This article describes an approach for introducing the unit concept in a mathematics content course designed for preservice elementary mathematics teachers. Classroom activities presented in the article emphasize the awareness, flexibility, and importance of the unit concept. Dialogue with selected preservice teachers is included and reveals some…

A socio-constructivist account of learning and emotions stresses the situatedness of every learning activity and points to the close interactions between cognitive, conative and affective factors in students' learning and problem solving. Emotions are perceived as being constituted by the dynamic interplay of cognitive, physiological, and…

For the thirty-fifth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the national AECT Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

This study reviews interventions in history teaching history from 1985 and 1995, an era of major redefinition in the field of instruction. Kindergarten through grade 12 are the focus population for the research. The study examines the context for educational change and addresses four central questions about the development of new curriculum…

Open-ended learning environments (OELEs) provide contexts to support exploration, experimentation, and problem-solving. This paper creates a context for understanding the issues and challenges associated with the design and development of OELEs. Discussion first centers on characteristics of OELEs which differ from traditional learning…

This book provides student activities organized around a class science project with the Gorilla Foundation. The gorillas featured in the project have been taught American Sign Language. Many of the activities involve the use of the story "Koko's Kitten" by Francine Patterson (New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1985). Sections of the book include: (1) "To…

This paper reviews literature documenting gender differences in beliefs related to mathematics achievement. The areas included in the discussion are: (1) gender differences in mathematics achievement and self-referenced cognitions, (2) the effect of confidence and anxiety on mathematics performance and expenditure of effort, and (3) confidence and…

The elements of statistical formulae that cause people to perceive them as difficult were studied, working from theoretical bases that involve cognitive load, motivational perception, and impasse driven learning. In a pilot study conducted to identify difficulties that novices perceive while learning statistical formulae, 22 students in an…

The literature on how educators use information to solve problems and perform their routine duties is located within a much larger, well-established literature that spans topics in organizational decision-making, communication theory, cognitive science, information theory, and evaluation utilization. This bibliography presents summaries of…

Achievement in science depends among other factors on hypothetico-deductive reasoning ability; that is, on the developmental level of the students. Recent research indicates that developmental level of the students should be studied along with individual difference variables such as Pascual-Leone's M-capacity (information processing) and Witkin's…

A cognitive demands analysis of a learning technology, a term that includes the hardware and the computer software products that form learning environments, attempts to describe the types of cognitive learning expected of the individual by the technology. This paper explores the context of cognitive learning, suggesting five families of cognitive…

This paper explores the relationship between the concept of cognitive apprenticeship and situated cognition and the social construction of knowledge. Cognitive apprenticeship is the enculturation of students into authentic practices through authentic activity and social interaction in a way similar to that which is evident--and evidently…

This paper presents a model for systematic instructional design that includes mental model analysis together with the procedures used in developing computer-based instructional materials in the area of statistical hypothesis testing. The instructional design model is based on the premise that the objective for learning is to achieve expert-like…

The premise of the Creative Technology Project, a collaboration by Autodesk, Inc., the School of Education at Oregon State University, and Novato Unified School District in the San Francisco Bay Area, was that children's cognitive abilities could be enhanced by having them develop, displace, transform, and interact with 2D and 3D…

Advanced learners' processing of linguistic knowledge in connection with a translation task from Danish into English is discussed. The focus of the discussion is on learners' use of different types of linguistic knowledge (the degree to which they use this linguistic knowledge and the form in which it is represented). The following issues are…