Professional learning strategies often rely on the belief that teaching and learning outcomes are best when teachers have a clear understanding of students' thinking. This may seem like common sense -- after all, students are active participants in the learning process, so their thinking impacts the outcome. But does research support the…

Exciting developments for New Zealand education have provided opportunities recently for teachers and other educators to express their professional aspirations in assessment. The mantle of fostering teachers' professionalism through strong relationships across the education sector and relevant stakeholder groups, and the provision of timely…

Comparisons are drawn between the ideas of mastery learning and instructional design. Agreement is noted concerning the main factors contributing to the quality of instruction. Differences exist in the taxonomic categories of learned performance of the two systems and in the proposal of instructional design that each category requires a different…

Disusses three assertions regarding mastery learning in reading programs: (1) mastery learning is adopted to "legitimize" reading programs to the public; (2) schools cannot provide unlimited time for learning to read; and (3) thus, teachers are reduced to managers of materials and, with students, surrender control of their literacy. (HTH)

In this interview with Executive Editor Ron Brandt, Bloom answers criticisms of mastery learning and explains why he believes it is so important. (Author/JM)

It is a relief to read an analysis of the Internet that is not yet another contribution to the hyped-instrumentalist discourse typified by a "gee-whiz" ethos touting efficiency gains and the lasting technical transformation of education. Hubert Dreyfus' (2001) "On the Internet" is at one and the same time, philosophical, post-Nietzschean and also…

This paper presents a new European teaching model based on ideas and methods of Socrates, Jean Piaget, and Lev S. Vygotsky. The starting point for this new model was the use of Socrates' dialectical method in teaching 906 primary and secondary school students the reduplication of a square. Results of this exercise were compared with Piaget's and…

Two questions are addressed: (1) What are the motivational characteristics of a child who is most likely to achieve in school at an optimal level? and (2) What kind of educational environment fosters these characteristics? Evidence suggesting that external rewards and punishment can have negative long-term effects on achievement motivation is…

The major components of playfulness in kindergarten children are physical, social, and cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy, and sense of humor. Children who are highly playful also show high scores in divergent and creative thinking. Piaget postulated that after the age of 7 or 8 this quality is replaced by assimilating the objective facts of the…

Reading improvement programs that have focused on additional staff for teaching, tutoring, and counseling; prescriptive, self-paced learning methods; unstructured open-education strategies; and intensive reading have often been successful in small towns and middle sized cities, but none has made a major impact on the reading achievement of…

Every young person should be obliged to engage in some program of systematic study until he/she can meet core learning standard for entry into adult society realizing that this will take different amounts of time for different individuals. Learning can take place in wide variety of settings and by many methods. Age-grade link also needs to be…