Using a question-and-answer format, the author discusses brain research, its relationship to existing learning theory, left- and right-brain differences and their relationship to logical thinking, brain growth spurts, learning styles, and the effects of future brain knowledge on learning, especially on schools' development of brain-compatible…

Nine televised news stories were presented to 60 college students under newscaster-only, newscaster-plus-film, or newscaster-plus-stills formats, and information gain was tested using a multiple-choice questionnaire administered immediately after viewing. Overall learning differences were nonsignificant. (Author)

Twenty three-year-old Down's syndrome children were compared on their ability to respond to typical preschool learning tasks when given either augmented or repetitive verbal instruction. (Author)

Significant results favor positive reinforcement and high win ratio in producing shorter average times to complete a response. The 80 first- and third-grade subjects exhibited a preference for continuing the task under the positive reinforcement condition. (RL)

Explores a way to analyze and describe learning derived from both constructivist theoretical considerations and classroom practice. Presents a model describing possible student responses during science lessons. Provides a rationale on the basis of both constructivist theory and tests of the model in middle school science classes. Contains 42…

A new paradigm is presented for investigating how intervening concepts are learned. Results of four experiments involving 85 college students provide converging evidence for the acquisition of intervening concepts. A simple associative learning mechanism is proposed to account for the results. The new paradigm uses a stimulus-response-feedback…

Two studies examined age-related change in proactive interference from previously learned material. The meta-analysis of 26 studies indicated that proactive interference decreased with age. The cross-sectional study found that third through sixth graders' and college students' recall was accurate on Trial 1, but became less so over Trials 2…

This introductory article presents the three tenets undergirding the selection of papers in this issue on a sociocultural perspective for literacy research in children with learning difficulties. The three tenets include learning as a cultural phenomenon; learning as arising in contextualized, holistic, and meaningful activity; and the social…

Compares and contrasts two summer camps, Future Camp 97 based on assumptions consistent with constructionism, and Scientists Apprentice Camp 97 which is consistent with legitimate peripheral participation. Explores the nuances of learning environments based on different theoretical assumptions. (Contains 57 references.) (Author/YDS)

This paper investigates a Deweyan interpretation of constructivism as a means of developing a rationale for teaching science. The paper provides a review of constructivism from recent science education literature, along with some relevant criticisms. The paper then presents an interpretation of Dewey's formulation of the role of knowing and…

This paper discusses the benefits of a community of practice (CoP) approach to graduate education in engineering and examines guidelines for implementation. Community of practice theory and applications to practice are presented. Journal clubs, groups of faculty and students who meet regularly to discuss literature, are identified as one specific…

How Chinese students and their teachers see the context and content of their learning is explored in the essays in this collection. Seeing these students in their own cultural backgrounds helps in the exploration of Western educational theory and practice as well. The contributions are: (1) "Learning Theories and Approaches to Research: A…

The application of cultural materialism, a Darwinistic approach to social forces, reveals that human learning is ultimately governed by the required process of human energy procurement. This "ethno-logic" interpretation of the correlation between techno-environmental levels and human learning stands in contrast to the conventional but…

In order to attempt to identify the linguistic difficulties of slow learners, errors made by two groups of English-speaking adults learning French as a second language were compared. The subjects of the two groups shared similar characteristics, with the exception of the amount of time required to cover the same linguistic material (Group 1: 17…

Programed instruction applies what is known about learning to educational psychology. The success of programed learning is determined by the material used and by the construction of this material. In order to construct effective learning sequences, the behavioral end products of instruction must be specified clearly and precisely. The subject…