In a nation-wide sample of elementary and secondary schools in 122 school districts, the evidence suggests that there are relatively low levels of pupil participation in the standard learning procedures. (MF)

Describes a number of approaches that schools may take to humanize the educational system and counteract contemporary objectivity, dehumanization, and alienation. (JH)

Explains how a standard electronic computer function helps 2-man student teams solve engineering problems assigned as homework. The MOD function increases students' learning rate, helps them to understand theory and obtain correct answers in a system where a major percentage of their grades is based on homework results. (WM)

Recounts entrance of language study into the curriculum and suggests areas potentially interesting to students. (RD)

Process education teaches the student to analyze what is happening within himself when he is learning. This sort of education makes learning how to think a conscious, rather than an accidental, event. (CK)

This analysis of the role of testing in educational programs and services maintains that the connection between tests and instruction is best made integrally through an understanding of the design of learning tasks rather than through linkage. The context for, use of, and limitations of task structures are described. (Author/CM)

Four theories of teaching are presented based on faculty definitions of teaching: knowledge transfer; shaping students to a predetermined mold; exploratory; and developmental. These theories are related to student attitudes about learning and are offered as a means of resolving misunderstandings among teachers and between teachers and students.…

Describes a unit on the physical properties of minerals. The unit, based on the learning-cycle approach, encourages students to move from single to more complex reasoning patterns. Concepts fostered are orderlines, quantification, and replication. (JN)

Suggests incorporating three-phase learning cycle into laboratory teaching to foster formal reasoning skills. Describes five types of laboratories, each of which offers experiences necessary for the initial phase of the learning cycle. Indicates importance of presenting concepts in a way that progresses from concrete to abstract. (JN)

The Mole Concept is a learning cycle (patterned after University of Nebraska-Lincoln's ADAPT model) for the chemical unit "mole." Discusses objectives and activities involved in each phase of the cycle: exploration, invention, and application. Indicates the cycle is superior to traditional lecture-demonstration for teaching the abstract mole…

Learning cycles (exploration, invention, application) are used to introduce general chemistry principles while giving students concrete experiences with descriptive chemistry. Principles taught in the laboratory, laboratory experiments, instructional strategies, and evaluation of the approach are discussed. (Author/JN)

Text information relevant to questions was learned better than text information irrelevant to questions. Results are predicted by a theory that readers selectively allocate a greater volume of attention to question-relevant information, and that a process supported by the additional attention causes more of the information to be learned.…

The effect of educational television background music on selective exposure and information acquisition was studied. Background music of slow tempo, regardless of its appeal, had negligible effects on attention and information acquisition. Rhythmic, fast-tempo background music, especially when appealing, significantly reduced visual attention to…

Significant correlations between measures of cognitive structure and performance were found using a procedure distinguishing between episodic and semantic memory as an heuristic with achievement test items. The design increased the likelihood of indications of semantic memory. Higher-order and lower-order cognitive processes are discussed.…