item recognition test was administered to first- and sixth-grade children. Recognition items were linedrawings of simple objects accompanied by aural labels. By manipulating the picture, label, and referent in various…

The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to investigate the effectiveness of music as a mediation factor in the learning and retention of lexical units in German language sequences. The main question to be considered was whether or not the addition of melody and rhythm would constitute an aid or a hindrance to the Ss in learning the…

This paper attempts to enact Rivers' (1971 and 1972) urgings to base ESL listening instruction on both psychological and linguistic findings and contends that advanced ESL students' listening needs call for improvement in processing spoken English discourse. Psychological data on memory span is cited to demonstrate that advanced ESL students…

A study-recall paired-associates (PA) learning task was administered to 40 trainable mentally retarded children (6-14 years old) under one of four instructional modeling conditions: imagery, verbal mediation, imagery and verbal mediation, or control. On half of the PA learning study trials, the children were provided with modeled mediating…

In order to directly relate research on children's thinking to curriculum development in the social studies, this study approximates the conditions and substances of daily classroom life and examines the levels of abstraction in children's thinking about complex social problems. The subjects include 210 boys and girls in equal numbers in grades…

A Piagetian preschool emphasizes the child's active construction of mental images rather than passive association of words and pictures with real objects. The role of the teacher is neither to dictate good behavior nor to transmit ready-made predigested knowledge. Her role is to help the child to control his own behavior and to find things out as…

Twenty-seven kindergarten subjects were trained on two different double classification matrix tasks to determine whether they were hierarchically related. Prior behavioral analyses had shown one task to be simpler than the other. It was assumed that, in hierarchical transfer relationships, one order of task acquisition is more favorable than…

This curriculum is designed primarily for use in individualized classrooms where the teacher is working with an assistant, but it has also been proven effective in traditional classrooms and in remedial situations. Program four focuses on four abilities as they relate to the basic symbol system of the classroom. These are the abilities to:…