This critique of E.D. Hirsch's book, "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know," argues that because Hirsch confuses memorized facts with learned facts, he ignores the importance of constructing meaning and fails to realize that students will not remember what they do not understand. (TE)

This article is E.D. Hirsh's response to a foregoing critique of his book "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know." He argues that the distorted image depicted by Estes, Gutman, and Harrison obscures the promise of the cultural literacy initiative to improve learning in our schools. (TE)

Students often fail to apply knowledge and skills learned in one context to other situations. Although the implicit assumption in educational practice has been that transfer takes care of itself, a knowledge of the mechanisms of transfer can enable educators to help their students integrate general and local knowledge. (TE)

Discusses flaws in research about second-language learning strategies, including the restricted scope of strategies envisaged in the studies, the lack of theory-relatedness, the research methodology used, and the cultural universality/specificity of learning strategies. (CB)

The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, designed for limited English proficient (LEP) students who are being prepared to participate in mainstream content area instruction, provides transitional instruction at intermediate and advanced English-as-a-Second-Language levels through three components: a curriculum correlated to mainstream…

Investigates the effectiveness of the Vocabulary Overview Guide in improving vocabulary comprehension and retention. Concludes that, compared to traditional methods of listing words and studying definitions, the guide increases vocabulary comprehension, retention, and metacognitive awareness. (MM)

Data collected regarding the learning strategies of English-as-a-second-language students (N=33) working with computerized spelling and dictation lessons revealed that the strategies of advance preparation, monitoring input, and monitoring output were used according to the complexity of the learning task. The monitoring input strategy was more…

Describes how reformulation can be used as a strategy for teaching academic writing to non-native language users (especially in the research context) and applies the strategy to two examples of research written by non-natives. (Author/CB)

Describes characteristics of distance education which promote lifelong learning, and introduces criteria for promoting lifelong learning in traditional university instructional settings. Topics discussed include the role of distance learning in higher education, teaching methods and learning strategies for both types of instruction, and Faure's…

Criticizes the overwhelming emphasis placed on printed material in school learning. Shows how a variety of physical and visual stimuli can provide as much or more information than written statements. Includes examples based on two historical photographs and a modern plastic food container. (GEA)

A review of research on student cognitive processes considers students' perceptions and expectations, students' perceptions of teachers' actions, attention, motivation, factual learning and memory, comprehension and knowledge acquisition, and learning strategies and metacognitive processes and suggests implications for teacher education in each of…

Compared a traditional whole class format to the impact of two cooperative learning techniques, Student Teams-Achievement Divisions and Teams-Games-Tournaments, on classroom climate among students. Supports the conclusion that choice of classroom structure can bias classroom climate in favor of or against different ethnic groups. (Author/ABB)

Reviews relevant research in reading comprehension strategies and cooperative learning methods. Describes reading strategy groups as an approach for content area instruction, along with practical suggestions for implementation. (JD)

The literature on metacognition and students having learning problems is reviewed. Investigations of metacognitive instruction to enhance memory skills, to increase text comprehension, and to improve written expression and math performance are reported. The roles of the teacher and learner in acquiring and controlling the targeted cognitive…

Describes the development of an artificial intelligence system called GIDE that analyzes student errors in statistics problems by inferring the students' intentions. Learning strategies involved in problem solving are discussed and the inclusion of goal structures is explained. (LRW)