Reports on an exploratory study of a metacognitive approach to teaching low achieving secondary students. Asserts that the research team hoped to examine a process whereby a dialog about learning processes would develop. Finds that all students indicated that they were able to focus on learning as a topic of conversation. (CFR)

Reports case studies using personal construct psychology and the logic of fuzzy sets to elucidate the content and organization of two elementary school teachers' knowledge of fractions and mathematical pedagogy. Results identified four personal constructions that affected classroom events; knowledge of fractions, general pedagogical knowledge,…

Describes a study of high school students that examined responses to a music video dealing with teenage pregnancy. Students' motivations for viewing music videos, experiences with sex and pregnancy, and family communication patterns are related to the cognitive activities of thinking about the video content and relating it to their own lives. (20…

Reports a study examining the concurrent validity of concept maps as vehicles for documenting and exploring conceptual change in biology. Elementary education science methods students who were instructed on marine life zones showed significant differences on their concept maps on this topic. (PR)

Presents a concise introduction and overview of "constructivism." Constructivists assert that knowledge is constructed by individuals; constructivists advocate classroom procedures that encourage students to identify the subjectivity and biases of existing interpretations and to arrive at their own conclusions. Examines four hypothetical teacher…

This study examined the subject-pedagogical content knowledge transformation process associated with middle school physical education teachers' curricular decision making. Findings indicated that teachers shared a common subject content knowledge base but demonstrated personalized pedagogical content knowledge repertoires. Classroom curriculum was…

Considers some of the complexities of text, ownership, memorization, and plagiarism. The article suggests that plagiarism needs to be understood in terms of complex relationships between text, memory, and learning as part of an undertaking to explore different relationships between learning, literacy, and cultural difference. (49 references)…

Summarizes interviews with British West Indies children concerning the production of art and the role of the artist. Demonstrates that children's perceptions undergo a shift from naive realism (pretty things make pretty pictures) to a more interpretive stance (the artist's efforts define the final product). (MJP)

Presents the results of an experiment that evaluated the efficiency of analogy in the conceptual restructuring of a science topic. The experiment involved a fifth-grade class studying water and heat flow. Discovered that analogy can act as an effective trigger for restructuring knowledge. (MJP)

Development of interactive e-learning courseware has focused largely on the instructional design approach of multimedia applications and has brought about a substantial amount of success in producing engaging multimedia educational resources. In this article I explore how the multimedia instructional strategies and processes can be enhanced by…

There have been few discoveries in geology more important than "deep time"--the understanding that the universe has existed for countless millennia, such that man's existence is confined to the last milliseconds of the metaphorical geological clock. The influence of deep time is felt in a variety of sciences including geology, cosmology,…

The relationship between teachers' and students' personal constructs regarding intrinsic motivation in the mathematics class were examined in this study. Participants were six middle-school mathematics teachers and 30 students from 5 classes. Videotape, direct observation, individual interviews, and repertory grid tasks focused on the ways in…

Research was conducted to gain insight into both the facilitators of consciousness-raising and the nature of this emancipatory process. Consciousness-raising was defined as a transformation of consciousness in which individuals experience critical reflection and action that develops a deepened consciousness of their situation leading them to…

This paper begins with a summary and analysis of Robert Glaser's arguments, presented in his paper "Education and Thinking: The Role of Knowledge," which contend there are strong interactions between structures of knowledge and cognitive processes, and that problem solving and reasoning are taught best in the context of the acquisition…

Higher order thinking skills are inevitably developed or exercised relative to some discipline. The discipline may be formal or informal, may or may not be represented in a school curriculum, or relate to a wide variety of domains. Moreover, the development or exercise of thinking skills may take place at differing levels of generality. This paper…