Recounts the experiences of an education expert who learned from his Navajo Indian students that there are many modes of learning. Identifies the dominant modes as symbolic/abstract, visual, kinesthetic/integrative, and auditory; argues for the value of each. (First part of a two-part article.) (FL)

Three studies investigated the degree to which young children understand that the acquisition of certain types of knowledge depends on the modality of the sensory experience involved. Results suggest that an appreciation of the different types of knowledge our senses can provide develops between the ages of three and five years. (GLR)

Discusses the nature of explanations and the nature of models and the relationship between them. Reviews the explanatory value of major models of change in science. Models the characteristics of everyday thinking and the effect of attempts to change that thinking on scientific thinking. (Author/CCM)

A survey of the learning preferences of 197 Generation X workers found that they value incidental and action learning. They recognized the need for formal training, but suggested improvements. They preferred learning by doing, visual stimuli, and self-directed learning. (Contains 26 references.) (SK)

Educationists and researchers who consider the use of the learning style concept to address individual differences in learning are often daunted by the multitude of definitions, models, and instruments. It is difficult to make an informed choice. The confusion with cognitive style, a term often used as a synonym, makes it even more complicated.…

This essay presents a case study of the modes used in training employees at a munitions plant in Ohio between 1940 and 1945. Theories of multimodal discourse and learning advanced by The New London Group (1996), Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen (2001) and Richard Mayer (2001) inform this analysis. With an unskilled labor force and many workers…

Debates continue in public and in educational policy forums about the "basics" of literacy while many have not recognised that these basics may never be the same again. Rapid changes in digital communication provide facilities for reading and writing to be combined with various and often quite complex aspects of music, photography and film. At the…

This study examined the effects of manipulating the modality (text-only, voice-only, voice+text) of a tutorial and restriction (restricted vs. unrestricted) of a simulation's interface on retention and transfer of tutorial content. The tutorial prepared novice students to use Packet Tracer, a simulation developed by Cisco that teaches network…

The process of developing concepts of time continues from age 5 to 11 years (Zakay, 1998). This study sought the representation mode in which children could best express time concepts, especially the proper arrangement of events in a logical and temporal order. Usually, temporal order is examined and taught by 2D (2-dimensional) pictorial scripts.…

This paper describes an intensive 2-hr workshop designed to introduce preservice teachers to digital video in the context of an instructional technology course or as a stand-alone activity. Acknowledging time constraints in most real-life instructional situations, this format takes novices with no or very limited knowledge of video making to the…

The literature on learning styles is full of unresolved issues, both theoretical and practical. Early research into learning styles includes that of H. A. Witkin, who developed the Embedded Figures Test in the late 1960s. This test determines the "field dependence" or "field independence" of individuals, marking their global…

Reasons for the absence of systematic, high-quality investigation of educational questions are explored. An example of such investigation, in conjunction with an experimental economics program using self paced instruction suggests that we could learn something about the educational process if we tried. (JH)

The study attempted to determine whether the failure of Down Syndrome (DS) individuals to show the modality effect (the tendency to show better short-term memory for brief sequences of auditory rather than visual information) is due to the verbal-expressive demands of oral responding in memory tasks. DS, nonretarded (NR) and MR (non-DS mentally…