Interviews with older museum visitors and observation of a younger comparison group revealed four adult learning behaviors: social, theoretical, inquiry, and intuitive. The array of learning styles suggests a need for variety in the educational formats used in museums. (SK)

Examines the origin of the term "attitude," and how its meaning has changed over the centuries. Discusses theoretical definitions of the term by I. A. Richards and by Kenneth Burke. Discusses its role in the learning process, and how an explicit attention to attitude in the language-arts classroom might help students become better readers and…

The new consensus on the nature of learning helps educators understand what fosters learning and how to improve ineffective, detrimental aspects of teaching. Science curricula should capitalize on three concepts: learners construct meaning for themselves; to understand is to know relationships; and knowing relationships depends on having prior…

Discusses connections between Madeline Hunter's elements of effective teaching and current brain research. Hunter's emphasis on setting the stage for learning fits precisely with research on the brain's attentional mechanisms. Other Hunter elements, including level of concern (challenge), task analysis, procedural memory, and prior learning, are…

Instructor-facilitators of virtual learning groups can develop the learning environment through preliminary planning, course support, and postsession review. To undertake these processes, facilitators should attend to the learning tasks, the learning process, team development, team dynamics, and team trust. (Contains 73 references.) (SK)

Analyzes knowledge acquisition in a sample of 264 pupils in 9 Spanish elementary schools, using time as a dependent variable. Introduces psycho-pedagogical, pedagogical, and social variables into a hazard model applied to the reading process. Auditory discrimination (not intelligence or visual perception) most significantly influences learning to…

Explains scaffolding as temporary steps in the learning process where higher skills build on mastering more simple skills, often with the help of an expert. Topics include elaboration theory; joint problem solving; promoting self-regulation; Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD); and inner speech and external speech. (LRW)

Explains the vestibular organ's role in balancing the body and stabilizing the visual world using the example of a hunter. Describes the relationship between sensory perception and learning. Recommends using optical illusions to illustrate the distinctions between external realities and internal perceptions. (Contains 13 references.) (YDS)

Describes empirical research in the fields of neurology and cognitive science that is being conducted to determine how and why the brain learns. Explains ways that video is compatible with how the brain learns and suggests it should be used more extensively by teachers and library media specialists. (LRW)

Examines the ways that a "pedagogy of obedience" has been institutionalized as a dominant form and concern of educational practice in the United States. Details one set of institutional mechanisms defining what it means to learn in school, in general, and to regulate what constitutes acceptable acts of reading and writing, in particular.…

Explains the place of learning in human development from the perspective developmental contextualism, where development involves changing relations between the developing person and his or her changing context. Demonstrates that learning is no more nor less important than other focal functions at a given level; any impact is through being part of…

Notes contemporary models of human development have expanded to address a wider set of issues underlying personal change. Discusses the social cognitive model of self-regulatory development. Emphasizes the crucial development of self-regulatory competence: the point at which the processes of development become fully and reciprocally interactive…

Discusses several theories of play advanced before the development of psychoanalysis, including the theories of surplus energy, recreation, and practice. Examines the psychoanalytical view advanced by Freud and others, which focuses on the emotional release of play and its role in discovery and learning. (MDM)

Discusses planning instruction on the basis of children's thinking. First, individualize instruction by adjusting the value of the numbers used for individual children. Second, base problem presentation on the types of thinking prevalent in the class. Third, conduct some instruction in small groups. Fourth, suggest alternative strategies. Finally,…

Sees teaching as a way of knowing about human communication. Discusses teaching and learning. Asks how teaching evidences what has been learned from research activities and what instructors have learned from students. Finds that teaching and learning "evidence" each other, nowhere more conspicuously and self-reflexively than in speech…