Presented are science units for kindergarten and first-grade classes which include one or more non-verbal test items constructed to determine whether the student has learned the material presented in the unit. Units include: light, senses, gerbils, beans and peas, animal activities, and hatching chicks. (SL)

Eighteen research reports related to mathematics education are abstracted and critically analyzed. Seven of the reports deal with general instructional concerns (feedback on homework, error patterns, teacher-student interaction, reading strategies, teacher effectiveness, school attendance, and learning environment), four with topics in mathematics…

Indicates that the computer will become, over the next fifteen years, a revolutionary force in learning, completely transforming current processes and ways of operating. Discusses the current situation, the possibilities of developing technology, and several models of the future of education involving computers. (HM)

The question of educational effects in higher education is reexamined by studying the effects of academic departments (rather than entire colleges) and employing as criterion measures achievement tests appropriate for the individual departments. (Editor/LBH)

The National Governors' Association Task Force on College Quality recommends colleges' use of data collection and assessment programs to chart students' learning progress. Other recommendations include developing clearly defined institutional missions and increasing college access for students from all socioeconomic backgounds. (MLH)

In the study of mathematics instruction the focus has changed from the outcomes of learning to the cognitive processes involved in mathematics learning. This new emphasis presents a serious challenge for curriculum design, but it may also lead to more success for students in learning mathematics. (Author/VM)

Focuses on whether developmental trends observed within groups are different between groups (cultures) in three- to six-year-old children in a battery of tests derived from a theoretical model relating to attention, learning, and memory processes. Subjects were selected from Cambridge, Massachusetts and from two lowland villages in Guatemala.…

Preschool, second-, and sixth-grade children performed developmentally gradated, easy and difficult visual discrimination tasks in a quiet room or with one of two levels of extraneous auditory stimulation. Subjects' errors, response latencies, and glances away from the task were recorded. (Author/RH)

Describes a study conducted at a Texas elementary school which examined the types of questions second-grade children ask as they are taught to use microcomputers. A classification of questions into eight categories indicates children asked most about keyboard, data entry, and meaning of program instructions. (MBR)

Solutions to addition and subtraction word problems were studied in a three-year longitudinal study that followed 88 children from grades one to three. They solved problems using a variety of strategies before formal instruction and used invented strategies several years after formal instruction. Four levels of problem-solving ability were found.…

Investigated students' (N=43) conceptions of what happens when water boils, evaporates, and condenses, and when ice melts. Results obtained from clinical interviews indicate that childrens' conceptions are quite different from those of scientists and that their ideas can sometimes be influences in unintended ways during instruction. Implications…

In this report, the authors aim to review and advance knowledge of systematic ways of classifying thinking skills. They concentrate on taxonomies and theory-based frameworks, in the belief that studying and using them will promote better understanding of how people think and learn at the age of 16 or above. Their overarching interest is in how…

Investigates the use of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) by adjunct faculty at three Florida community colleges. A qualitative methodology, with a phenomenological approach, helped to describe the meaning that the experience of using CATs had for adjunct professors. Interviews with eighteen participants were the primary means of data…

A study was conducted to determine whether teachers in districts using state-mandated (traditional) teacher evaluation systems or educators in districts using locally developed alternative teacher evaluation systems perceived teacher evaluation as having a stronger positive impact on school improvement, professional development, and student…

Schools committed to the success of all children must have an array of activities designed to enable learning by addressing barriers to learning. An enabling component for schools encompasses six areas of program activity. This unit, "Introduction to Classroom Focused Enabling as a Key Element in Addressing Barriers to Student Learning," is the…