Describes early spring night field trips by two naturalists and ten adults, armed with cameras and flashlights, in search of Spotted Salamanders performing ritual mating dances. Although dancing salamanders proved elusive, their habits and those of other pond life were examined and Spring American Woodcock nuptial flights were observed. (NEC)

The results showed that the majority of the autistic and the youngest normal children acquired only some limited features of the observational situation and chronological age was related to the amount of learning through observation in the normal children but not in the autistics. (Author)

Examines nine studies claiming to have demonstrated facial imitation in the neonatal period. Finds that the claims of early imitative abilities are not well founded: because the matching behavior found is restricted to a single gesture--tongue protrusion--it is best explained as a specific, directly elicited response, rather than imitation. (HTH)

A new analysis, based on the concept of the ideal observer in signal detection theory, is described. It allows: tracing of the flow of discrimination information through the initial physiological stages of visual processing for arbitrary spatio-chromatic stimuli, and measurement of the information content of said visual stimuli. (TJH)

There is a great deal of narrative in play and also of play in narrative, especially in the narrative and play of young children. Part of the reason for this may be that they share an important pattern or structure in the way they work as mental instruments, "mimesis." Mimesis is a mode of representation in which the relation between the symbol…

Social precursors to symbolic understanding of pictures were examined with 100 infants ages 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months. Adults demonstrated 1 of 2 stances toward pictures and objects (contemplative or manipulative), and then gave items to infants for exploration. For pictures, older infants (12, 15, and 18 months) emulated the adult's actions…

This article proposes the Teacher Observation Programme for in-service teacher trainees. The program is reflective, collaborative, and builds confidence. It enables teachers to grow in their ability to self-evaluate. Trainees who have made decisions about their own observation, who have created and used their own observational tools, and who have…

Research shows that many students hold misconceptions related to plant functions (Hershey 2004). Some of these students will become teachers with little content understanding to identify their students' misconceptions about plants (Amir and Tamir 1994). The literature on teaching about plants doesn't help; it contains frequent errors,…

Jo-Anne Kerr relies on teacher-research practices to discover insights for making her classes more beneficial to "resistant learners." She shares her experience of observing two previously struggling male vocational-technical students, conducting informal and formal interviews with them throughout the year, and collecting data from their…

This guide is designed to provide elementary school teachers with a harmless, inexpensive, clean, odorless, and easy-to-care-for insect-rearing project for the classroom. The following topics are included: (1) instructions for the care and feeding of the beetle larvae; (2) student activities for observing larval characteristics and behavior…

Presents two studies of elementary school children which suggest that: (1) white children do not conform differentially to black and white models, (2) black and white children do not differ in amount of conformity, (3) blacks conform more to white than to black models, and (4) girls conform more than boys among lower- but not middle-class…

One solution to the problem of getting expert knowledge into expert systems would be to endow the systems with powerful learning procedures that could discover appropriate behaviors by observing an expert in action. A promising source of such learning procedures can be found in recent work on connectionist networks, which are massively parallel…

Several studies were conducted where subjects were not instructed to imitate models. Subjects viewing models exhibiting complex, flexible, divergent, or creative behavior tended to increase this behavior, while subjects watching rigid or convergent thinking models were less consistent. (Author/BJG)

This document focuses on the behavior influence process as it is related to modeling and role playing applied in classroom settings. The topics discussed are divided into six sections, with an "Introduction" and "A Final Word.""What Is Modeling?" describes some basic conclusions about modeling reached by behavioral and learning researchers. "How…

Seven suggestions for using demonstrations to improve physical education instruction are presented. (MJB)