The paper disucsses the need for training in critical thinking and the effects of debate training across the curriculum as a teaching tool and learning mechanism. The debate training provided through the Oral Communication Program at Virginia's Radford University is described (design, implementation, results), along with data from a report on the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate teaching within the framework of the philosophical social action theory developed by Professor Tuomela in order to argue for the claim that teaching is a social concept. The outcome is likely to have important implications for the development of theories about factual and conceptual phenomena within…

This report documents events and activities that took place in the course of meetings and seminars investigating the cognitive processes and learning styles of elementary school teachers. The report includes an overview and six separate documents, each presenting one facet of the project. The overview is followed in section two by a proposed…

This paper introduces seven principles of learning, enduring over the last five centuries of psychological thought, to discuss the evolution of the "Biophyche" (the brain in action) in the development of humans and other large organisms. It describes the conditioning theories of Darwin, Pavlov, and Thorndike and critically reviews the…

Defining reading as a constructive process involving an interaction of the reader, the text, and the context, this paper offers a model of student cognitive processing that incorporates research in reading, thinking, teaching, and instructional materials. The first section of the paper provides the theoretical context for developing the model,…

This study examines the role of interlanguage transfer in lexico-semantic development in adult native Japanese-speaking learners of English as a second language in reference to two questions: (1) what constrains the initial hypothesis the student makes about the new target language word? and (2) what constrains a restructuring process of a…

Of particular interest to those exploring students' learning modalities is the relationship between the visual and auditory systems and reading recall. Among the findings of studies that have investigated this relationship are the following: (1) reading competency is dependent as much on auditory processing as on visual processing; (2) when visual…

It is becoming increasingly important to teach students higher-order thinking skills in addition to mere factual knowledge. Recent scientific and technological advances offer significant opportunities to implement more effective teaching of these skills. By investigating intellectual processes, cognitive science has led to a significantly better…

A collection of seven essays about current topics involving social studies curriculum is presented in this document. "Priorities in the Social Studies" considers curriculum-related issues and social problems that need to be addressed. "The Student and the Psychology of Learning" suggests criteria that should be considered by teachers when…

The objectives of this pamphlet are to: (1) introduce the processes of music learning to non-musician educators; (2) illustrate how music learning serves as a model for all learning; (3) enable educators to gain a new perspective of the demands and processes needed to develop musical talent; and (4) help non-musician administrators understand that…

The article discusses the use of the Structure of Intellect (SOI) model as a basis for developing thinking abilities in a variety of curriculum areas: (1) the integration of subject matter areas and SOI operations; (2) thematic lessons that sequence specific cells of the SOI model; (3) directed teaching lessons to develop student awareness of…

Cumulative school records kept on children generally contain only standardized test scores and random notes concerning conduct, yet some theorists suggest that one of the most powerful tools of assessment is teachers' daily observation. To determine teachers' capability for evaluating their students' reading, a study examined teachers' informal…

The Teacher Education and Learning to Teach Study of the National Center for Research on Teacher Education combines case studies of teacher education programs with longitudinal studies of teacher learning. In this paper, the development of the theoretical framework on which instrumentation for the longitudinal study is based is discussed.…

A study examined second language article acquisition by analyzing the spoken interlanguage of speakers of five different native languages, three with no article system (Chinese, Japanese, and Russian) and two with article systems (Spanish and German). Informal interviews of four speakers of each language at successive levels of interlanguage…

Achievement test results, in combination with other data, are used to help guidance counselors plan students' future educational programs to the extent that such data assist school personnel in grouping students for optimal instructional benefits. Implementation of such plans may require fitting the curriculum to the student. Two types of schemata…