Evidence from the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) program suggests that at-risk students show little understanding of content without first receiving concentrated instruction in understanding itself. Teaching thinking skills to at-risk students requires a thinking environment, consisting of exploratory conversations, stimulation of curiosity,…

Describes a teaching unit that involves students in reading and analyzing elements of humor in young people's literature. Focuses on what makes quality humorous books funny as well as literary. (FL)

Four different methods of study were presented to fifty-six learning disabled students, who were to learn characteristics of North American minerals. Methods were: (1) direct instruction; (2) mnemonic instruction; (3) reduced-list direct-instruction; and (4) free-study. Results supported findings that learning was superior in the mnemonic…

Tests infants' dual-process performance (a process mediating response decrements called habituation and a state-dependent process mediating response increments called sensitization) on visual habituation-dishabituation tasks. (HOD)

To take advantage of the emerging technological revolution, education must undertake its own revolution. Otherwise, technology will never be successfully integrated into the curriculum and may effect change without improvement. Primary focus must be on the future of curriculum and instruction, particularly discipline-specific process skills and…

Engineering education is viewed as the development of the quality of thinking in students, and the implications of this approach for student assessment are discussed. (MSE)

Considers nature of learning; significance of promoting learning rather than teaching; active nature of learning from experience; role of simulations and games in promoting learning; process of debriefing and its relationship to reflection; and teacher role. The Learning System, which relates general systems theory to process of learning, is…

Reviews the history of research designed to determine the effects of media upon the learning process and the ways that learners utilize media to perceive and process information. Research methodologies are discussed, theories developed over the past decade are presented, and directions for further research are suggested. (LRW)

Using a random sample of 68 high school students learning about consumer credit in home economics classes, the study measured learning of an experimental group using computer-assisted instruction and a control group using supervised reading methods. Pretests and posttests indicated greater learning gains in the experimental group. (Author/CH)

This article has three goals: to set forth some general claims about the course of skill acquisition; to discuss a series of counter intuitive predictions derived from the ACT theory; and to review the state of empirical evidence relevant to these predictions. (LMO)

Children's solutions to simple word problems requiring addition or subtraction skills develop through four stages: (1) modeling with objects; (2) utilization of both modeling and counting strategies; (3) reliance on counting strategies; and (4) reliance on number facts. The current primary mathematics curriculum fails to capitilize on rich…

Outlines two hypotheses about the reasons for obscurity in expository writing and notes that neither accounts for the general results of an exploratory study of the writing of postgraduates nor for the individual cases presented. Argues that a crucial factor is a person's implicit model of expository writing. (FL)

Criticizes the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude 2 (DLTA-2): (1) scoring criteria for the Story Construction Test are questionable; (2) the Word Fragment Test may not be practically significant; (3) the Picture Book is inconvenient to use without an index or table of contents. One major strength is the provision for combining subtest scores. (SRT)

This study examined the interrelationship between the support system and learning materials of a distance learning source and the influence this relationship has on students' experiences and approaches to learning. Learners' experiences with two different distance learning courses which used the same learning materials but different support…

Discusses problem areas in instruction, course development, and training administration, suggesting that a dominant factor in training effectiveness is an awareness of the limitations of the human mind to absorb material within a limited time period. Why the rule of seven can increase effectiveness of all training is explained. (MBR)