The distinction between procedural and conceptual learning has long been a topic of discussion in mathematics education and the idea of compression into thinkable concepts that enable the individual make links between them (Tall, 2007). In addition to, the compression to thinkable concept was to be thinking mechanism arising naturally and…

Language and music literacy share a similar process of understanding that progresses from sensory experience to symbolic representation. The author identifies Bruner’s modes of understanding as they relate to using narrative in the music classroom to enhance music reading at iconic and symbolic levels. Two sound stories are included for…

This article examines how it is possible to use the aesthetic process to enrich teaching practices in preschool and elementary school education. What is under scrutiny is the aesthetic dimension of a core curricular subject, the ultimate goal being to achieve an understanding of curricular content through aesthetic learning processes. For this…

Young children are surrounded by environmental print on a daily basis. Through their visual exploration of environmental print, coupled with sociocultural experiences, children gain valuable semantic and symbolic knowledge as they make sense of their world. The aim of this review is to examine the question of whether environmental print has value…

Improving academic achievement is at the heart of college and university fund development. It has become increasingly important for fundraisers in educational settings to find innovative means to improve educational opportunities by increasing the institution's financial resources. The purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits of…

Language involves the use of symbols in the form of words or signs that allow people to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and needs. Even without formal language, many children who are deaf-blind learn to communicate with gestures and object or picture symbols. Symbolic expression makes it possible to express thoughts and feelings about the…

Refines the basic entity model of information theory and extends it to analyze mathematically the physical symbol transformation characteristics, as well as energy-matter and cognition phenomena occurring in the human mind. Reviews existing theories; examines physical symbol subsystem, cognitive perspective, energy-matter subsystem; and discusses…

Challenges Smolensky's theory that human intuitive/nonconscious cognitive processes can only be accurately explained in terms of subsymbolic computations in artificial neural networks. Symbolic learning models of two cognitive tasks involving nonconscious acquisition of information are presented: learning production rules and artificial finite…

The paper examines the use of concrete symbol systems to make the transition from presymbolic to formal symbolic communication for deaf blind students. Comments focus on expressive use of concrete symbols and address two issues requiring further research: (1) the critical features of referent objects, concrete symbols, and concrete symbol arrays…

Explores the role of symbolic play in the cognitive and psychic development of the normal child and describes the autistic child. Reviews a model treatment program for autism developed at the City College of New York, discussing the therapeutic role of symbolic play in that model. (Author/MJL)

A computer-aided authoring technique for generating symbol learning materials is described in which a human author enters information about a set of symbols into a data base and a computer routine merges the contents of the data base with generic formats and automatically organizes and prints a complete learning package. Three key issues discussed…

A new field of children's learning is emerging. This new field differs from the old in recognizing that children's learning includes active as well as passive mechanisms and qualitative as well as quantitative changes. Children's learning involves substantial variability of representations and strategies within individual children as well as…

Discusses the findings of a recent study concerning the ability of an infant to see an object as a symbol. Reports that infants between 36 and 39 months old significantly outperformed informed infants between 30 and 32 months old on a symbolic task. (TW)

Reports on a study in which the symbolic relation between a scale model and the larger space that it represents was displayed by two groups of young children. Three-year-old children outperformed 2.5-year-olds in finding an object in a room after seeing an analogous object hidden in a model. (TW)

This article reflects one session of a course in thinking and communicating for Pace University (New York) faculty. The purpose of the course was to heighten awareness that language can seriously misrepresent events which it describes, thus affecting students' ability to perceive, evaluate, and make day-to-day decisions. Beginning with a concrete…