The importance of understanding and responding to cultural differences in the college classroom is discussed after acknowledging diversity in the types of institutions and missions in U.S. higher education. It is noted that the issues have moved beyond concern for equal educational opportunity to adequacy of educational attainment of entrants.…

The literature on the field of older adults in higher education is fairly new. Until 1975 almost all of it was normative or speculative. With the publication of the first volume of the journal "Educational Gerontology" in 1985, however, the amount of literature in the field increased dramatically. The literature on older adults in higher education…

The assessment of learning orientation in relation to academic achievement is a continuing interest among psychologists. Two studies investigated learning-oriented and grade-oriented behavior in relation to performance on traditional measures of academic achievement. In the first study, 313 college students completed the Omnibus Personality…

Much is being written about children's learning styles and using computers to accommodate student variability. Although the computer can support instruction for various learning styles, its use in the classroom should be in the best interests of all children, each of whom may be affected by physical, emotional, sociological, and environmental…

At each age learning is a complex interaction of motivation, cognition, and development. In older adults, motivation is often related to a lifelong personality construct or personal meaning that an older individual will seek to play out when given the opportunity in late life. The needs of the older adult learner can be discussed in terms of…

This paper outlines, from the perspective of three school principals, the complexities involved in implementing a curriculum innovation, "4MAT," begun in Ontario in 1984. Curriculum project considerations include: leadership skills necessary; importance of support systems for principals; role of research; role of the principal; project…

This experiment examined the effects of headings and adjunct questions embedded in expository text on the delayed multiple-choice test performance of college students. Subjects in the headings-present group performed significantly better on the retention test than did the subjects in the headings-absent group. The main effect of adjunct questions…

Before working with middle school gifted students, the teacher should be aware of the characteristics and learning style preferences of these students. For example, the years from 9 to 13 are a time of physical, social, emotional, and cognitive change--also called an "age of ambivalence." Many of these students tackle decision making sooner and…

Based on results of a project undertaken in Finland over many years, this definition of transfer is offered: Transfer is both a facilitating and limiting factor which provides one basis for the learner to form and test hypotheses about the second language he or she is learning. Theory and research on transfer are discussed as they relate to item…

A study of the preferences of 49 college honors students enrolled in a basic speech-communication course demonstrated that current teaching practices in honors courses do not match the students' optimal learning styles. The students answered questions about their expectations and experiences in an honors speech-communication course and 25 of them…

A study investigated the degree to which first language ability was associated with successful English-as-a-second-language acquisition in 33 outstanding Indonesian teachers. It examined the applicability of theories of common underlying proficiency in the storage of two languages and the development of cognitive academic language proficiency. The…

This book provides the motor development knowledge base and program planning procedures for developing the elementary physical education program. Part one is an overview of the motor development knowledge base and includes chapters on growth, how exercise affects children, motor skill development, how children learn motor skills, and psychosocial…

Each child is to some extent like all children, to some extent like some children, and to some extent like no other child. There are at least three sets of universals that characterize children: (1) they have the same needs and rights; (2) they go through the same developmental stages; and (3) they have essentially the same developmental goals,…

The way in which sources of information are perceived in the classroom, in this case by American Indian and Afro-American students, greatly influences the learning process, for the perception determines both the amount of mental effort or cognitive engagement the student decides to invest and the cognitive processes used. Perceptions are…

An interview study examined the assumptions about adult learning held by 28 educational policy-makers, researchers, and staff developers. Fifteen assumptions were inferred from the interview data, each forming a dimension that describes learning as experienced by the participants: (1) Adult learning experiences are envisioned as similar for all…