This study is aimed at investigating students' annotation behaviors and their effects on learning achievement with pre-reading (reading before class) exercises and Web-based sharing mechanisms. An 8-week quasi-experiment was conducted with 125 sixth-grade elementary school students. The study shows the following results. First, a significant…

Analogical reasoning is one mechanism that has been recognized as having the potential of bringing prior knowledge to bear on the acquisition of new information. Analogical reasoning involves the identification and transfer of structural information from a known system to a new and relatively unknown system. The productive use of analogy is often…

Noting that the sentence memory models formulated in the 1970s need to be altered so as to be consistent with the fact that people use prior knowledge to process new information, this report discusses issues to be considered in making such an alteration. The report focuses on three questions: (1) What conditions lead people to elaborate and…

Young students can use everyday experiences to give shape and meaning to the isolated pieces of information learned in the classroom. Unless past knowledge and experience is connected to new knowledge, the new learning is likely to be forgotten. Techniques are discussed and approaches for teacher education are suggested. (MT)

Recent studies using graduate students in one case and first graders in the other reached the same conclusion. If instruction capitalizes on what students already know, they learn more readily and transfer the knowledge well. Teachers can use children's knowledge as a bridge to new knowledge. (MT)

A teacher educator developed several exercises to illustrate the related concepts of "meaningful learning" (relating new information to prior knowledge) and "elaboration" (using prior knowledge to expand on new information and to make better sense of it). The exercises demonstrate that learning is easier and retention is better…

Presents an instructional strategy designed to teach inferential comprehension to primary grade children through the use of prior knowledge and prereading activities. (FL)

Investigated whether or not preservice teachers' factual knowledge and attitudes toward traditionally marginalized groups would be significantly changed through interaction with the "Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust" Website. Examined the state of preservice teachers' knowledge on the Holocaust, and analyzed any correlation between…

Describes the nature and occurrence of knowledge-construction links (KCLs) in 3 6th-grade classrooms that varied in degree of learner centeredness. KCLs are operationalized as prior learning that students bring to their current classroom experiences and include school and nonschool experiences. They are hypothesized to facilitate a…

Andragogy's concern with process is at odds with the competence movement's emphasis on outcomes. Accreditation of prior learning, a system of assessing and certifying competence acquired through experience, has some similarities with andragogy. Learner reflection and identification of learning in many different contexts can bridge the gap. (SK)

Provides descriptions and analyses of the learning patterns exhibited by older adult learners, giving evidence that older adults have considerable potential for structuring meaning. (JOW)

Defines involvement as the spread of activation through working and long-term memory, with topics resulting in more extensive and/or stronger activation resulting in higher involvement. Finds evidence from the measurement of reaction time for recognition in support of the model. (SR)

Discusses the prevailing conventions of portfolio assessment specifically where experiential learning is tied to course equivalents. Suggests that further discussion is needed about prior learning assessment, traditional education, and how to use experience in to advance understanding of learning. (JOW)

Proposes a solution to the learning paradox (how learning develops from prior learning) that is based on the work of C. Peirce and J. Dewey. Ideas, as opposed to schemas or postmodernist discourse, are viewed as the real carriers of meaning. Abduction offers the best chance of coming to terms with the paradox. Contains 78 references. (Author/SLD)

Seven articles comment on the proposed resolution of the "learning paradox" of how people make meaning and learn from prior learning. The reviewers find much of merit in the proposed reliance on the work of J. Dewey and C. Peirce, but they criticize many aspects of the paper, especially its brief treatment of the learning paradox itself.…