Determined the effects of reasoning, use of models during testing, and sex type on posttest achievement in chemical bonding under controlled instruction. Indicates that chemistry students' (N=84) reasoning capabilities influenced performance; other variables were not significant. Other conclusions are noted and discussed. (DH)

Specific modes of formal reasoning and measurements of principled moral reasoning ability were obtained from 99 10th-grade students. Hierarchical relationships were found amoung variables with combinatorial and correlational reasoning accounting for 22 percent of the variance in principled moral reasoning. Theoretical and educational implications…

Discusses issues raised during the course of a research project conducted to determine the place of comprehension activities in the teaching of English, including the question of whether the development of comprehension activities has any place in the teaching of English at the 12-grade level. (DF)

Presents a technique for remediating comprehension difficulties that is based on four principles of effective instruction that can be derived from comprehension research. (FL)

"Mental aerobics" stimulates the mind through well-planned, specific, and direct exercise routines. During a lecture, students are asked to tear out a half-sheet of paper and write an immediate reaction to the lecture. This technique encourages inclusion, expression, understanding, thinking, feedback, insight, and comparison. (Author/MLW)

Math and science instruction now often includes more brief, informal writing exercises, sometimes completed in class, as a means of helping college students think more clearly. While writing skills are not emphasized, student writing often improves as a by-product. (MSE)

Discusses two experiments designed to clarify the cognitive functions of mnemonics in fact learning. One presents subjects with a single attribute mnemonic, providing only the perceptual link, while the other presents subjects with a two-stage model serving the cognitive functions of providing a perceptual link followed by a meaningful link. (MBR)

Ideas on a teaching-learning theory of ratio are presented. Views of children and of members of an international panel are presented, and five questions and their responses are compared with real classroom experience. (MNS)

A collaborative action research project studied how teachers in groups function at different developmental stages. Implications for staff development are described. (DF)

Strategic differences in spatial tasks are explained in terms of different cognitive coordinate systems that subjects adopt such as standard versus arbitrary, task-defined axes. A theoretical account of mental rotation of individuals of low and high spatial ability solving problems from psychometric tests is instantiated as computer simulation…

Presents results of an informal study indicating that (1) external contingencies that force writing productivity regardless of mood seem to facilitate rather than impede the appearance of creative ideas for writing, and (2) productivity precedes creativity. (HTH)

Teachers can use microcomputers in informal assessment of learning disabled students' academic achievement, math and science progress, reading comprehension, cognitive processes, motivation and social interaction. Selected software for unobtrusive, informal assessment is listed. (CL)

Infant novelty scores correlated significantly with measures of cognitive outcome beginning at 24 months of age and continuing at 34, 40, and 72 months of age. Parental education was strongly correlated with cognitive outcome beginning at about two years of age. (RH)

Examined the usefulness of conversational themes and attention-focusing strategies in predicting how people comprehend and recall conversations. Found that (1) unambiguous themes predicted conversational comprehensibility and recall accuracy and (2) personal information may be processed differently from content information. (PD)

Results of this investigation suggest that the greater an individual's cognitive sophistication about conversation, the better his or her performance in, and memory for, social interaction. (Auth/PD)