A study investigated the learning processes of four bilingual teachers, two elementary and two middle school, during a course in creative dramatics taken for professional development. Data were drawn from taped study sessions, participant journals, observation, and individual interviews. Using analysis frameworks produced by the participants, the…

Since risk suffuses human life and trust helps breaks the paralysis of dealing with risk, a philosophy of education must account for the relationship between risk and trust. Keith Lehrer (in progress) has developed a philosophy that seeks to prepare students for knowing as human beings actually know things, suggesting that knowledge is a matter of…

Noting children's natural proclivity to interpret language freely and use that potential to expand and develop as learners, this book offers a new approach to understanding how young children communicate their knowledge of the world and how that understanding can transform the educative process. The book also describes the process of conducting…

Drawing from a review of the literature on feedback in two fields, English education and social psychology, this paper sets forth a set of theoretical conclusions and practical suggestions for developmental English instructors and others to use in providing feedback to composition students. First, the research on written feedback in English…

The "ERIC Review" announces research results, publications, and new programs relevant to each issue's theme topic. This issue focuses on the changing face of K-12 professional development for both preservice and inservice teachers. The opening article by Dennis Sparks, "A Paradigm Shift in Staff Development," describes a…

Learning styles and the creation of effective learning environments are of emerging significance in education as the changing nature of work requires higher-order thinking skills. Although learning style may be simply defined as the way people come to understand and remember information, the literature is filled with more complex definitions of…

This study reports on the historical conceptualization among Finnish 12-13 year-olds who were given a projective task to yield historical thinking. The case study examines expressions the subjects used and which were studied qualitatively, using "chunks of meaning" as units of analysis, in regard to both their meaning- content and their…

This action research project devised and implemented an intervention for increasing student engagement in the learning process. The targeted population consisted of elementary students in an urban area in north central Illinois. The problem of non-engaged learning was documented by means of observation of class participation, a student attitude…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on integrating learning and performance in human resource development (HRD). "Action Imperatives that Impact Knowledge Performance and Financial Performance in the Learning Organization: An Exploratory Model" (Gary L. Selden, Karen E. Watkins, Thomas Valentine, Victoria J. Marsick)…

The Riley Inventory of Basic Learning Skills (RIBLS) is a group test that assesses 12 learning process skills in 5 general modalities (visual, auditory, verbal, kinesthetic, and abstract). The RIBLS is intended for administration to groups or individuals from age 6 to adulthood in two levels: a lower level for those who cannot read or are under…

That the emergent literacy perspective is gaining influence in the United States as a way of studying children's literacy acquisition. This report interprets emergent literacy research in light of the Vygotskian theory of learning and development. First, the report compares the emergent literacy perspective to the more traditional reading…

It is maintained in this paper that the "crisis" in writing is more a function of instructors' attitudes and expectations than a result of how students actually write. There are various reasons to question the crisis, for example: while the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)--the most careful test of writing ability…

A possible method of solving problems of knowledge representation and system adaptation in a hypermedia environment was examined. The method, based on the notion of semantic networks, uses the technique of knowledge mapping. In the process of reading a hypermedia document, the learner constructs a knowledge map (KM) specifying the relationships…

A study examined the influence of participation in the Accelerated Schools Project on teachers' instructional behaviors, with a focus on teachers' instructional decision-making and their implementation of inquiry processes. The Accelerated Schools Project was designed to integrate high-risk students into the educational mainstream by the end of…

Hypertext is well-suited for educational applications where open learning and knowledge exploration is desired. In such applications, principles of good hypertext interface design should be employed to avoid navigational problems so as to maximize learning. Interface design, however, may also directly enhance acquisition of a particular knowledge…