Two studies examined individual student differences (N=79) in student perceptions of learning context and studying utilizing a new statistical procedure (multidimensional unfolding analysis). The results confirm the existence of important associations between qualitatively different perceptions of learning context and individual approaches to…

Examines the social organization of a daily group meeting in an American primary school classroom to determine the effects of contextualization cues, that the teacher occasionally omits, on achieving social order in the classroom. Contains 35 references. (GLR)

Addresses problems in evaluation that are raised by constructivism. Highlights include a comparison of objectivism and constructivism; constructivistic criteria, including goal-free evaluation, which focus on authentic tasks, knowledge construction, context-driven evaluation, the appropriate stages of knowledge acquisition, and multiple…

Investigates how context exerts effects the meaning system that enables assessing meaning units, consisting of referent and meaning value. Reveals four kinds of effects of context on meaning. Analyzes the findings of the two studies undertaken, and discusses their implications. (HB)

Huge infusion of technology is coming into education; nothing can stop it, because so much money is involved. With computer marketers in driver seat instead of teachers, schools risk being blinded by science. Vendors have coopted progressive education buzzwords, including "frontal teaching,""linear thinking," and "computer…

Discusses some areas of particular interest in the study of education in the South Pacific islands: educational development in small, recently decolonized nations; mismatch between policies of donors of international aid and the needs of developing nations; importance of understanding the context of education; and misapplication of educational…

Discusses the nature and implications of the principles of contextualization as a teaching skill that can be used by all teachers. The author asks that teachers adopt this skill to help avoid conveying misconceptions to students. (ZWH)

Examined how contextual variables affect types of instructional adaptations teachers propose for students experiencing academic failure. Within academic areas (reading or mathematics), teachers (n=76) were assigned randomly to three idea generation formats: oral independent, written independent, and assisted with ideas for potential solutions.…

Although recent educational reforms have called for different types of assessments with more relaxed time requirements, the revised Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) allows less than one minute per verbal and math problem. According to an SAT tutor who took the new exam along with his students, the new test is unnecessarily tricky and should…

Argues that while reflective practice is a useful and emerging component in professional education, there are misconceptions about the nature of reflection and inappropriate applications. A discussion of reflective practice looks at the effective use of reflective activities and proposes that reflection needs to be flexible, is highly…

Notes that the ecological perspective on observation of learning focuses on the processes of interaction while attempting to unravel them from the inside out. Concludes that this approach requires a new look at basic assumptions about its role in the construction of theory and practice, i.e., evidence of learning will require new ways to document…

Describes how to use intonation and dialog context to improve the performance of an automatic speech-recognition system. Experiments utilized the DCIEM Maptask corpus, using a separate bigram language model for each type of move and showing that, with the correct move-specific language model for each utterance in the test set, the recognizer's…

Proposes that different contexts occur in second-language (L2) classrooms and that repair is organized differently within each context. Suggests that within each context a particular pedagogical focus combines with a particular organization of repair that is appropriate to that focus. The organization of repair within each context is sketched and…

Presents characteristics of a learning environment drawn from a study of a grade five teacher. Analyzes the instructional activities presented to the students in order to explore the relationship between learning goals and conceptual change. Contains 25 references. (DDR)

Reviews the literature on covictimization and discusses methodological issues that plague covictimization research. Examines correlates of covictimization within the Shakoor and Chalmers framework, comprising emotional, cognitive, and behavioral domains. Outlines a developmental-contextual approach toward studying covictimization, and from this…