Focusing on the role of language in learning, this paper discusses schemata and symbolic thinking that help students learn from unfamiliar experiences. The first part of the paper introduces the idea of symbolic thinking by comparing students encountering new ideas with convention-goers making their way around a new city. The section suggests that…

In keeping with the trend toward active, participative learning, observation projects for speech communication students can allow them to experiment with designing and carrying out a study of human communication. Students can be encouraged to look at the dynamics of a church congregation, a courtroom, a pre-game football huddle, or an office, and…

Everyone concerned with educational systems performance agrees that the improvement of teaching qualities is a high priority in any educational effort. Teachers are assigned the role of change agents and are presented with new challenges, e.g., to make education global and permanent, flexible enough to serve in any environment (in or out of the…

Despite increased interest in and acceptance of the concept and mandate of providing adaptive instruction to ensure schooling success for each student, a sizable gap exists between identification of specific educational practices and application of such practices in schools. The work described in this paper is aimed at examining the feasibility…

A study was conducted to examine learning from textbook sentences that provide examples. It was predicted that an example written succinctly and with a word order that emphasized its parallel semantic relations with the exemplified principle, such as "animals have parasites; dogs have fleas," would have a positive effect on idea comprehension. It…

Presbyopia, a condition which affects the eye's ability to change focus or to produce a clear image, makes an appropriate analogy through which to consider educational access for special needs students. Presbyopia can be corrected with properly fitted glasses; new "glasses" should be "prescribed" for teachers so that distortions related to student…

Free recall and cued recognition performance were studied in 53 field independent and 55 field dependent undergraduate education majors who were with or without structure at the time of learning and at the time of recall. Results indicated that field dependent learners recalled more of the textual material when provided with structure during both…

Negotiation can be used systematically in a communicative language teaching methodology that allows students to participate in decisions about what to learn, in what order, and how to adjust the learning process and materials to their own learning styles and particular problems. The teacher's role becomes that of manager or informant-model. Even…

A perspective about sex differences in relation to learning about computers which emphasizes the need to consider the context of societal beliefs and conditions is presented, as well as an analysis of the ways in which technology is viewed that have implications for how it is incorporated into educational settings. It is argued that, in addition…

One cognitive theory of spelling states that the spelling of words can be produced in one of three ways, depending on the amount and kind of information stored in the memory about a particular word. Assuming this theory as a foundation, this study reviewed two forms of computer assisted instruction developed in an effort to build an instructional…

This report reviews the history of open education, the philosophy supporting it, and some conclusions drawn from testing children who have been exposed to it. The basic theory of open education is that children learn in different ways at different times from things around them which interest them. Ideally, the teacher acts as a guide and resource…

A 3 x 3 x 2 factorial design was used with 120 undergraduate subjects to study the effects of question type on learning from prose. A 2,000-word reading passage on geological history was presented, with factual questions on each page. Questions were also presented after the reading activity. When compared to a reading only control group, the short…

Self talk (thoughts about one's self and own performance while learning or working) can affect cognitive and learning strategies that in turn affect specific learning techniques. Negative self talk can interfere with learning since it reinforces feelings of failure, thereby increasing the probability of continued failure, and maintains an…

A research design is described which refines standard classroom observation schedules and techniques in order to reveal the social organization of schooling as the environment for processes of cultural transmission. The author believes a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional study of classrooms and grade levels is the most effective way…

In two different studies the relationships between study time patterns, retrieval time patterns, and clustering were examined. In the first study middle Socioeconomic Status white students in grades 2 through 5 increased their use of the clustering strategy as a function of the organizational nature of the list. List composition facilitated…