Skepticism about Piaget's work is the focus of this essay. The author sketches a history of Piaget's influence on American Education, reviews recent Genevan learning research, and turns to a consideration of issues of great educational concern, bringing Piaget's work to bear on them. (CT)

Discusses factors which determine the quality of learning experiences. The author hypothesizes that there are learning rhythms which must be present in a balanced way for a Peak Learning Experience (PLE) to occur. Learner readiness can be stimulated by a teacher, increasing chances for a PLE. (JOW)

This commentary presents academic enablers within the broader, overlapping context of school learning theory, including the theories of Carroll, Harnishfeger and Wiley, Walberg, and others. Multivariate models are needed to understand the influences of academic enabler and school learning variables on learning, as well as the influences of these…

Integrates contemporary theories of learning into a theory of learning as activity. Explains ecological psychology, changes in understanding of learning, activity systems and activity theory (including the integration of consciousness and activity), and activity structure; and discusses learning as a cognitive and social process. (LRW)

Argues that learning should begin with a student's imagination rather than starting with what he or she already knows. Does not suggest abandoning a student's prior knowledge, however. (PKP)

Accelerated learning methods have evolved into a variety of holistic techniques that involve participants in the learning process and overcome negative attitudes about learning. These components are part of the mix: the brain, learning environment, music, imaginative activities, suggestion, positive mental state, the arts, multiple intelligences,…

A framework of the levels, states, and structures of consciousness suggest other ways of knowing than the rational and analytical. Modern science and ancient wisdom are complementary knowledge sources. (SK)

The more neuroscientists explore how the brain processes, stores, and retrieves information, the more evident is the connection between emotion and reason. Scientists have discovered that the same areas of the brain that are involved in processing emotion are involved in processing memory. (Author/JOW)

Responds to Jim Garrison's 1997 paper in this journal on Deweyan social constructivism. Argues that key elements of Garrison's complaints are misguided and that his preferred Deweyan social constructivism is a theoretical framework without apparent superiority and with enough flaws that it is at best eschewed by science educators. (Author/SAH)

Responds to Davson-Galle's November 2000 response to Garrison's 1997 paper in this journal on Garrison's view of Deweyan constructivism. (Author/SAH)

Studies Kolb's eclectic method of constructing a model of experiential learning, comparing his interpretation of Dewey's ideas to Dewey's concepts of reflective thought and action. Concludes that Kolb's notion of immediate concrete experience is epistemologically problematic. (SK)

Discuses the relationship between philosophy and learning theory and explores implications for instructional design. Highlights include epistemology and ontology; historical trends in philosophy; philosophy and instructional science; and a philosophically grounded instructional design model. (Contains 51 references.) (Author/LRW)

The continually increasing number of applications said to facilitate collaboration makes it very difficult for educators to identify and evaluate the ones that are suitable for educational purposes. In this paper we argue that from the educational point of view, it is meaningful to make a distinction between collaboratively usable applications and…

The conventional image is that we (and other students) reach an understanding of something after a period of puzzled wrestling with the material. Understanding is the end-point of learning. However, there is an important sense in which understanding (of a rudimentary kind) precedes effective learning. Trying to develop this conceptually, I draw on…

Merker hypothesized that because mobile creatures move around and must constantly readjust their map of the world and because the demands are so great for continually processing information for a map of the world, evolution has created a space in the brain where such preprocessing has been eliminated. This space he calls consciousness with the…