The traditional presumption in higher education that subject-matter knowledge is sufficient for effective teaching is breaking down. One cause of this change is the growing knowledge about how people learn, a consequence of which is a heightened focus on student-centered teaching practices. Another is the increasing diversity of students seeking…

High school teacher Megan Behrent reflects on the impact of Obama's election on the students in her high school classroom. Obliged to temper her students' joyful exuberance on the morning of November 5, 2008, Behrent found that the election fervor highlighted for her the ways that schooling under NCLB has constrained both educators and students,…

Psychological research indicates that rote learning involves a good deal of what is commonly called conceptualizing, and conceptual learning demands a large amount of what is often considered rote repetition. (HMD)

THIS STUDY SOUGHT TO DETERMINE WHETHER SERIAL LEARNING EFFICIENCY DEPENDS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PART SIZE AND THE EMPIRICALLY DETERMINED MEMORY SPAN OF THE LEARNERS. ISSUES EXPLORED WERE THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN REHEARSABILITY AND EFFORT IN OPTIMIZING THIS RELATIONSHIP, AND FEASIBILITY OF A FLEXIBLE PART SIZE. A MEASURE OF MEMORY SPAN WAS…

Study found that students who practiced writing spelling words to the point of fatigue performed significantly more poorly on a post-test than students who had not practiced at all. (RT)

Commends the practice of learning poetry by heart. (HOD)

Presents an experiment for teachers to determine whether rote or reason has greater influence upon the way students think about computation. Provides some observations and concerns, and discusses needed changes in thinking and practice for teaching mathematics. (ASK)

Publication of this piece is intended as a tribute to the late Professor M. Kazim Bacchus who passed away in March 2007. The paper provides a general discussion concerning the social and educational challenges faced by small nation states in an age characterised by globalisation. The analysis first identifies some of the basic features of small…

This experiment investigated the assumption that children's learning and retention of prose material can be differentially affected by varying discrepancy from expectation (as established by an advance organizer). It was hypothesized that a passage which differed significantly from expectation would produce heightened arousal, which should in turn…

Results indicate specific and positive effects of Quranic schooling on serial memory but not on other memory or cognitive tasks. These findings replicate earlier reports that Quranic schooling affects specific (and not general) memory skills. (PCB)

A summary of Soviet research in sleep-teaching and implications for the future. (RY)

As educators, we must do more than present information and test for its accumulation. We must prepare each mind to learn--to receive and organize information for later application. This requires both an awareness of the learner's capacities and specific action to build a "cognitive set" to receive new material. (Author/SJL)

In the studies reported here, repetition of an orally presented story did help first grade children remember the information, but pictures were even more effective in facilitating recall of information. (Author)