This study was conducted in order to determine the kinds of knowledge third grade teachers need to teach an effective unit and to determine the relationship between content knowledge and classroom performance. The research focused on the subject matter areas in which three student teachers believed they were most and least confident. Data for this…

The work of the National Research Center on Student Learning (CSL) is described. The CSL, one of 23 national centers funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, is an integral part of the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). The CSL conducts interdisciplinary research that…

A learning cycle consists of three phases: exploration; conceptual invention; and expansion of an idea. These phases parallel Piaget's functioning model of assimilation, disequilibrium and accomodation, and organization respectively. The learning cycle perceives students as actors rather than reactors to the environment. Inherent in that…

The paper describes an innovative treatment approach to severe learning disabilities in use in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The multisensory approach is based on the assumption that learning disabled children have perceptual cognitive deficits. Reality based problem-solvng events connected with tactile-kinesthetic input become the primary foci of…

The concern of this booklet is with "two-way traffic", or real communication, in distance education. Following an introduction by Holmberg, the following papers appear: "Some Thoughts on Delayed and Immediate Feedback" (Diehl); "The Effect of Field Scoring on Time to Completion in Career Development Courses" (Diehl);…

Drawing on current research into the learning environment as well as into the reading process and the acquisition of literacy, this book is designed to help elementary and early childhood teachers arrange classroom time environments that encourage children's growth in literacy. Following a brief statement of purpose, the book is divided into the…

A study examined (1) the relative contributions of skill in name retrieval and alphabetic mapping to the acquisition of skill in word identification, (2) the differential aspects of deficiencies in each of these processes on word identification, and (3) the differential effects of name familiarization and training in phonemic segmentation and…

This manual was prepared for use by adult education teachers in facilitating a self-directed learning (SDL) group for students based on the modules described in the manual. The SDL group involves 10 sessions with specific objectives and activities for each session. Following an introduction, the manual is organized in five additional sections. The…

A practicum project emphasizing critical thinking skills was undertaken in an eighth grade history class to make students aware of the nature and seriousness of plagiarism. The 10-week unit was preceded by a reading comprehension test and an essay assignment on a major Civil War battle. Plagiarized portions of the essays were highlighted and the…

The Indicators of Quality Schools is a series of checklists of schoolwide practices or conditions found in schools known to have an effective instructional program. The instrument is designed to help schools identify areas of strength and areas where improvement is needed. The instrument consists of three parts: (1) the environment for learning,…

Research activities underway as part of the Air Force's Learning Abilities Measurement Program (LAMP) are described. A major objective of the program is to devise new models of the nature and organization of human abilities, that could be applied to improve personnel selection and classification systems. The activities of the project have been…

A study of the child's experience in learning a second language as it is embedded in his experience of kindergarten looks at two classes of unilingual (English-speaking) Canadian children in a half-day French immersion program. The immersion experience for the children is described in these terms: what "French" means to them; what and how they…

An experiment exploring the use of a single phonological variable in standard French by advanced American speakers of French who teach beginning college-level French classes is reported. Seven graduate instructors' use of the variable was examined in directed interviews with a native speaker and in the reading of sentences containing instances of…

To determine students' metacognitive knowledge of the expository writing process, a study analyzed fifth and sixth graders' declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge by means of group questionnaires and individual interviews at all stages of their participation in one of three year-long writing programs. The programs emphasized social…

This paper analyzes mastery learning as an alternative to curriculum planning and discusses implementation of the strategy in a prekindergarten through eighth-grade school district in Red Bank, New Jersey. The paper briefly describes district schools and circumstances affecting the school board's decision to implement mastery learning; discusses…