This paper explores a form of classroom discourse, organized around student argumentation, that brings into focus an alternative view of science and science education as socially and culturally constituted, meaning-making activities. To elaborate the differences between this emerging discourse practice and conventional practice, two examples are…

Sometimes multimedia presentations can provide an abundance of glamour without a clear vision of communicative content and direction. These may be called "show and show" displays. A presentation with a more apparent message or purpose could fall into either the "show and tell" or the "show and sell" category. Used…

A study examined the effects on early literacy learning of two dimensions of learning contexts: formality (peer writing and pretend play) and social relationships (friends and acquaintances). Same gender dyads of kindergarten friends were observed in peer writing and pretend play settings across the school year. A total of 33 males and 23 females…

Noting that understanding a child's brain and the way it develops is the key to understanding learning, this book explores the relationship between brain physiology and children's learning processes. The book first translates the most current scientific theories on nervous-system development into practical information for parents. It then details…

Calling for redoubled emphasis on the performative and political dimensions of rhetorical study, some scholars recommend an "activist turn" in rhetorical criticism. In the context of the study of social movements, an engaged and active stance can enable critics to become direct participants in the field of social action. The promise of a…

The Cartesian/Newtonian vision of human existence is outmoded because modern quantum physics has rendered it inaccurate. Quantum theory has demonstrated that the world cannot be reduced to independent and separate elements. The notion that there is an external, objective reality "out there," separate from the self, to be classified, measured,…

Two studies examined the impact of songs on students' verbatim recall and understanding of central story information. In a naturalistic study, students who had frequently viewed an educational television song about the Preamble to the Constitution later (as young adults) recalled the words verbatim better than did those who had been infrequent…

Common characteristics in the theory and process of two instructional models, one in critical thinking skills and one in library skills, were isolated in this study. Content analysis of selected materials from Robert H. Ennis's critical thinking model and Carol C. Kuhlthau's library skills model showed the absence or presence of common…

A study of infant language acquisition investigated the possibility that perceptual or attentional tendencies may guide early word learning by directing infants' attention in linguistically relevant ways. In the experiment, infants aged 9 to 13 months watched a puppet show; with some children, sentences labeling either the objects (noun-frame…

The nature of qualitative understanding and associated learning processes in the context of a computer simulation called the "Envisioning Machine" (EM) are investigated. The questions focused on in this paper include the following: What sorts of knowledge do students' construct? What role does prior knowledge play in the construction of…

The potentials and problems presented by the thesis of philosophy and their relationship to educational research and practice are discussed. The question of whether philosophy can have a unique thesis is examined. It is suggested that the thesis of philosophy asserts the creation of meaning as an ongoing project that must be constantly monitored.…

Evidence from children's performance in a variety of tasks suggests a change in the kinds of similarities children notice and use. Children tend to focus on literal similarity and then shift to the use of common objects, followed by common relations between objects, and finally relations between relations. Research from a variety of different…

Communication strategies are defined and a brief inventory of strategies for learning and oral interaction in a foreign language instruction setting is provided. Learning strategies are viewed as methods for exploiting available information to increase the efficiency of second language learning. The integration of learning strategies into the…

This study was an attempt to determine the nature of the pausing phenomena in oral reading, and whether these phenomena are possible overt features of the verbal processing entailed in reading orally, and also in reading silently, by relating them to the silent and oral reading comprehension abilities of the subjects. (Author)

A question-answer interview with Carl Schleicher, cofounder and technical director of the Center for Preventive Therapy and Rehabilitation, Inc. (CEPTAR) and president and research/development director of Mankind Research Unlimited, Inc. (MRU), Washington, D. C., provides explicit information on recent developments in the rehabilitation field and…