In order to foster awareness of the auditory characteristics of learning disabled students and the essential skills involved in effective listening, this paper suggests teaching strategies to improve listening skills that include both individual and whole class activities specifically geared to learning disabled students. The first section of the…

Articles and documents concerning brain growth and hemispheric specialization, theories of cognitive style, educational implications of brain research, and right-brain learning activities are cited in this annotated bibliography. Citations are preceded by a glossary of terms and followed by a brief review of the assembled literature. Educational…

Five one-hour broadcasts of KPIX Eyewitness News (San Francisco) were analyzed to provide examples of a signification process and to understand both how humorous instances arise in the newscast and their likely meaning for the viewer. One general finding was that the amount of humor or attempted humor is quite small. Banter between anchorpersons,…

Spider World is an interactive program designed to help individuals with no previous computer experience to learn the fundamentals of programming. The program emphasizes cognitive tasks which are central to programming and provides significant problem-solving opportunities. In Spider World, the user commands a hypothetical robot (called the…

Implications of D. Ausubel's Theory of Meaningful Verbal Learning and its derivative, the Advance Organizer Model of Teaching, for deaf students are examined. Ausubel believes that complex intellectual processes (thinking, language, problem-solving, concept formation) are the major aspects of learning, and that primary emphasis should be placed on…

Attempts to train learning strategies have not produced marked or lasting increases in academic IQ, probably because current training models fail to recognize the evolutionary nature of strategies acquisition. Empirical and theoretical evidence supports an incidental learning model, which engineers the instructional environment following study…

Differences in metaphor recall from poetry were investigated using 10 female and 10 male college student subjects hypothesized as having either an analytic or a holistic processing style. Style was determined using bilateral alpha (8-13Hz) scores measured from the cerebral cortex. It was suggested, on the basis of bimodal theory, that holistic…

Two studies were conducted to compare subjects' performance reading texts displayed on a computer terminal screen and on paper. In the first study, 10 graduate students read a 1,000-word article on knee injuries from "Science 83" magazine and were tested for recall of information on eight items. While subjects in the control condition…

Futures research involves speculation about alternative developments based upon existing data and potential choices. Effective futures research requires creativity in scientific practice rather than an overemphasis on reason. In discussing the important role of intuition in futures research, characteristics of creative scientists are reviewed and…

This module (part of a series of 24 modules) is on human development, student characteristics, and learning styles. The genesis of these materials is in the 10 "clusters of capabilities," outlined in the paper, "A Common Body of Practice for Teachers: The Challenge of Public Law 94-142 to Teacher Education." These clusters form…

There is little doubt that intervention research based on metacognitive principles has been remarkably successful in improving children's performance on a range of academic tasks. However, to build on this success, at least three modifications need to be made in the way metacognition is usually thought about. First, more attention needs to be…

To investigate similarity judgements in different cultural contexts, the performance of two groups of children on seven similarity tasks and on two tests of metaphor was compared. The 45 Canadian and 45 Canadian-Greek children (ages 5, 8, and 11) had different cultural and linguistic backgrounds but common schooling experiences. The seven tasks…

College undergraduates (n=44) were given a measure of field independence-dependence prior to receiving instruction in conditional reasoning. Instruction incorporated various aspects of an earlier effective instructional system that was adapted for present learners and was incorporated into a larger, more typical classroom group. Results indicated…

From a search of (mostly French) literature, a hypothesis was formulated that students with both academic training and work experience would solve a practical learning problem more easily than students with academic learning only. A study was conducted at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris to test this hypothesis. Two groups,…

As consciousness becomes a more viable field of investigation and research, more attempts are being made to examine states of consciousness and their effects on certain abilities. A meta-analysis was used to examine the state of relaxation and its effects on learning, performance, and academic achievement. A search of PsychINFO, the data base of…