Reviews recent investigations that analyze the word-recognition responses of children taught by different methods and reanalyzes the results of W. Wiley's 1928 naturalistic experiment in order to deduce the nature of the process underlying the learning of words. (Author/CS)

This paper asserts that through the process of observation, documentation, and interpretation of children's goals, strategies, and theories, teachers gain insight into children's thinking. As a result of this process, teachers are better able to engage children in conversations and investigations that have the potential to extend their learning in…

Stresses the importance of recitation as a study skill that retards the rapid rate at which individuals forget, citing the experiments of A. I. Gates who revealed that merely reading textual materials is not effective in learning. (RB)

Confirms the hypothesis that meaningful verbal instruction will be most efficient when it proceeds from the general to the specific, from the superordinate to the subordinate. (RB)

This article explores Scharmer's account of generative dialogue, which followed from Bohmian dialogue in the 1980s and Isaacs' research with the MIT Dialogue Project in the early 1990s. It presents the author's view that generative dialogue offers a useful theoretical framework and effective means for facilitating transformative learning processes…

Relating learning processes to the implementation of a career education program, the article summarizes four learning models for career awareness: the curriculum model, the guidance model, the conceptualized model, and the process model. Suggested teacher competencies and questions for program administrators are offered. (MW)

Vygotskian theory suggests that maturation and learning are not mutually exclusive; rather together they constitute development and are thus dependent on each other and interactive. The concept of the zone of proximal development involves determining two developmental levels of mental functions for each learner--the actual and the potential…

In library instruction, as in any instructional setting, individual learning styles should be addressed to ensure better learning and retention. Historical examination of learning styles research suggests that in order to appreciate the diversity of students' learning styles and to apply this understanding in a library or information environment,…

Research addressed two questions: (1) Does collaborative problem solving lead to greater learning among children than independent work? and (2) Does children's expertise and that of their partner influence learning? To address these questions, the performance of 5-year-old novice and expert singletons copying a Lego model was compared to that of…

Because so little research has been conducted on methods of teaching literature, two separate but related studies were conducted to (1) examine what it means to understand stable irony, and (2) to compare two methods, direct and tacit, of teaching stable irony. A 36-item test, comprised of questions about 7 ironic poems and 2 nonironic poems,…

The back-propagation neural network learning procedure was applied to the analysis and recognition of speech. Because this learning procedure requires only examples of input-output pairs, it is not necessary to provide it with any initial description of speech features. Rather, the network develops on its own set of representational features…

Aspects of chess relevant to certain educational issues are explored. Based on findings from a sample of about 50 children from 6 to 18 years of age, discussion focuses on (1) how children play chess and how the process of acquiring expertise differs among children and adults, (2) chess training techniques and why they are effective with children,…

The facts and ideas of subject matter are of little or no value unless such facts and ideas are used to promote thoughtful discourse. Those who teach with this idea in mind can be said to be thinking-skills centered or procognitive; those who teach without this idea in mind can be termed content-centered or procontent. The procognitive viewpoint…