Reports on studies examining the extent to which mothers tailor their speech to a child's level of linguistic ability. Methodological implications for language acquisition research are discussed. (AM)

Freshmen education students assume that their experience-based familiarity with learning processes is sufficient, but a naive and naturalistic theory of approach to the subject of education is necessary in order to fully understand both the scope and the internal mechanisms of the field. (LH)

Cognitive Flexibility (availability in the individual's repertoire of various strategies and ability to select those most effective to the required task) is suggested as an important individual-difference variable. Some methodological problems in the assessment of cognitive flexibility as related to human memory are discussed. (Editor/SJL)

First graders were taught to read words either in printed sentence contexts or printed singly on flash cards. Post-test scores indicated that context-trained children learned more about the semantic identities of printed words, while flash card-trained children could read the words faster and learned more about orthographic forms. (JMB)

Analyzes the meaning of Piaget's concept of abstraction and provides discussion of some of its shortcomings. (HM)

Discusses the "neo-Piagetian" concepts of Juan Pascual-Leone which are present in Piaget's theory. The concepts presented are the repertoire of schemes, mental processing capacity, and field dependence-independence. (Author/SA)

Discusses how science programs K-16 should be developed to meet the modern objectives of science education and restore its true meaning. The theories of Phenix and Ausubel are included in this discussion. (HM)

Briefly reviews Piagetian theory of cognitive development and discusses how this theory supports such instructional strategies as individualized activities, inquiry learning, and problem solving. (MLH)

Attempts to relate Jensen's Level I associative ability and Level II coceptual ability to the learning of meaningful verbal materials appropriate for the solution of factual and inferential problems presented in classroom-like situations. (Author/RK)

Reports on a study that used high school students to test the assumptions of the multiple hypothesis theory posited by Lawson to explain the essence of scientific reasoning. Contains 19 references. (DDR)

Describes the constructivist approach and how it can be implemented in a science activity on calcium carbonate, hard water, and the polyphenols extracted from boiling tea bags. (DKM)

Presents some of the early history of instructional development models; discusses the role of models in instructional development; reviews some of the more influential models; and discusses the possible impact of selected trends on future models of instructional development, including electronic performance support systems and rapid prototyping.…

Discusses writing instruction and the use of educational computer programs; provides a theoretical framework that includes cognitive tool partnerships, learning theory, writing research, and the Vygotskian theory of mediated learning; and describes a prompting tool that used the macro language of IBM's WordPerfect with college and middle school…

The characteristics of fun are that it is relative, situational, voluntary, and natural. Fun can have a positive effect on the learning process by inviting intrinsic motivation, suspending one's social inhibitions, reducing stress, and creating a state of relaxed alertness. Includes summary of questionnaire responses from 20 experiential education…

Presents the goals of the Plunkett and Marchman (PM) connectionist model of the acquisition of verb morphology, and responds to related criticisms. Claims that small vocabulary size allows young children to correctly produce both regular and irregular past tense forms, and that non-linearities in vocabulary growth are a contributing factor to the…