We have investigated student difficulties with the learning of organic chemistry. Using Perry's Model of Intellectual Development as a framework revealed that organic chemistry students who function as dualistic thinkers struggle with the complexity of the subject matter. Understanding substitution/elimination reactions and multi-step syntheses is…

A data book designed for use by high school seniors to investigate the problems and processes of nation-building in Africa south of the Sahara today has been prepared. The book consists of two parts. Part I contains descriptions of the geographic, social, economic, political, and historical features of 24 sub-Saharan African nation-states. Part II…

Methods that have been employed in McGill University's (Montreal, Quebec) program of research into the nature of learning are described. The methods illustrate four phases of inquiry: conceptualization or model-building; data gathering techniques; data representation; and data analysis. For the university's learning task project, the development…

Elicited imitation occurs in an experimental situation during which subjects are requested to repeat a model sentence constructed so as to include specific desired grammatical structures. Elicited translation involves giving subjects a sentence in one language, and asking them to say the same thing, but in another language; elicited translation…

Current theories of intellectual development claim that such development proceeds through invariant sequences of increasingly more adequate cognitive structures. According to the two dominant theories on changes in intellectual functioning during adulthood, intellectual development is essentially accomplished by adolescence, although sharpening…

This report summarizes the results and presents statistical data (two-thirds of the report) of a 1988 followup national survey concerning the impact of different types of college environments on development of 1984 and 1986 freshmen. The survey involved the following general categories: satisfaction with college, talent development during college,…

Generic skills are those overt and covert behaviors which are fundamental to the performance of many tasks and sub tasks carried out in a wide range of occupations and which are basic to job specific skills. Generally included in the term are: mathematics, communication, reasoning, interpersonal and manipulative skills. Excluded from generic…