Radical constructivists advocate discovery-based pedagogical regimes that enable students to incrementally and continuously adapt their cognitive structures to the instrumented cultural environment. Some sociocultural theorists, however, maintain that learning implies discontinuity in conceptual development, because novices must appropriate expert…

A theoretical model depicting the mental process of inquiry is presented and discussed. It is mainly composed of givens, operations, transitional outcomes and terminal outcomes. The different mental paths followed as well as the various alternative outcomes are also discussed and a number of implications deduced. (Author)

The purpose of this paper is to open lines of thinking about discovery learning not tried before. This effort is a strident attempt to establish new insights and outlooks that will improve the language, theory, and practices connected with this teaching method. (Author/MK)

Describes three major difficulties plaguing most discovery-learning teaching systems and presents a theoretical operational approach for offsetting these difficulties. (SL)

Discusses a way to teach coherent thought in subjects like history. (Author)

Reported is the everyday teaching and curriculum planning activities of the Madison Project, operated by teachers and mathematicians. Two kinds of informal explanatory experiences are provided in order to involve students in the discovery of significant mathematical concepts--experiences where children do something and experiences where a…

Presents guidelines for social studies teachers and a sample writing assignment to encourage student's developmental writing. Suggests that students emphasize the significance of the writer's ideas and information rather than the information itself. Establishes the relationship between thinking processes and writing and the need to break these…

Adaptation of a speech given at a meeting of the New York University Education Alumni in 1972 when author was awarded the 1972 Award for Creative Leadership in Education. (DS)

THIS VOLUME IS DIVIDED INTO FIVE MAJOR SECTIONS. IN THE FIRST SECTION, HAWKINS STATES THAT THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS WHICH CAN ONLY BE LEARNED BY DISCOVERY. GLASER IMPLIES THAT WHEN AN OBJECT IS DESCRIBED IN BEHAVIORAL TERMS, THE BEHAVIOR IS TEACHABLE. IN THE SECOND SECTION, WITTROCK REVIEWS THE LITERATURE OF RESEARCH. CRONBACH PRESENTS A CRITICAL…

The writings of 33 authors in either curriculum theory or social studies are analyzed to determine whether each author supports structure-discovery views, reflective-inquiry views, or expresses views that tend to reflect both positions or neither position regarding the new approaches to teaching social studies. The structure-discovery method is…

Describes a self-managed learning approach designed to help engineering students take charge of their own learning. Discusses marker events, exploratory learning versus linear instruction, knowledge through self-discovery, information retrieval, production through writing and speaking, and promoting a mature response. (TW)

Teachers and teacher educators seem to be little aware of some major concepts about instruction that provide important insights into the central requirements for learning. A common misconception is that motivation has to do with wanting or desiring. It is instead attention to stimuli that is influenced by two powerful agents--(1) suspense,…

Previous research has shown a relationship between formal reasoning ability and science process skill attainment. It has been hypothesized that an increased emphasis on teaching process skills might enhance the formal thinking abilities of students. A variety of strategies have been proposed to better accomplish this task, most notable, the…

This is a report of a study conducted by a group of teachers to discover the extent to which students in the first three years of school were aware of the phonetic system of their native language (French) with emphasis on the means they used to analyze it. In the first year, the children discovered phonetic oppositions by touching their lips and…