Analyzes two classroom episodes guided by the assumption that thinking can be conceptualized as an activity of communication and learning can be regarded as modifying and extending one's discursive ways. Aims to uncover the ways in which the discursive uses of such new symbolic tools were interactively constructed by the students. Concludes that…

This qualitative study investigates the ability of adult low-skilled readers to talk about the thought processes and phonetic strategies they use to make decisions about their spelling. Four adult learners, all exhibiting word knowledge at a second-grade level or below, participated in individual 45-minute audiotaped interviews. Selected portions…

Interviews university students in modern physics about their understanding of three fundamental experiments. Explores their development of models of microscopic processes. Uses interactive demonstrations to probe student understanding of modern physics experiments in two high school physics classes. Analyzes the nature of students' models and the…

Traditionally, Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) has focused on instructional methods to decrease extraneous cognitive load so that available cognitive resources can be fully devoted to learning. This article strengthens the cognitive base of CLT by linking cognitive processes to the processes used by biological evolution. The article discusses recent…

This study investigated the degree to which students cognitively engage with their online courses. Cognitive engagement was defined as the integration and utilization of students' motivations and strategies in the course of their learning. Given this, the study utilized J. B. Biggs's (1987a) Study Process Questionnaire to measure motivations and…

The literature on metacognition suggests that having students practice metacognitive monitoring consistently should lead to significant improvement over time. In this study, students practiced metacognitive monitoring through the course of a full semester. The authors then examined changes in monitoring accuracy, judgment bias, and their…

Recent evidence suggests a close functional relationship between memory formation in the hippocampus and dopaminergic neuromodulation originating in the ventral tegmental area and medial substantia nigra of the midbrain. Here we report midbrain activation in two functional MRI studies of visual memory in healthy young adults. In the first study,…

Discussion boards have the unique capacity to support higher-order constructivist learning and the development of a learning community, This chapter provides ten conditions that support the effective use of an online discussion.

This paper covers an experiment designed to investigate the relationship between the didactical setting and learning effects with animations. We investigated whether the cognitive load imposed by animations could be reduced when the students could control the flow of the animation. We did not find an effect due to the fact that the students did…

Noting that students fail to fully realize the advantages of notetaking as a process to develop a personalized learning system, this paper proposes the use of visual constructions to help students re-establish for themselves the unity of knowledge and to create personalized meanings to this knowledge. The paper summarizes the benefits of…

A conditions-based approach to the development of microlevel organizational strategies for instruction is explored. The conditions model reflects the idea that differences in learning tasks, primarily qualitative differences in the cognitive processing required of different learning tasks, can suggest different ways by which instruction can either…

Describes a highly effective reading program that focuses on learning strategies and the thinking process. (RB)

Aiming to show that improved learning can take place when children use self-monitoring and evaluation skills, this study represents a relatively new approach toward helping children "learn to learn." Among 60 second grade students, two questions were explored: (1) Is it possible that with proper training young children who ordinarily do…

The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework in which thinking skills instruction and other needed instructional emphases can be integrated into a unified whole. Discussion focuses on John Anderson's unitary model of cognition (1983), learning-to-learn, the nature of traditional curriculum content, thinking skills such as storage and…

This paper presents an overview of research on academic tasks in the classroom and describes some of the themes that are emerging from studies in this area. The concept of "academic task" is defined along with problems associated with using this theoretical construct in classroom research. Three conceptions of how content should be represented to…