Advances an important new way to conceptualize and assess the causes of parental behavior by examining how internal working models influence parents' beliefs and behaviors. Suggests that a primary source of parents' feelings of self-efficacy with respect to child rearing, as well as their explanations for their children's misbehavior, is the…

Analysis of a large corpus (80 pairs of speakers) of 7-12 year olds suggests that 2 principles underlie the development of dialogue coordination skills. The seven to eight year olds establish a limited common dialogue lexicon, whereas older speakers show evidence of deep coordination processes aimed at establishing mutual intelligibility of a…

Utilizing geometric topics as examples, this article describes the uses of concept maps specific to the evaluation of teaching outcomes, the monitoring of student progress, and the introduction of learning activities, particularly the initiation of classroom discourse to encourage students to articulate their own ideas and to appreciate the ideas…

Principles of W. Kintsch's reading comprehension model (1978, 1980) were used to revise an expository text. Two experiments with 170 undergraduates and 125 Air Force recruits indicated that the principled revision conveyed the author's intentions better than the original text, suggesting the model's use for text improvement. (SLD)

Selective illustrative examples of students' learning difficulties and misconceptions in first-year general and organic chemistry are presented in the students' terms, followed by strategies the author uses to overcome the difficulties. Suggests that student misconceptions in first-year chemistry are not interrelated logically and are not prone to…

Provides examples of how concept mapping can be used to help overcome misconceptions in college chemistry. (PR)

Proposes using a hypermedia authoring program as a method for helping students make connections between definitions, representations, and applications of mathematical concepts. Provides an example involving fractions and discusses the advantages of using hypermedia. (eight references and four resources) (MDH)

Describes two metacognitive tools, concept mapping and Vee diagraming, and reports on classroom research utilizing these tools in grade one through university instruction. Psychological and epistemological foundations of these tools are discussed, and student attitude changes after using these tools are reported. (64 references) (LRW)

Examined is the hypothesis that an important intellectual acquisition during adolescence is the ability to generate arguments that involve reasoning to contradiction. Implication for hypothesis teaching at the elementary grades is discussed. (KR)

Students (n=40) who had experienced cooperative and individualistic concept-mapping experiences performed significantly better in solving three biological problems than did control students (n=20). No significant differences were found between students who mapped concepts cooperatively and those who mapped individually. There were mixed results…

Spatial aptitude tests designed for elementary school children were given to third-grade students from both suburban and rural schools in Pennsylvania. Results were scrutinized by the declared favorite subjects of the participants and organized by gender. Students who preferred science and mathematics did better on spatial tests than students who…

Examines two different types of human motivation, pragmatic and nonpragmatic. Experimental studies in preschool-age children in both the former Soviet Union and Western cultures are presented. Suggests that the two contrasting conceptions of human motivation lead to totally different practical strategies for transforming human motivation in…

Learning differences or disabilities can be best understood and addressed within the holistic/constructivist theory of knowledge construction and the reciprocal evolution of cognitive structures. Learning differences manifest themselves in the spirals of mental structuring activity that guide relational thinking. Such a perspective focuses on…

The authors analyzed data on the information processing abilities of incarcerated youth (n = 1480) within a correctional center. The goal was to develop a learning style profile of the juvenile offenders. Based on the current sample, they concluded that the bulk of the students were figural learners in terms of the preferred modality for receiving…

The purpose of this study was primarily to explore the effects of constructivist-oriented instruction on fifth graders' cognitive structures about biological reproduction. Furthermore, such effects on different science achievers were also investigated. The subjects of this study were 69 eleven year olds in Taiwan, who were assigned to either a…