Some aspects of a theory of grammar are presented which derive from a formal theory of language acquisition. One aspect of the theory is a universal constraint on analyzability known as the Freezing Principle, which supplants a variety of constraints proposed in the literature. A second aspect of the theory is the Invariance Principle, a…

It is hypothesized that free, spontaneous interaction cannot be easily attained in language courses which are rigid and mechanical. For this reason, the author urges the development of instructional materials which facilitate a smooth and natural transition from "skill-getting" to "skill-using." Discussion of Jerome Bruner's theory of language…

A Piagetian Task Instrument (PTI) consisting of three tasks developed by Piaget was administered to 141 preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a mathematical class, 19 preservice secondary mathematics teachers, and 11 calculus honors students. This instrument was scored by methods similar to those of Schwebel (ED 063 896) and McKinnon and…

Various facts and activities of the Centre for Learning and Development (CLD) at McGill University in Quebec are described in this annual report, 1973-74. The main goals of CLD are to offer services and support to faculty in matters of course design, development, and evaluation; to seek out and introduce new developments in educational theory and…

Classes for senior adults (adults sixty years old or older, or retired) have become commonplace. Many instructors have no experience with this kind of student, so the need for instructors trained in special learning theories and practices that apply to senior adults has been identified. This report is designed to serve as a refresher or supplement…

This paper presents a number of theoretical perspectives on child development, the concept of play, and the role of the adult in the play space. It argues for the position that adults must stop planning the curriculum in such a way that it segments and separates various aspects of children's lives and must continually reaffirm the validity of…

This paper raises questions about the significance of errors made by language learners. The discussion is divided into four parts: (1) definition of error analysis, (2) the present status of error analysis research, including an overview of the theories of Lado, Skinner, Chomsky, Corder, Nemser, and Selinker; (3) the subdivisions of error analysis…

This study assesses the curriculum strategies indicated by the intellectual orientation and personality dimensions of students in a Health Technology Program at a community college. When designing curriculum, educators in allied health programs frequently overlook the characteristics of the students the program must serve. This study explores the…

This paper proposes a broader and more rigorous approach to the analysis of errors produced by second language learners. As a supplement to longitudinal studies, a procedure called "lateralisation" is advocated as a way of providing the researcher with more data than is normally available through examination of learner text alone. In…

The introductory portion of this document reviews the definitions of cognitive style and presents the models of cognitive style developed by James McKenney, Samuel Messick, and Joseph Hill. It also discusses the application of these models to education. The annotated bibliography is designed as a review of selected materials that provide an…

A major objective of this study was to seek the relationship of principles derived from traditional paired-associates transfer experiments as applied to the reading task. In this experiment 10 subjects from upper-division education courses, all volunteers, received various types of preliminary training with letter stimuli; then all subjects…

Using 48 educable mentally handicapped students (ages 12-18) as subjects, a study investigated the effect of prompted and trial-and-error procedures on the learning of a paired-associate task, when items (concrete nouns of less than six letters) in one list were drawn from the same categories (animals, food) and in a second list, from different…

Essays call for the development of a theory of university adult education and for the development of new and expanded research into basic problems of curriculum planning, learning theory, and evaluation of the results of liberal adult education programs. The urban university is asked to examine its purposes in adult education, which is often its…

The author objects to criticism of current programed language instruction (PLI) materials. In a "conventional FL (foreign language) class" of 120 class hours a year, the amount of time spent in active, immediately reinforced responding by any individual student would be less than 100 minutes. This is in contrast to the shortest PLI program (53…

Although literature on educational objectives dates back more than 50 years, the last 20 years have seen a renewal of interest in objectives. The taxonomy approach currently in use expresses objectives in terms that are evidenced by pupil behavior. This approach deals with objectives that relate to three separate domains of learning: Cognitive,…