In this article, Alden Blodget reflects on his more than 50 years of working in what he terms "the tragicomedy club of school reform," and suggests a need to rethink not just classroom teaching methods but the entire system. Blodget states that if the current system is built on faulty assumptions about learning, then there must be a…

The general purpose of the study was to promote the research on effects of physical activity on mathematical performance and brain functions, which is of particular interest regarding children's education as well as for all adults. Several studies have identified an influence of cycling on cognitive processes and brain activity. In the present…

A range of characteristics of learners is described and their relationship to working memory discussed in the context of teaching and learning in the sciences. The characteristics are extent of field dependency, visual spatial abilities, divergency and convergency. These learner characteristics were measured for a large sample of school pupils…

In this report, researchers examined rifle marksmanship development within a skill development framework outlined by Chung, Delacruz, de Vries, Bewley, and Baker (2006). Thirty-three novice shooters used an M4 rifle training simulator system to learn to shoot an 8-inch target at a simulated distance of 200 yards. Cognitive, psychomotor, and…

Cognitive performance is affected by an individual's characteristics and the environment, as well as by the nature of the task and the amount of practice at it. Mental performance tests range in complexity and include subjective estimates of mood, simple objective tests (reaction time), and measures of complex performance that require decisions to…

The specific hypotheses tested were that: (1) participation in a two-week laboratory changes the cognitive structure of those participating; (2) the extent of change varies with the initial level of cognitive complexity of the participant; and (3) the better the match, as seen by the participant, between the complexity of the learning environment…

Author noted several very important nonepistemological factors which seemed to be particularly relevant to the success or failure of interdisciplinary inquiry, considered the epistemological and methodological constraints on interdisciplinary work, and expanded on the notion of interpretive knowledge as a universally necessary condition for…

Study conducted by the Aptitudes Research Project at the University of Southern California, under Contract Nonr-228(20) with the Office of Naval Research, Personnel and Training Branch.

How one learns is as important as what one learns in preparing for a career. By matching a learning style to the learning environment, one can maximize opportunities for growth and development. Learning style myths, personal characteristics, and learning environments are discussed. (Author/MLW)

Reports on 2 investigations of problems of teaching adults (ages 18-40) vs. teaching pupils 10 and 11 years old. Differences are observed in character, temperament, motivation, work capacity, mental processes. Learning ability increases with degree of education rather than age alone. This fact must be considered in a differentiated methodology.…

Much research in the area of person perception has dealt with the problem of how people organize information about other people, including how familiarity mediates the cognitive organization of person information. One multi-operational investigation found that information sets about familiar people, as opposed to unfamiliar people, resulted in the…

In this paper the author attempts to show how certain developments in psychology have influenced present educational methods, and to show further how recent work in learning theory, developmental psychology, and psychometrics strongly suggests new directions for educational research and practice. This theme is discussed in the context of a central…

Research bearing on three aspects of small group learning is examined: (1) the relationship between interaction and achievement, (2) cognitive process and social-emotional mechanisms bridging interaction and achievement, and (3) characteristics of the individual, group, and reward structure that predict interaction in small groups. (Author/PN)

The problem of using learning styles to enhance the design of learning environments is discussed. Some questions to be addressed are examined: learning style characteristics that are most likely to prove useful for designing instructional processes, the best way to measure learning style, etc. (MLW)