School board members' perceptions of the socialization process involved in the learning and development of their roles are described in this report. Methodology involved indepth interviews with 28 school board members from two rural and three suburban public school districts in Pennsylvania and New York, document analysis, and observation.…

An overview of current theories of reading and the acquisition of literacy skills by children is presented. A research framework in which reading can be described in terms of the processes employed in other language uses is introduced and used to explain the failure of some children to learn to read. An ongoing research program is described that…

This paper proposes a theory that can account for differences between everyday and formal mathematics knowledge and a set of processes by which informal knowledge is transformed into formal mathematics. After an introduction, the paper is developed in five sections. The first section lays out the nature of informal, everyday mathematics knowledge.…

Interest is examined in relation to its role in the learning process. A broadly based model of learning is presented, and implications of the model for the educational context are considered. In the framework presented, learning involves the perception, interpretation, and storage of information about the environment under particular motivational…

Previous research has cast doubt on children's ability to use specified evidence when making causal inferences, or, indeed, to differentiate between the specified evidence and their own preconceptions, or "prior theories." The present study continues previous work by distinguishing between children's reasoning in conditions where…

Findings of a study that explored the ways in which teachers' understandings about pedagogy evolve are presented in this paper. Previous teacher development research suggests that teachers' understandings evolve in a lawful, linear way. Although the expression of the different levels is clear, the evolution process is not. Methodology involved a…

In response to the search for ways to create forms of schooling that are more holistic and natural, and more integrated and interwoven, this collection of articles pulls together elements of the multifaceted concept of curriculum integration. Divided into six sections, the chapters explore the reasons and rationale for moving toward more holistic…

This paper reports on two studies, one quantitative and the other qualitative, on the effectiveness and influence of Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs) at the University of Washington. A quantitative panel study compared 442 freshmen participating in 21 FIGs with 1818 non-participating freshmen. Findings indicated that the FIG program provided a…

Traditional methods of both first and second language teaching have commonly relied on simplification, restricting the range of language forms and functions to be learned and then practicing those forms to achieve mastery. These methods, however, fail to consider seriously the questions of how language develops in natural contexts, what language…

This paper identifies the bases and rationale for the concept of cooperative learning; describes the dynamics of the cooperative learning approach; and proposes methods that college faculty can use to enhance student motivation and learning. Cooperative learning is defined and is reported to have positive effects on student achievement, human…

Reciprocal teaching is an instructional procedure designed to teach heterogeneous groups of learners, including the educationally disadvantaged, how to approach text in a thoughtful manner. In reciprocal teaching, teachers and students take turns leading discussions about shared text to achieve joint understanding through the application of the…

New analytic procedures are presented for determining the relationship between students' experience in classrooms and learning curriculum content. Based on data obtained from two studies in the Understanding Learning and Teaching Project (ULTP) conducted at the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), an analysis of the multi-layered nature of…

Two studies compared the effectiveness of the bilingual-dichotic method with conventional diotic methods for teaching Russian vocabulary to English-speakers. Subjects were 101 college students. In the bilingual-dichotic method, the foreign word is presented to the right ear and simultaneously, the equivalent native word is presented to the left…

Proactive teachers do not simply react to student behavior but use their thorough understanding of classroom communication to shape the pattern of class interaction. Proactive teachers are characterized by their recognition of the mutual influence of teachers and students in the learning process, their participation in social perspective taking,…

The final report consists of three studies on aspects of a common theme, that a hearing impaired (HI) person's performance on information processing tasks depends on interactions of that person's cognitive structure and strategies with properties of materials to be processed and task demands. The first study, "Recall of Temporal/Spatial…