Presents the author's experiences as an online student at the Open University (United Kingdom) as a case study to examine the relationship between interaction, reflection, and learning in distance education. Discusses reflection and experiential learning theory and proposes recommendations for course design that promotes the understanding of…

Discusses the cognitive approach to instructional design (ID) and how ID practitioners can design training differently. Highlights include how learning occurs; categories of learning; a model that summarizes the components of a well-designed lesson; a framework for ID based on cognitive psychology; and a table to use as a job aid for designing…

Explores the effects of Roundhouse diagram construction on a previously low-performing middle school science student's struggles to understand abstract science concepts and principles. Based on a metacognition-based visual learning model, aims to elucidate the process by which Roundhouse diagramming helps learners bootstrap their current…

Reviews the foundational principles of situated cognition and substantiates its theoretical underpinnings with a transactional worldview; draws connections between situated cognition and problem-based learning; and draws implications from situated cognition and problem-based learning to learning and instruction with technology. Suggests that…

Gives a personal account of how and why learning occurs or does not occur. Questions the current schooling process and its emphasis on teacher talk. Advocates the design of learning experiences that engage students' natural learning processes. (Contains 22 references.) (SK)

From case studies of organizational learning in research and development companies, learning tools or mechanisms were identified: job rotation, innovation process planning, and product innovation project review. Organizational learning involved parallel rather than linear processes of information acquisition, distribution, and interpretation and…

Crucial elements of successful cross-cultural mentoring are trust, understanding of the impact of racism, and awareness of the oppositional perspective of marginalized groups. Issues in cross-cultural mentoring include the struggle for learning and power, the mentor as learner, and both seeing and forgetting race. (Contains 21 references.) (SK)

Discussion of the concepts of learning and training focuses on how to incorporate the whole brain in the learning process when personalizing electronic learning. Suggests that trainers will need to learn teaching strategies that embrace the right brain's need for time and space to examine, contemplate, integrate, and utilize information.…

Reviews recent complex and somewhat confusing evidence on writing-to-learn. Draws on the field of cognitive psychology to offer a way to reconceptualize how researchers might approach the study of the impact of writing on learning. Considers five methods for assessing structural changes in knowledge due to writing. (MG)

The article examines whether the material-appropriate processing approach can anticipate and explain the mnemonic effects of elaborative encoding tasks and study adjuncts for less able learners. Evidence suggests that less able learners are not capable of spontaneously exploiting the affordances of the to-be-learned material without appropriate…

Describes three metacognitive abilities important for learning: self-knowledge, task knowledge, and self-monitoring. Identifies six metacognitive characteristics that separate proficient readers from less effective readers. Lists five principles on which independent learning is based. (RS)

Several reading experts comment on the whole language approach to teaching reading and on the whole language debate. Topics include definitions of whole language, characteristics, justifications, shortcomings, and critiques. (IAH)

Critically analyzes the arguments supporting the use of literature in the English-as-a-Second-Language classroom. The claims analyzed for using literature are (1) the "training vs. education" claim, (2) the "interpretive richness" claim, and (3) claims related to the connection between reading and writing about literature. (23 references) (GLR)

Task lists created by private companies, consortia, state departments, and universities have caused difficulty for occupational instructors. A careful analysis of task structure shows a continuous hierarchy in cumulative learning, wherein each task becomes part of a whole. A task charting system can improve the efficiency of instruction. (SK)

Presents an approach to task sequencing that is based on a component-skills view of intelligence and learning. Related research in cognitive psychology and in computer based instruction is reviewed, and a cognitive model of human task sequencing is developed and then applied to an intelligent tutoring system for algebra. (39 references)…