The "Current Insights" feature is intended to highlight diverse perspectives on teaching, learning and cognition from outside life sciences education. In this installment, I feature recent examples of scholarship examining the intersections between culture and equity in science education. The articles in this set build on intuitions we…

This article explores to what extent a problem-based learning unit in combination with cooperative learning and affectively oriented teaching methods facilitates intercultural learning. As part of the study, students reflected on critical incidents, which display misunderstandings or conflicts that arise as a result of cultural differences. In…

In interdisciplinary or intercultural groups, it is highly important that the members of the group are able to apply and share knowledge across the standard boundaries that exist around disciplines and practices. Often, a lot of effort is required to avoid pitfalls such as misunderstandings, judgemental discussions or just the inability to…

Besides language competence, international students must develop a systematic approach to processing information and follow up with co-construction of the knowledge acquired. Critical thinking is a crucial principle commonly required in North American universities for evaluating academic texts. This practice may present certain difficulties for…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 16th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2019), held during November 7-9, 2019, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) and co-organised by University Degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy.…

Sustaining and strengthening tribal cultures, languages and traditions is at the core of every tribal college's mission statement. To help attain these goals, many colleges use one of Indian Country's greatest assets--its elders. Traditionally, elders hold a place of honor in American Indian society. Without cultural input from elders,…

The learning style of Native American Indian students is discussed in terms of internal cognitive processes (global/analytic, imagery/verbal, impulsive/reflective, trial-and-error/watch-then-do, field dependence/independence and concrete/abstract); external conditions; teaching and communication styles; and traditional learning styles. A four-step…

Different bases for an underlying strategy for the teaching of languages are discussed. (Available from Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland) (RM)

This study examined the effect of language on children's cognitive representation of number. The sample for the study consisted of 90 Arabic speaking children with a mean age of 80 months. Children were interviewed individually and asked to represent written two-digit numbers using base-10 blocks. A new approach for testing the linguistic…

Research indicates that the instructional conversation (IC), a dialogue between teacher and learner in which prior knowledge and experiences are woven together with new material to build higher understanding, can be an effective method for raising the low academic achievement levels of various groups of Native American students. The IC contrasts…

Now in its third edition, the "Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts"--sponsored by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English--offers an integrated perspective on the teaching of the English language arts and a comprehensive overview of research in the field. Prominent…

People of different cultures differ in the cognitive style they use. Research reports that Mexican American children indicate a preference for field-sensitive cognitive strategies that are spatial-holistic, and middle class children a preference for field-independent strategies that are verbal-analytic. Brain research in hemisphericity appears to…

This consideration of learning style and the minority student analyzes and synthesizes the research that reveals the similarities and differences among the learning styles of culturally diverse populations and describes how to teach and counsel adolescents with different learning styles. Research suggests that students whose instruction is not…

A literature review was conducted to identify factors in recent brain research related to the needs of elementary school students and to provide a comprehensive list of strategies from which teachers may choose to improve the "brain compatibility" of their classrooms. Annotations of 65 articles are provided. Articles are arranged…

Maintains that communicative competence is the primary way of teaching about and learning to live in a multicultural society. Asserts that multiculturalism confronts errors of educational theory and illustrates how life's struggle is always a struggle for freedom and to assume responsibility. (CFR)