During the past two decades, three schools of research have increased our understanding of how individuals interact with their environments, abstract relevant data, interrelate new experiences with existing knowledge, and apply accumulated information to new tasks. New developments in learning styles, brain behavior, and thinking skills research…

Explains how a model of an instructional process can be translated into an instructional processor that can be used to develop courseware for computer assisted instruction. The General Systems Theory is discussed as a conceptual framework, and models based on three levels of the decision-making process are described. (12 references) (LRW)

Examines three instructional designs involving new interactive media: scenario-based, hypermedia, and parallel system designs. Hypotheses about their learning effects are advanced, based on findings in three areas of research: intrinsic motivation, aptitude for learning, and learner control of instruction. (14 references) (LRW)

The relationships between the components of self-regulated learning are investigated, as well as relationships between those components and variables such as educational experience and students' learning styles. A Study Advisory Packet was evaluated. (Author/MLW)

Discussion of electronic performance support systems (EPSS) focuses on performance support engineering and its role in designing performance support systems. Highlights include the organizational performance/learning cycle model; a systems approach to EPSS; computer-based training and other EPSS methodologies; and future possibilities. (LRW)

Creating successful schools for all early adolescent learners requires educators, parents, and community members to rethink current middle-school organizational structures, programs, and practices. The great challenge is recreating schools as inclusive communities that offer equal educational opportunities. Learning should be emphasized as…

Examines how children learn, particularly how they learn violent behavior, and discusses why and how one preschool limits children's aggressive superhero play. Describes how the school teaches cooperation and caring, and lists the benefits of limiting superhero play. (HTH)

Proposes an information retrieval system based on a hybrid model consisting of an inductive learning and neural network system. Evaluates the system's responses to incomplete queries and inconsistent indexing. Query terms, discriminant descriptors, and the American Documentation Institute's query and document titles used in the evaluation are…

Explores the principles and theories relevant to the design of effective hypermedia courseware. Proposes a hypermedia design: micro-(node) design, dealing with the creation of discrete information screens; and macro-(links), dealing with the connections between them. Presents a prototype courseware template and a courseware unit based on design…

Presents activities that use the learning cycle to engage students in meaningful inquiries in the study of Mendelian genetics. Includes content-related background and teaching tips for each phase of the learning cycle. (JRH)

Interviewed six first-year college students in an introductory physics course about their beliefs about physics. Characterized the students' beliefs about the structure of physics knowledge as isolated facts or a coherent system; content of physics knowledge as formulas or underlying concepts; and process of learning physics as receiving…

Presents a conceptual framework and notation for learner modelling in intelligent tutoring systems based on the computational distinction between behavior, behavioral knowledge, and conceptual knowledge and between the system, the learner, and the system's representation of the learner. Approaches to learner modelling based on a review of the…

Criticizes the computer modelling experiments conducted by Sokolik and Smith (1992), which involved the learning of French gender attribution using connectionist architecture. The article argues that the experiments greatly oversimplified the complexity of gender learning, in that they were designed in such a way that knowledge that must be…

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Discusses the overall conveyed message: The human cognitive system is a thematically organized knowledge base with agentive causality as the main mechanism for explain phenomena and analogy as the main mechanism for promoting conceptual…

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Suggests that different approaches to knowledge acquisition and conceptual change should be carefully examined in light of their implications for the teaching of science. Discusses critically the issues advanced from the Japanese…