This study examined the phenomenon of student teachers' practical knowledge of what constitutes a successful classroom lesson. One student teacher's personal orientation of practical knowledge and implicit understanding of what is needed to make sense out of the experience of success in classroom lessons was explored before and after the student…

Mexican American college students' views about the context influencing their decision to persist or leave the university were studied. Two sociologies of everyday life, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology, guided the inquiry. Perceptions of college-going behavior before and during the freshman year were obtained from 18 students and…

Findings are reported from two descriptive studies of preservice teacher education students' conceptual change in response to reading methods instruction. The first study, involving 14 preservice teachers, focused on how students applied what was taught in the reading methods course; the second study (14 participants) examined students' conceptual…

Custom mapping, an experiential learning strategy used in adventure education, provides a general metaphoric activity and then requires the group to customize it into their own "meta-map." This approach encourages collaboration, gives the group a high degree of autonomy in developing creative solutions, and has the potential to generate…

Reviews factors influencing reversals of expectations for language-learning outcomes. This article touches on psychological and neurological data regarding individual differences in language-learning mechanisms and focuses on cross-linguistic psycholinguistic analysis that indicates that different target languages offer a wide variety of learning…

Describes a new strategy for informing and involving people in environmental issues. Presents stories of successful efforts by ordinary people to effect environmental change. Suggests that these stories can provide the help people need to build more adequate models about environmental problems and about their roles in addressing them. (27…

Because of its small size, the Chickasaw Nation has been relegated to the margin of studies of eastern Woodlands tribes and rarely included in narratives of Southern history. This omission is regrettable because the Chickasaws were at the center of resistance to French expansion in the region. And while representative of other southeastern…

This exploratory study examined the structure of declarative knowledge about pedagogy housed in the memory of an experienced teacher educator, and it sought to determine the teacher educator's influence on the development of declarative knowledge structures in undergraduate students enrolled in three sections of a physical education teaching…

Information is provided regarding instructional teaching strategies and cognitive/learning strategies as well as other information important for successful learning. This module will aid vocational agriculture teachers and special needs students in confronting new situations with a strategic plan. Four definitions, 11 frequently asked questions,…

Misconceptions interfere with the formation of new insights and provide a faulty foundation. This causes difficulty in the learning of new materials. Therefore, effective teachers strive to know which misconceptions students have, and then develop a plan by which these suspected misconceptions can be corrected or averted. This paper reports on an…

This paper presents findings from a study that investigated students' understanding of quantum phenomena and focused on how students incorporate the ideas of quantum physics into their overall cognitive framework. The heuristic metaphor of the map is used to construct graphic representations of students' understanding of quantum physics. The…

This paper reports on a comparative study of the use of asynchronous (bulletin board) and synchronous (chat) discussion on three learning units based on the cognitive maps developed by the learners. Cognitive maps have been found to be an effective tool for learners for discussion in a distributed learning environment. Cognitive maps provided…

Examination of factors underlying cross-language transfer in metaphor interpretation among bilingual (Spanish-English) 7- to 12-year-olds indicated that metaphor interpretation ability was higher in the older subjects. The level of metaphor interpretation was most strongly related to cognitive-developmental variables that were interdependent…

Examines how second-language learners compensate for their target language deficiency in communication using the One to One Principle of interlanguage communication. Results indicate that target language aspects not adhering to one-to-one mapping between semantic and surface elements are problematic to the learners and are seemingly acquired late.…

Selective illustrative examples of students' learning difficulties and misconceptions in first-year general and organic chemistry are presented in the students' terms, followed by strategies the author uses to overcome the difficulties. Suggests that student misconceptions in first-year chemistry are not interrelated logically and are not prone to…