Presents background information about Vygotskian theories. Describes Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Discusses a model of attitude development that incorporates the ZPD, meta-awareness, the components of an attitude, and factors influencing attitude development. Suggests educational implications. (45 references) (MDH)

Presents a conceptual framework to explain the differential success of Japanese children in mathematics learning based on Stevenson and Stigler's effort-versus-ability model, and argues that the Japanese effort model needs to be examined in a social context including the factors of dependence and obligation. (23 references) (Author/MKR)

Discusses literature-based classrooms and influences on students' reading habits. Highlights include beliefs about learning and teaching, including a comparison of the transmission model and the transactional model of education; the importance of literary experiences for language development and literacy learning, including phonological…

A study with 29 preschoolers showed that a statistically significant number of them successfully reassigned tags in counting (ordinality) but failed to predict that differently ordered counts would produce the same outcome (cardinality). Results indicated that children may not entirely understand implications of their counting actions. (Contains…

Discusses constructivist teaching, students' prior knowledge, teachers' construction of models of students' mathematics, and the need to make the role of the mathematics teacher problematic. (three references) (MKR)

This article reviews research on the influence of affect on thoughts, cognition, and behavior of students with learning disabilities and finds that induced positive affect leads to more accurate performance on math, greater learning of new vocabulary, and better performance on new learning tasks. (Author/DB)

This paper discusses guidelines for devising a hierarchy when fading response prompts in training individuals with developmental disabilities. Existing guidelines are seen as poorly defined, inconsistent, and lacking both theoretical and experimental support. An alternative theoretical account is proposed which suggests that prompts in a hierarchy…

Argues that mathematical learning should be viewed as a process of active individual construction and a process of enculturation into the mathematical practices of wider society. It further argues that the sociocultural perspective theorizes the conditions for the possibility of learning, whereas constructivist perspectives focus on what students…

Examines three ways that constructivism is aligned with multicultural education in formal educational environments: (1) learners organize ideas in unique ways; (2) learners' self-awareness and self-concept influence learning; and (3) a learner's personal history filters new information. (GR)

This commentary on EC 605 189 discusses assumptions of gentle teaching, its use of supportive behavioral techniques, and criticisms of gentle teaching. The paper concludes that gentle teaching is distinct from applied behavior analysis (ABA) in its unconditional valuing and focus on mutual change and is congruent with ABA in use of several…

Social learning theory is evaluated from a historical perspective that goes up to the present. Sears and others melded psychoanalytic and stimulus-response learning theory into a comprehensive explanation of human behavior. Bandura emphasized cognitive and information-processing capacities that mediate social behavior. (LB)

Author argues that constructivism is flawed because of its inability to come to grips with the essential issues of culture, power, and discourse in the classroom. Presents an account of a sociocultural approach to teaching based on the notions that learning is situated in contexts, students have their own cultural perspectives, and classroom…

Discusses what Western nations could learn from Japan's educational system. Negative features include (1) rote learning; (2) standardization of materials taught; (3) government control of textbooks; and (4) an examination system that does not promote individualism. Positive features include the high value placed on education and the work ethic.…

Experimentally examines reorganization, a fundamental component of William T. Powers' theory of mind based on the control theory of behavior. Attempts to model reorganization, focusing on improvements in performance with practice and how practice influences attention. Speculates how outputs from higher levels of the control hierarchy are involved…

Discusses the nature of control, examining how organisms as control systems sense or monitor the variable being controlled when responding to environmental changes. Argues that learning is the development of control in an attempt to fit the two phenomena central to traditional learning theory--conditioning and reinforcement--into the broader…