This article describes a lesson plan model that applies principles of universal design for learning (UDL) and multisensory learning centers to the framework of a traditional direct instruction spelling lesson for elementary students with learning, social, and attention problems. It reviews essential components of UDL and demonstrates how to…

Most teachers' classroom experiences likely confirm that "fractions have always represented a considerable challenge for students, even into the middle grades" (Van de Walle 2004, p. 242). Because both movement and music enhance learning and retention of academic content (Jenson 2000), we developed a series of lessons that integrated kinesthetic…

Five and eight year old children were studied to determine at what age children could represent movement in imagery. Two stimuli were presented; the children had to decide if the stimulus was the same or different in shape. (Author/DEP)

A study investigated the effect of reduced relative frequency of feedback on the ability to calibrate kinesthetic awareness of 90 healthy young and older subjects. Results show that reduced relative knowledge of results frequency depressed the performance of the older subjects but raised performance of younger subjects in the acquisition phase.…

Discusses the senses as being more than just the usual five senses, but sensory systems. Explains technical details of the operation of each system. Defines kinesthesia as a sensory system also, and its responsibility for movement and instinctive knowledge of movement in space/time. Relates how children learn kinesthetically by using examples such…

The suggestion that coherent motion may serve as a test of magnocellular sensitivity is problematic. However, the nature of the problems depends on how the "magnocellular system" is defined. If this term is limited to subcortical entities, the problems are that subcortical neurons are not directionally selective, and that their receptive fields…

This article discusses measurement of reflex reaction in human subjects. (JS)

An experiment on 15 dyslexic and 23 carefully matched control subjects (10- to 12-year-old males), examining their ability to maintain standing posture with eyes open and closed and with standard and tandem foot placement, revealed no differences under any condition tested and no differences in use of visual information to maintain their posture.…

A total of 43 infants were subjected to increasing intensities of a tactile stimulation (air puffs) until a behavioral response occured. All infants displayed increased heart rate responses at threshold. (ST)

Concludes that both asymmetry of muscle tonus and somesthetic stimulation contribute to the normally occurring lateral differences in responsiveness, though other factors are involved. (MH)

Developments within education, psychology and the neurosciences have shed a great deal of light on how we learn while, at the same time, confirming for us all that learning is a profoundly complex process and far from understood. Against this background, and in this position article, we consider the recent rise in interest in the concept of…

There is a crucial debate concerning the nature of chess chunks: One current possibility states that chunks are built by encoding particular combinations of pieces-on-squares (POSs), and that chunks are formed mostly by "close" pieces (in a "Euclidean" sense). A complementary hypothesis is that chunks are encoded by abstract,…

Learning styles have a big contribution to the academic performance of a student. Awareness of one's learning styles will help a person maximize his potential in accumulating learning to the best of his ability with the use of his preferred learning styles. The teacher's awareness of the student's learning styles will help him/her select teaching…

This article provides a practical framework for infusing a body-listening or somatic approach into the dance class. Although the concept of body listening is not revolutionary or ground breaking, it has been underemphasized in the dance technique class and needs revisiting. From reflection on current research, as well as from several years of…