Recounts a study documenting the actual learning trajectory of the classroom community and the diversity in eighth-graders' reasoning as they participated in the classroom mathematical practices that constituted this trajectory. Describes the learning of the research team by documenting conjectures about students' statistical learning and the…

How the organization of U.S. high school mathematics curriculum affects how much students learn was studied with data from 123 schools in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Results indicate that students learn more in schools that offer a narrow curriculum of mostly academic courses. (SLD)

Examines the relationship among approaches to learning (deep, strategic, and surface), cognitive style, motives, and academic achievement. Focuses on undergraduate psychology students (n=192) who were around the mean age of 21.7. Reports that motives and styles were related to three learning approaches. Includes references. (CMK)

Studied the teaching and learning of fractions in two matched groups of 10 9-10-year-olds in the Netherlands. In the experimental group, fractions were introduced using the bar and number line as mental models, while the control group used fair sharing and the circle model. The experimental group showed more proficiency in fractions after 1 year.…

Case study of the impact of school management information systems on principal-parent interrelations concerning learning, behavior, and attendance at a vocational high school in Israel. (Contains 82 references.) (PKP)

Investigates the development of park visitors' knowledge, values, and beliefs during their visit to the Midway Geyser Basin. Draws on prior work in the areas of museum and informal education, and public understanding of science and cognitive psychology. Interprets the results in terms of park visitors' knowledge systems, how the experience…

Presents the findings of an interview study of first-year engineering students' approaches to studying. Focuses on the data to illustrate the construct of dissonant study orchestration as it is manifested in the everyday academic reality of these students' learning behavior. Includes references. (CMK)

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM), a system intended to nurture behavioral giftedness without reliance on gifted identification procedures. The study found SEM positively influenced the attitudes of elementary school students (n=1,935) in six middle class schools. SEM may provide schoolwide benefits…

Five experiments with 586 college students investigated how ability differences, learning task characteristics, and motivational and volitional processes combine to explain performance differences in an associative memory or substitution task. Results are discussed in terms of developing a more comprehensive understanding of learner differences.…

The Effective School Function Inventory was constructed to operationalize the major constructs of efficient school operation. An analysis with 124 teachers identified 4 meaningful factors: (1) supportive collegial interaction; (2) cooperative facilitation of goal attainment in learning/sharing; (3) morally oriented leadership; and (4)…

Uses Homer and the Iliad as examples of the best in teaching. It explains how the Homerian approach in storytelling exemplifies the art of instruction because it is able to simultaneously instruct, delight, and move the student during the learning process. (GR)

Discusses a multimedia computer-assisted instruction training project at San Juan College (New Mexico) within the context of current research in the area. Research demonstrates that the complexity of hypermedia requires methodical management, cognitive factors limit the optimum number and types of hypermedia link displays, and close monitoring of…

Effective communication is sending a message so that it is received the way it was meant. Barriers to effective communication, or "noise," may include mental blocks, technical jargon, social norms, or values. Feedback, paraphrasing, impression checking, and behavior description are ways to improve communication and facilitate learning…

A study with 56 sixth graders performing verb-recognition tests with pretests and posttests indicated that feedback greatly facilitated improved posttest performance and increased near-transfer performance as well. Both self-generated and traditional feedback resulted in improved performance. (SLD)

Infants at two, four, and six months of age learned a string-pulling task and were tested again two months later. Individual differences in emotional expressions of anger during extinction, and interest and enjoyment during learning, were stable over the two-month interval. (BC)