This study examines the feasibility of using the "Porch Index of Communicative Ability in Children" (PICAC), a standardized test of general communication, as an out-of-setting school discourse evaluation tool. The rationale for considering the PICAC was based on the expectation that the test creates a teaching-learning context where…

Three experiments compared the learning of lower-dimensional family resemblance categories (4 dimensions) with the learning of higher-dimensional ones (8 dimensions). Category-learning models incorporating error-driven learning, hypothesis testing, or limited capacity attention predict that additional dimensions should either increase learning…

Predictions from M. C. Wittrock's model of generative teaching about the effects of reader generation of summaries and analogies on the learning of 50 paragraphs of text were studied. Fifty-seven undergraduates--assigned to three treatment groups comprised of different generative tasks--had to use learning material from a text. (SLD)

Investigated the specificity of reading-disabled children's deficits in working memory capacity. Found that reading-disabled 10-year-olds performed worse than normal-reading children, matched for chronological age and reading age, on all measures of working memory capacity. Their poorer performance seemed to be due to a general lack of capacity…

Describes a study that investigated individual differences in the construction of mental models of recursion in LOGO programming. The learning process was investigated from the perspective of Norman's mental models theory and employed diSessa's ontology regarding distributed, functional, and surrogate mental models, and the Luria model of brain…

This article empirically supports the thesis that there is no clear and unequivocal argument in favor of simulations and experiential learning. Instead the effectiveness of simulation-based learning methods depends strongly on the target group's characteristics. Two methods of supporting experiential learning are compared in two different complex…

This article outlines a methodology for characterising features of programme-level assessment environments so that the relationship between features of the assessment environment and students' learning response can be studied. The methodology was developed through the detailed case study of nine undergraduate degree programmes: one in each of…

Being a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is not very enchanted. Despite all of its charms, Hogwarts still requires its students to attend class, read books, write exercises, take tests, and be graded on a competitive scale. The teachers do not use veritaserum to check students' homework or studiousness. Nor do students…

The Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) was developed to help improve the teaching of reading and the acquisition of reading skills around the world, and was approved by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) General Assembly as an essential component of the IEA's regular cycle of core studies,…

The study investigates the development of English multiword negation, in particular the negation of zero marked verbs (e.g. "no sleep", "not see", "can't reach") from a usage-based perspective. The data was taken from a dense database consisting of the speech of an English-speaking child (Brian) aged 2;3-3;4 (MLU 2.05-3.1) and his mother. The…

The authors investigated the comparative effect of the learning cycle and expository instruction on 8th-grade students' achievement in genetics. They adopted the nonequivalent control group design as a type of quasiexperimental design. The experimental group (N = 104) received learning cycle instruction, and the control group (N = 109) received…

This article presents the findings from an interpretative study of an Australian offshore leadership development programme conducted in China from 2002 to 2003. The study explored the conceptions of learning and leadership brought by a group of Chinese educational leaders to the course and investigated the perceived influence of the course upon…

Many conservation studies have been performed using time consuming individual testing. The sequential studies reported in this paper describe the development of a group film test of conservation. (Author)

Based on research studies from fields of education, social organization, and logic, this article argues that the study of organization of knowledge has important implications for students' general intellectual development. Recurring stages of intellectual development are outlined, and implications for improving quality of library school education…