Discusses quality assurance benchmarks for distance education and describes results of a survey of academic staff at higher education institutions in Hong Kong that measured their perception of quality assurance in Web-based learning. Examines institutional support; course development; teaching/learning process; course structure; student support;…

Interviews Eleanor Duckworth, author of "The Having of Wonderful Ideas," concerning her thoughts on teaching and learning. A former student of Piaget, Duckworth taught in the Elementary Science Study and eventually became a teacher educator. She emphasizes the importance of starting from teachers' knowledge and understanding how children…

Offers a response from two educators concerning a question about commonalities across the mathematics, reading, and English disciplines. Suggests ways to create a supportive curriculum in light of new developments. (MG)

The article describes the steps taken to develop and implement a learning-styles-based instructional approach in a 1300-student high school in Corsicana, Texas. Noted are positive effects on students, teachers, achievement, attitudes, and behavior. (DB)

Reports a study of teachers' and writers' interpretations of scenario assignments. Finds that, among the three groups tested (graduate students trained to teach rhetoric, academically successful undergraduate students trained as tutors, and entering freshmen) experienced writers' interpretations adhered most closely to the interpretive community's…

Reviews the development of clinical supervision, drawing on theoretic underpinnings established by Morris Colgan and Robert Goldhammer. Analyzes the teaching-learning process inquiry modes necessary for supervision, including discovery, verification, explanation, interpretation and evaluation. All teachers should eventually become supervisors,…

Argues that the most important component in effective bibliographic instruction is the learning styles of students. The discussion examines learning styles, in general, and Kolb's theory of experiential learning, in particular. The use of Kolb's theory in a freshman library instruction program is described and evaluated. (10 references) (CLB)

Reports a case study of the village of Illukwewa, Sri Lanka, which examined traditional technologies, life skills and the feasibility of implementing formal learning programs based on these methods. Makes recommendations on focusing the learning process toward formal education. (KO)

The biographical method derives information from life histories to understand how and why adults transform themselves. Three types of transformation are (1) old-new, transforming new information to a familiar, safe environment; (2) home-abroad, achieving emancipation by exploring unfamiliar environments; and (3) inside-outside, elaborating a…

In a study of 151 college freshmen of both sexes, cognitive complexity and learning orientation revealed gender-related qualitative differences within parallel cognitive structures. Different cognitive structures were accompanied by different learning orientations. (Author/TE)

The recent Carvo/Chall phonics debate (in the September and November "Kappan" issues) reduces children's early literacy development to a battle over methods. Reductionist disagreements and simplistic notions about complex behaviors must yield to a theoretically grounded, unified approach to literacy learning and instructional practices.…

Major approaches of describing or examining linguistic data from a potential target language (input) are analyzed for adequacy in addressing the concerns of second language learning theory. Suggestions are made for making the best of these varied concepts of input and for reformulation of a unified concept. (MSE)

Summarizes prominent research-based perspectives on children's thinking about their own achievement. Identifies effective tactics for classroom intervention and teacher influence. (RJC)

Rhythmic groups of cyclical movements--action cycles--were identified during interactions between adults and subjects (12 children, aged 8-18, and 6 young adults with profound mental handicap). Subjects performed similar actions for apparently similar reasons at similar rates to their caregivers, giving strong indication of a biologically robust…

The social cognitive conception of self-regulated learning presented here involves a triadic analysis of component processes and an assumption of reciprocal causality among personal, behavioral, and environmental triadic influences. Central roles for academic self-efficacy beliefs and three self-regulatory processes (self-observation,…