This course manual was designed to address problems of attendance during the summer in a manufacturing company's workplace literacy program. Materials from five workshops are provided, including handouts, exercises, worksheets, and instructor notes. "Communications I" addresses the following: what is communication?; evaluating listening skills;…

This document is intended as a resource and guide to help teachers integrate a problem-centered approach into their curricula. It outlines the typical components of problem-centered mathematics and science activities, and offers practical suggestions, examples, and resources to assist this endeavor. The first section of this document, "What is…

This study assessed the bipolarity of cognitive style for 970 clients of the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation, a vocational guidance service. The 462 male and 508 female examinees were aged 14 to 65 years, with a median age of 24 years. Three cognitive style tests were investigated: (1) the Kagan Matching Familiar Figures Test (KMFFT); (2) the…

Teaching methods seem to work with some students and fail with others, because every learner is unique. Teachers must be able to identify learning styles and find ways for instruction to match those styles. This paper moves from an overview of different learning styles to a review of the use of computer-assisted instruction. A recent development…

Breaking down gender barriers in composition and literature classrooms suggests that teachers rethink the forms of writing they demand of their students (e.g., argumentation and exposition) and that they encourage a wide range of approaches which account for gender-specific modes of writing and interpreting texts. Various writing assignments such…

This study was designed to investigate the effects of the presence or absence of metacognitive skill tools available in hyperspace environments on field independent and field dependent learners. Learners were engaged in problem solving in an information-rich hyperspace based on a lesson on the attack on Pearl Harbor. Forty undergraduates were…

The implications of content organization and cognitive style in relation to the design of hypertext were studied with a focus on the effects of linking structure and field dependence and independence on performance and attitudes. Subjects were 139 undergraduates classified as field-dependent or field-independent on the basis of Group Embedded…

Six strategies for using reflective narratives to promote the professional development of school leaders are briefly described in this paper, which is designed to accompany "School Leadership: Reflections on Practice by California's Instructional Leaders." Narratives are characterized by subjective perceptions that are shaped by personal…

A nontraditional degree program for adult students at Southwest Texas State University instituted a bulletin board system (BBS) in support of required courses in both the undergraduate and graduate degree programs to provide information, communication, and mentoring. The BBS was especially useful to students in preparing their portfolios of life…

There is much more to a learning disabled (LD) child's successful learning than part-to-whole or whole-to-part instruction. Among the many factors to be considered are his/her learning style, interests, abilities, aptitudes, health, and parental support. Instructional programs for learning disabled children should be based on the students'…

The study evaluated a theory of gender specialization by J. H. Block that postulates that gender differences in personality and cognitive functioning are closely linked, both arising from the same sex-differentiated socialization experiences. This study tested the theory as it applies to creativity in children. Subjects were 244 children in grades…

Both behavioral and cognitive coping strategies are determined by an individual's perception of the stressful stimuli. To investigate the relationship of an individual's usual coping style to differential responses to a behavioral or cognitive stressor in four response systems (heart rate, muscle tension, galvanic skin response, and subjective…

The Information Acquisition Preference Inventory was used to examine cognitive styles in relationship to students' use of study tasks and to assess subjects' preferred ways of learning and problem solving. The inventory, which has students rank words describing their own learning behavior, identifies four distinctive learning preference modes:…

The need for cognitive style mapping and student grouping in order to enhance learning and retention in foreign language instruction is examined. The four components of classical audio-lingual language instruction, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, are discussed. Different learning modalities are considered, including visual, auditory,…

While the descriptive features of anorexia nervosa are well known and agreed upon, the level of personality organization and the character style of anorexia patients is more controversial. To study and compare the cognitive style and personality functioning of anorectic patients with that of conduct disordered patients, 20 adolescent females (10…