Discusses motivational processes as they apply to educational contexts. Defines motivation and compares it to other constructs. Provides a brief history of motivation theory and reviews important trends and areas in motivation research. Suggests four areas that future research might address: constructivism and learning, long-term motivation,…

Explores the nature and extent of perceived challenge in learning and teaching science. Teachers (n=7) and students (n=37) in 5 secondary schools were the subjects of this study. Findings suggest that many students are insufficiently challenged by the science they learn in school and many teachers are insufficiently challenged by the task of…

Describes research on brain development and its relationship to music education. Discusses how music helps some people organize the way they think and work and how music helps them develop in other areas, including mathematics, language, and spatial reasoning. (10 references) (LMI)

Two experiments on children's inferences and associative memory provided a supportive test of fuzzy-trace theory. Results indicated that false recognition of associated instances with delay declined for all children, and categorical inferences increased for older children. Verbatim memory and inferences were uncorrelated under short delay but…

Analyzes the relative advantages of using text versus voice to convey verbal information in multimedia courseware and reports results of a study of undergraduates that investigated the effects of presentation method on learning and student preferences. Topics include realism, dual modality, controllability, content characteristics, learner…

Describes a lab that introduces agarose electrophoresis techniques and basic information on proteins to middle school and high school students. Insists that, built around a scenario in which students must solve a crime, the lab has real-world applications that should spark student interest. (KHR)

Summarizes research findings related to brain maturation during the adolescent years and highlights implications for the middle level educator, focusing on the types of classroom activities most compatible with attention and memory. Examines possible gender differences in how adolescents learn, the effects of stress on the brain, and implications…

Cognitive abilities that predicted growth in response to a 12-week training program in phonological awareness were investigated in 100 kindergarten children. Findings suggested that growth in analytic awareness was predicted by invented spelling and general verbal ability, while growth in synthetic awareness was predicted by a combination of…

Higher education's response to crisis must focus on developing institutions' competitive advantage. Technology is the basis on which institutional renewal must occur. American higher education is not using technology intelligently because it is driven by teaching, not learning. Today's technology fundamentally changes the relationship between…

Describes a study of 24 secondary school students in London (England) that explored ways in which reflective writing supported pupils' learning. Writing with support from the teacher was compared with support from the teacher and from a hypermedia framework, and results showed improvement in pupils' ability to reason with the hypermedia support.…

Describes five writing activities and assignments designed to help students understand the content of social studies and the process of writing. These include student journals, biographical poems, elaborate word games, and creative writing exercises. Illustrative examples relate these to social studies issues. (MJP)

Discusses the need to focus on student learning processes and strategies rather than only on technology in the classroom. Topics include classrooms, laboratories, and virtual laboratories; learning outside classrooms or laboratories; training professors; learning skills students need, including technology training; multimedia; team teaching;…

Explores how to use computers more effectively to enhance the learning process. Describes results of a survey given to Australian secondary students about classroom computer use. Suggests that more use be made of e-mail as a communication and learning tool. Proposes that teachers become more proactive in explaining to students and developing with…

The theoretical and empirical work of J. Britton and his followers is reviewed. The uses of Britton's discourse system in writing research and studies of school writing are considered. Topics addressed include Britton's conceptualization of heuristics, written discourse, pedagogy, function system, learning processes, teaching methods, and text…

Analysis of the process of educational television evaluation focuses on the Programme Evaluation Analysis Computer (PEAC) system. Highlights include affects of evaluation on learning; internal and external validity; variables in the evaluation model; formative evaluation; cognitive and affective objectives; and differences between general…