Describes visual experiments that illustrate some basic concepts in chemistry and their principles. (KHR)

Offers some suggestions as to how science fiction, especially television science fiction programs such as "Star Trek" and "Star Wars", can be drawn into physics lessons to illuminate some interesting issues. (Author/KHR)

Describes a collaborative teaching experience with K-12 students during four-week-long inquiry journeys into the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and reflection. (Author/KHR)

Shares the author's minute-by-minute decisions in working with an alienated student whose beliefs about reading created a wall of resistance to learning. Notes the student's beliefs about his learning potential and his lack of strategies were at the root of his reading problems. Concludes that before alienated students can overcome the restrictive…

Discusses the knowledge-on-demand (KOD) paradigm as it emerges from the needs of a knowledge-based society. Presents basic requirements for on-demand learning; discusses front-end users, such as learners, and back-end users, such as publishers and service providers; defines typical user tasks; and outlines work towards a technical solution to…

Discusses the adverse effects of computer anxiety on student performance and reports an application of a change management process to a class on computers in business that attempted to reduce computer anxiety and improve learning and performance through a pedagogical intervention. Considers implications of results that showed lower anxiety but not…

Measured the effects of specific white space features on undergraduates' learning from instructional Web materials and investigated learners' beliefs regarding Web-based instruction. Achievement results indicated that if overall content and structure are sound, minor differences regarding table borders and vertical spacing in text do not hinder…

Discusses the use of new educational technologies and the opportunities that can transform teaching techniques and possibilities for learning. Suggests a set of target areas that technology should transform in the socio-cultural learning environment and illustrates their use in an undergraduate phonetics course. (Author/LRW)

Provides background on concept mapping and discusses concept maps drawn by library science graduate students in a reference and information services course. Applications of concept mapping of significance to librarians--in reference service, instruction, and research--are considered. Several sample concept maps are included. (19 references) (MES)

Describes an alternate lexico-semantic view of native language acquisition and adult second language learning that proposes that humans acquire and learn words, names, titles, expressions, sayings, and formulas as undifferentiated lexical items first and then develop systems to store and retrieve the lexemes and combine them into phrases and…

Discusses a textbook annotation strategy. Examines the effectiveness and efficiency of the strategy. Finds that training students to annotate text enables them to perform effectively over time. Presents practical teaching suggestions for working with different types of students. (RS)

A literature-based model of good information processing is sketched describing how metacognitive knowledge influences strategy selection and use. Three problems for learning-disabled students in using study strategies productively are discussed: neurological impairments; deficiencies in general world knowledge; and negative beliefs, attitudes, and…

Premature academic instruction may undermine a child's learning tendencies or dispositions. Informal small-group interaction can strengthen dispositions and set the context for acquisition of knowledge, skills, and feelings. Teachers should focus on learning goals rather than performance goals. (SH)

Offers a solicited response to a question about learning styles, and discusses how this information should affect planning and implementing instruction. Finds that the instructional implications of the body of research on learning styles and learning modalities are limited. (MG)

Observes that preparing and searching a database will help students analyze, synthesize, and evaluate data, but stresses the need to distinguish between teaching how to process information and how to think. Sees the database as a tool in teaching social studies but maintains that the primary goal is to teach thinking skills. (CH)