Behavior analysis has contributed dramatically toward educational improvement. It has helped to produce impressive increases in rates and durability of simple and complex learning among students with widely disparate capabilities and levels of preparation. Behavior analysis has demonstrated that: (1) everyone can learn; (2) complex skills can be…

A description is given of an inservice course designed to acquaint teachers with current constructivist thinking and research in cognitive and developmental psychology. The focus was on sensitizing the teachers to the challenges of creating a "thinking environment" in their classrooms. The course was designed to engage students as…

Two instructional design alternatives are described and discussed: (1) the supplantation model of Ausburn and Ausburn (1978), where learning strategies are built into the instructional materials; and (2) a generative design model, where strategies are "built" into the learner. These contrasting models are proposed as representing the…

Suggestions are offered for applying learning techniques for a variety of learning situations. The approaches are applicable to learning medical school content as well as other advanced educational content. Ways to control external distractors are suggested, including a systematic approach to completing large tasks, such as writing a research…

A study compared the relative effectiveness of analogical study guides, essay writing, and self-generation of questions in learning factual information. The subjects, 31 female undergraduate English education majors at the University of Georgia (who had already demonstrated their competence to complete the experiment), read three pairs of…

This discussion of the contributions that cognitive psychology can make to the next generation of instructional design methods begins by comparing behaviorally-based and cognitively-based instructional design systems. Some possible improvements in instructional design are then presented, and it is argued that cognition, or student thought…

The literature and theories of the role of self-assessment in the metacognitive development of children with learning handicaps is reviewed. Self-assessment is seen to be a prerequisite for metacognitive growth. The literature on purposes of self-assessment and ways to assess a student's actual use of self-assessment indicates that learning…

Second-grade children were given general training in monitoring the utility of strategies, the affective consequences of strategy use, or no strategy-monitoring training. They then performed an associative learning task, first without strategy instructions and then with instructions to use either an effective or ineffective strategy. All training…

Two experiments were conducted with 80 college students to examine factors associated with the crossmodal facilitation of learning Braille symbols when the visual modality is utilized. In Experiment 1 subjects using the haptic mode were informed of both the structure of the braille cell and the range of dot numerosity of the symbols to be…

The paper reports on a study of Braille learning in which subjects (N=96) were provided with information about the structure of the Braille alphabet and expressly instructed to use that information during learning. A previous experiment had found that merely providing subjects with information about Braille alphabet structure had no effect on…

One of the major trends occurring in the area of task analysis methodology is the development of better methods to analyze cognitive tasks, including new methodologies for analyzing the ways in which knowledge should be structured within a student's head to facilitate given types of performance. The most important trend is the integration of task…

In order to determine the effectiveness of a reciprocal teaching procedure, a study examined the effects of instruction in metacognitive techniques on the reading comprehension of technical students. Subjects were 150 male students in a post-secondary occupational training program in diesel mechanics. A 4-part metacognitive process was taught and…

In order to test the hypothesis that bizarre imagery can be an effective mnemonic aid with delayed testing, a context of mixed materials, and an adequate stimulus presentation pace, a study examined 40 undergraduates who were randomly presented with three paired-associate lists (normal, bizarre, and mixed). Within each list the sentences consisted…

An eighth grade English teacher with 12 years of teaching experience in a conventional classroom setting decided to modify teaching and learning strategies to respond to the needs, interests, and abilities of individual students in a group setting. This action research study used the method of reflective analysis to analyze the process and results…

This book describes strategies, techniques, and principles that teachers can use to improve students' thinking skills. The strategies can generally be adaptated for any grade level or subject area. Chapters provide information on: (1) a rationale for the teaching of thinking; (2) thinking and thinking skills; (3) selecting and defining thinking…