In order to prepare effective writing teachers, teacher educators need an understanding of how preservice preparation programs, inservice professional development, and the policies and practices of K-12 schools work together to influence teachers' writing instruction. This qualitative case study uses complexity theory (Davis & Sumara, 2006) to…

Presents responses to the Stair Skipping problem that appeared in the April, 2000 issue of this journal. (KHR)

Describes the experiences of an elementary school teacher as she researches a topic and simultaneously begins to understand her own learning processes. (SRT)

Reports on programs and activities designed to teach thinking skills either as a separate school subject or as a strand in a content area. (FL)

Proposes a theoretical psychological model for strategy instruction. Describes the complexity of the profile of a competent strategy user. Comments on important strategy instruction. (DE)

Intended for practitioners, this book provides a valuable resource by offering teachers a volume of practical exercises for introducing and reinforcing a variety of fundamental thinking skills. Each exercise allows teachers and students in grades six through nine to focus on a selected thinking skill while serving as a stimulant for thoughtful…

A study used the naturalistic method of inquiry in order to investigate the CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) contribution to students' performance in arithmetic and to identify possible problems. The study was aimed at understanding the holistic environment of students' individualized drill in arithmetic with the computer. (BS)

Discusses examples of children's invented equal-sharing strategies that lay a foundation for reasoning about equivalence by connecting ideas from multiplication, division, and fractions. (KHR)

This study investigated the tendency of deaf children (ages 6-13) not to spontaneously use active memory strategies such as rehearsal. Comparison of 38 deaf and 39 hearing students found that deaf students compensated for less effective rehearsal strategies by capitalizing on unique spatial features of the task. (Author/DB)

Maintains that elementary music programs are an asset to the instrumental teacher. Discusses how the pedagogical techniques used in elementary music programs can be applied to instrumental classes. Analyzes aural learning, movement, hand signs, familiar songs, and phasing and form. Suggests how these can be incorporated into instrumental classes.…

Facilitating Effective Learning and Teaching (FELT) is a program that involves the systematic analysis of learning by students. It identifies the processes of reflection and making implicit knowledge explicit in changing one's understanding of learning. The present investigation examines the prediction that students can enhance their…

Suggests adapted teaching strategies that can help meet the deaf students' special needs in reading. (FL)

Investigates processes involved in visual estimation and processes of judgment in visual estimation situations involving proportional reasoning. Exposure to a unit in the Agam project, designed to enhance visual estimation capabilities, resulted in changes in the nine-year-old subjects' strategies, reflecting processes by which children overcome…

This paper describes the mental model children have of their own learning, derived from their behaviors when learning a song. The basic assumption of the study is that behavior is an outward expression of a psychological entity. The song chosen for the study was a complex, unfamiliar Zulu song. Thirty-six children in three age groups participated…

Noting the use of mental pictures to aid students' learning--the keyword method--is effective for both good and poor readers, describes specific methods, provides research to support their use, and presents classroom applications that lead from teacher instruction to students' independent learning. (NH)