This study examined the impact of mid-semester student ratings feedback on a faculty's end-of-semester student ratings. The positive direction of the end-of-semester ratings in the two mid-semester feedback groups lent support to the premise that cognitive dissonance theory and various forms of mid-semester, student rating feedback can be used to…

This report describes a program for improving the transfer of the learning of different techniques used in computer applications. The targeted population consisted of sophomores and juniors in a suburban high school in a middle class community. The problem was documented through teacher surveys, student surveys, anecdotal records and behavioral…

Successful adult students employ strategies to learn, and effective adult education programs attend to the development of learning by enabling students to study learning processes in addition to content. Good learners have the ability to identify goals and the steps required to achieve them, identify the strengths of their own learning, actively…

Southwest Educational Research Laboratory's (SEDL's) reading project examines early literacy in Grades K-2 and the prevention of early reading failure. The goals of this effort include the following: developing a framework of the cognitive foundations of learning to read that organizes research information; using that framework to organize…

This book presents results of recent research about the mind, brain, and learning processes. It examines new findings in learning theory and their implications for what is taught, how it is taught, and how learners are assessed. It also shows how theories and insights can translate into actions and practices. It examines research on human…

Researchers have assumed that global self-esteem (often labeled as general self-concept), being a general aggregate of perceptions of the self, is content free. Recent research has, however, shown that responses to self-esteem survey items are influenced by the context in which the respondents are asked to make their responses--a chameleon effect.…

This research begins to refine a cognitive model of interactive information seeking for use in the design of information retrieval (IR) systems. The research reported in this paper critically examines several interactive information seeking and retrieval models that have emerged over the last two decades. Building primarily on the stratified…

Teaching and testing for critical thinking can be a challenge for new and experienced social work educators because critical thinking has no operational definition. Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives is a tool from the wider context of education that can help new and experienced social work educators to think more precisely about what it…

Teaching and testing for critical thinking can be a challenge for new and experienced social work educators because critical thinking has no operational definition. Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives is a tool from the wider context of education that can help new and experienced social work educators to think more precisely about what it…

This report describes a study that investigated the relationship between mental imagery and problem solving in physics, specifically in kinematics. A distinction is made between visual imagery and spatial imagery used in solving physics problems. The results of this study indicate that while spatial imagery may promote problem solving success, the…

A study of students' thinking processes during their engagement in classroom tasks in science and social studies units in upper elementary school classrooms was conducted as part of a series of studies on learning. As a result of previous studies, a theory of the learning process has been developed. A central component of the theory is the…

This paper presents a reasoning taxonomy to explain reasoning objectives, strategies, and habits available to the advanced thinker. It begins by explaining the first part of the taxonomy, objectives of reasoning, including the need for skilled thinkers to reason with a purpose and to understand how the world works so that they can engage with it.…

Identifies and discusses developments in learning theory that are of particular interest to science teachers. Emphasizes the importance of inquiry learning in facilitating intellectural growth whcih may otherwise be retarded by a classroom environment that does not provide opportunities for the student to investigate, probe, discuss and question.…

Discusses the controversy concerning language learning theories as epitomized by Chomsky and Skinner, and concludes that heredity and experience are equally important in language acquisition. (DD)

Studied the effects of aptitude variables on learning from programed science material preceded by three differently structured advance organizers. Concluded that the structural properties could benefit low ability fourth-grade students in developing an adequate conceptual scheme for organizing material. (CC)