This book presents a comprehensive survey and analysis of the concept of self-direction in learning. Part 1 (Chapters 1-3) distinguishes uses and meanings of the term self-direction and provides an historical introduction. Part 2 (Chapters 4-7) contains a more careful analysis of the four principal domains of self-direction: personal autonomy,…

Building on the assumption that the most important skill for the future is the ability to think, an initial framework for an intellectual processes curriculum theory is described. A definition of intellectual processes is formulated first: Intellectual processes are those mental operations that enable one to acquire new knowledge, apply that…

This study sought to develop theoretical propositions for the institutional, course, instructor, and student characteristics of the learning environment where interactive learning techniques are used in college-level business courses. Using an interpretive case study method with examination of documents, observations of instructors and students,…

In some areas of the college curriculum, such as the humanities and social sciences, the process of transforming the curriculum to reflect women's studies has reached a fairly sophisticated level. Other disciplines, however, especially the sciences, have proposed greater dilemmas for feminist scholars. This paper presents a multidimensional…

This paper discusses how concepts and procedural skills in problem-solving tasks, as well as affects and emotions, can be subjected to meaningful measurement (MM), based on a multisource model of learning and a constructivist information-processing theory of knowing. MM refers to the quantitative measurement of conceptual and procedural knowledge…

Health behaviors of all students, including adolescents, have direct impact upon both personal well being and actualization of potential for maximum learning. This paper reviews examples of concrete health behaviors that both positively and negatively influence the two factors, and summarizes present objectives for the nation in the health…

Some children become capable readers and writers before ever attending school and without exposure to formal instruction. This phenomenon--sometimes referred to as natural literacy development--is not, in the strictest sense, natural; as the adult presents much of the literacy environment to the child in a socialized, mediated form, teaching is…

While no one method can possibly solve all the problems in an educational system, the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) addresses many. The PSI method is a self-paced, mastery learning approach based on reinforcement and personal attention. It is typified by five characteristics that help to meet or minimize the adverse aspects of…

An experiment employed cognitive based teaching and learning procedures in an undergraduate educational psychology course. The procedures were strongly influenced by David Ausubel's theory on learning and related skills. Ausubel defines effective learning as a process by which humans understand the structure of knowledge and consciously make…

The developer of the two-cone model of second language teaching and learning outlines the original model and its concepts, and presents some further ideas concerning it. The model represents the native and second languages as two cones with pronunciation at the apex, morphology and syntax (grammar) at the center, and vocabulary around grammar and…

Supported is the argument that cognitive development should not be studied alone, in isolation from wider questions about the history of thought in the scientific community. Interest in the topic resulted from dissatisfaction with British secondary school Language-for-Learning movement assertions that learners' active use of their own speech and…

Data is presented in support of the assertion that the interlanguage hypothesis should be extended from adult second language acquisition settings to those non-simultaneous child language acquisition settings where the major sociolinguistic variable is the absence of peers who are native speakers of the target language. (Author/RM)

The third of four symposium papers argues that, if instructional methods are to improve learning, they must have two aspects: a direct trace to a specific learning process, and empirical support that demonstrates their significance. Focusing on the tracing process, the paper presents an information processing model of learning that can be used by…

The relationship between goal orientation and the use of learning strategies and their effects on learning outcomes were investigated. The three goal orientations considered were: (1) task orientation, which involves learning for its own sake; (2) ego orientation, which involves a desire to perform better than others; and (3) work avoidance, which…

If the current state of crisis in education in this country is to be remedied, certain reliable and verified concepts of education must be asserted and maintained. This paper suggests that the core concepts of the social sciences may be learned through exercises involving excerpts from "Great Books." These exercises involve learning the…