Discusses the difficulties teachers have in allowing natural literacy learning to take place in their classrooms and makes suggestions for dealing with the problems. Elaborates on two sets of conflicting ideologies: a fragmented view of literacy versus the holistic view and a natural approach to learning versus contrived/engineered learning. (EL)

Reviews eight documents from the ERIC system that deal with teaching and learning: styles, processes, classroom interaction, innovative techniques (particularly in theatre classes), and obtaining grants to finance innovative ideas. (PD)

Research identifies two interrelated memories--one that retains facts and symbols and one that retains motor and problem-solving skills. These and other findings challenge educators to determine what students should memorize, to help them move from random memorization to creating useful concepts, and to teach students to use memory in problem…

Presents and assesses recent studies on the silent period, that is, the period at the beginning of second language instruction when language learners do not speak the target language. Describes a survey of the silent period of primary school children and its consequences for acquisition theory and for language teaching. (SED)

Discusses questioning techniques and lists 10 mutuality-enhancing devices, including hinting, simplifying, and making use of hesitations and pauses. (DF)

Argues for combining two approaches to writing instruction: the school community perspective, in which writing is a learning tool when it engages students in thinking processes; and the disciplinary community perspective, in which writing serves as a tool for learning the intellectual and social conventions of a content area. (HTH)

Current literature on identification and instructional remediation of subtypes of learning-disabled readers (LDR) are reviewed. Preliminary findings suggest that not all LDR children manifest the same oral language, memory, and perceptual deficits that impede decoding accuracy and efficiency and all do not respond equally well (or poorly) to the…

The author attempts to state the most important principles for guiding the educative process when regard is given not simply to the psychology of learning, but also to the ethical demands. These principles involve respect for personality, learning inherent in living, guidance for quality and degree of living, and socially useful activities. (CT)

Several varieties of perceptual independence are investigated, including sampling independence, dimensional orthogonality, stimulus separability and integrality, and performance parity. A general multivariate perceptual theory is developed, and a precise definition of perceptual independence is offered. (Author/LMO)

Explains the nature of concept maps and presents several procedures for using and evaluating them. Indicates that because the maps facilitate a sharing of meaning unhampered by any lack of verbal skills, teachers and students can judge with some degree of clarity how well a particular concept is understood. (JN)

Types of comparisons for evaluation of mnemonics were identified based on equating exposure to the to-be-learned associations or on total study time. Experiments on the cueword method illustrated how highly analytical experiments on mnemonics might be conducted and how choice of comparisons in research could affect mnemonic evaluation. (Author/DWH)

Presents an abbreviated version of a large scale investigation of second language attrition covering 50 years. Results yield benefits to teachers and students of foreign languages by leading to an understanding of how various procedures of acquisition affect the rate of loss and ultimately minimize the potential for later attrition. (SL)

Discusses a theoretical framework that draws together previous research on the role of the educator in children's learning. Urges teachers to create classroom "communities" in which children have some control over their learning environment and interact with teachers and peers to carry out legitimate personal and social tasks. (HTH)

Argues that social interaction with peers is a necessary part of children's internal structuring of spelling. Describes briefly two classroom experiments in which children responded to each other's invented spellings. (HTH)

The research on effective learning is reviewed in order to illustrate changes in how learning processes are understood. Using this research, the cognitive functions of effective learners are described and the implications for the characteristics, and functions of effective learning training programs are discussed. (Author/MLW)