This collection covers a variety of workshops and presentations related to the research, theory, technology, or implementation of some aspect of visual literacy. More than 40 authors are represented, with 12 of the papers dealing directly with television. The document begins with an overview and a keynote address by Neil Postman. Individual papers…

One area explored in the second (in-depth) phase of the Learning in Science Project was "children's science," defined as views of the world and the meanings for words that children have and bring with them to science lessons. The inquiry reported focuses on problems/difficulties of learning about the concept of "force" through…

One area explored in the second (in-depth) phase of the Learning in Science Project was "children's science," defined as views of the world and the meanings for words that children have and bring with them to science lessons. The investigation reported focuses on primary, intermediate, and secondary students' (N=41) ideas about selected…

Critical thinking can be explained as an effective, organized and functional cognitive process to understand our own thoughts and other people's opinions and to improve our dispositions to express ourselves. Critical thinking is a process and also dispositions about deciding what to do or believe logically. In addition it provides the possibility…

A study examined how use of different kinds of "involvement" measures (behavioral, cognitive, or affective involvement, gratifications sought, and cognitive effort expended) could help explain differences between people's knowledge of election information and whether the way that knowledge is measured affects conclusions about…

This study assessed the extent to which the emergence and maintenance of peer group-status and behavior reflect the operation of group processes and individual processes. Of specific concern was whether support could be found for empirical relations derived from the self-perpetuation hypothesis. The study, which concerned the constructs of…

As schools acquire and use computers for educational purposes, two major questions arise: (1) whether students from different strata of society will obtain equal access to computers, and (2) whether students from different strata of society will be taught similar or different uses of the computer. To explore the relationship between the…

This project was designed to: (1) assess 7th-graders' metacognitive beliefs and processes and investigate how they affect problem-solving behaviors; and (2) explore the extent to which these students can be taught to be more strategic and aware of their own problem-solving behaviors. The primary assessment was conducted by analyzing video tapes of…

Intended for instructors, this handbook is to be used with "Thinking Critically" (Second Edition) and is divided into four sections. Part 1 (Using "Thinking Critically") is designed to give practical strategies for applying the material in "Thinking Critically." A summary of key ideas and terms for each chapter is provided as well as suggestions…

To study the effects of motivation on cognition, 55 fifth- and sixth-grade students were randomly assigned to 3 motivational treatment groups: (1) ego-involved (ability oriented); (2) task-involved (mastery oriented); and (3) control (no orientation). The ego-involvement treatment attempted to make subjects feel that their abilities on the tasks…

Issues that must be addressed in designing procedures for aggregating portfolio data are considered. These issues have profound implications for what is aggregated and how data are collected, combined, and interpreted. Portfolio assessment occurs at the intersection of instruction and assessment; it requires students to collect and reflect on…

This study investigated whether training in reflection improves the quality of beginning preservice teachers' pedagogical thinking. The most problematic element for the reflecting student is becoming aware of essential aspects and evaluating action. The study compared the effects of two types of reflective training on two groups of students. One…

There are fundamental differences in the forms of learning addressed by cognitive psychologists and educationalists. The phenomena explained by a psychological theory of learning are the successes of human cognition. The mechanisms posited are designed to account for how learning takes place, where the content of the learning is the physical and…

The design of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) in a knowledge domain where expertise is modeled as a set of uncertain and incomplete beliefs that are justifiable and expressible in the form of a critical argument is outlined. Issues concerning knowledge communication in a tutorial interaction are discussed with reference to a cognitive model…

This Issue Paper includes two papers: (1) "What Can Research on Teacher Thinking Contribute to Teacher Preparation? A Second Opinion," by Robert E. Floden and Hans Gerhard Klinzing, and (2) "Taking Account of the Distinction between Knowing and Thinking in Teaching," by Magdalene Lampert and Christopher Clark. Both sets of…