Seventy-two sixth graders, stratified on the basis of sex and two levels of IQ (high and low) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: (1) Group I (success only); (2) Group II (failure only); and (3) Group III (success and failure). These subjects (Ss) were used to investigate the effects of verbally controlled success and failure…

Linguistic and psychological factors which bear on the concept of "intuitive thinking" are analyzed with respect to second language learning. Analytical thinking is considered as being logical, cognitive, and objective while intuitive thinking is considered to be creative, constructive, and non-analytical. Following a brief discussion of Piaget's…

Presents guidelines for designing a training program having a proper blend of didactic (instruction) and experiential (process) learning methods. Covers two major dimensions to consider in determining the appropriate blend of didactic and experiential methods: utility (how the learning will be used) and the nature of the learning. (EM)

Discusses and refutes Novak's arguments against Piaget's theory of intellectual development in favor of Ausubel's theory of meaningful verbal learning. (GA)

Teachers should not only want students to learn from course experiences, but should want him or her to start to learn how to begin lifelong learning. (PG)

Discussion about the nature and varieties of mathematical understanding is presented. Symbolic understanding is defined as a mutual assimilation between a symbol system and a conceptual structure, that is dominated by the conceptual structure. (MP)

This article explores drawings of learning in the classroom made by a class of 6 to 7-year-olds in a UK primary school. The drawings were analysed by considering the choices that children made in their drawings in terms of four themes: self and social relations in learning, the physical environment, learning activities, and learning and behaviour.…

Cognitive psychology offers relevant insights into improving the teaching and learning process. The author has selected ten questions from a graduate class in cognition and learning taken at The Teachers College, Columbia University. The questions will be used to examine the most effective ways to learn and recall information.

Tomasello, Carpenter, and Liszkowski (2007) present compelling data to support the view that infant pointing, from the outset, is communicative and deployed in many of the same situations in which adults would ordinarily point for one another, either to share their interest in something, or to informatively help the other person. This commentary…

This module on the learning process is the tenth of 11 modules in the set, Introduction to Teaching Adults. Designed to meet the learning needs of part-time continuing education instructors, these modules can be used as resource materials for local workshops or study-discussion groups, as self-instruction (each module takes approximately two…

This research contrasts the learning effects of an affective dimension of meaningfulness with the word-quality of consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams. Subject rated trigrams for both "association value"--having word-quality versus lacking word-quality--and "reinforcement value"--liking versus disliking the trigram regardless of word quality. Paired…

Adult students learn effectively only when there evolves, in the course which they attend, a framework of reference to experience of the world outside the meeting room by which they can orient, assimilate and make use of what it is they are learning. (Author)

A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON THE ROLE OF NONINTELLECTIVE FACTORS IN LEARNING WAS CONDUCTED TO IDENTIFY AREAS OF NEEDED RESEARCH. STUDIES WERE REVIEWED WHICH WERE CONSIDERED ILLUSTRATIVE OF PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS TO ASSESS NONINTELLECTIVE FACTORS IN A VARIETY OF LEARNING SITUATIONS. BASIC TO THE SYNTHESIS OF RESEARCH FINDINGS FROM THE REVIEW WAS A…

The primary objective of this study was to determine the existence of a relationship between free-recall learning and breadth of categorization, an independent measure of conceptual organization. The relationship between breadth of categorization and more conventional measures of organization was also investigated. Two free-recall tasks…