This study explores the way music operates in the mental processing of computer-supported instructional messages, whose other modes are text and graphics. The experiment examined the effect of music on the immediate recall and understanding of three equivalent science lessons delivered by a computer. The objective properties of the music were…

This study examined the roles which note-taking method (either pencil and paper or an online computer notepad) and style (verbatim, paraphrasing, etc.) play in retention and depth of processing during computer-delivered instruction. Participants were 112 junior and senior undergraduates from a southern Minnesota university whose major was computer…

The cognitive styles of Education majors at a southern university were examined over a five-year period. The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) was administered to 537 students in an introductory education course. This test identifies field-dependent (FD) and field-independent (FI) learning styles. Two hundred twelve students were retested at the…

Problem-based learning (PBL) as a new instructional method is becoming increasingly popular. PBL is hypothesized to have a number of advantages for learning because it applies insights from cognitive learning theory and it fosters a lifelong learning strategy. As in all learning programs there are individual differences between students. This…

This report describes a program for increasing reading test scores. The targeted population consisted of one second-grade, one third-grade, and two fourth-grade classrooms in a growing middle class community located in a far western suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The problem of low reading test scores was documented though the 1995 IGAP scores on…

This study investigated the reading styles of 57 students in grades 3, 4, and 5. Special attention was given to the independent variables gender, grade level, and at-risk status. A total of 224 comparisons were made from which 8 main effects were observed: (1) females reported greater preference for music while reading than males; (2) special…

As part of a larger investigation into workshop approach teaching, this study looked at how the workshop approach affected student creativity in project development and how the use of reflective journals impacted student project work. The workshop approach causes students to engage in metacognitive thinking during work on their class projects.…

The basic premise for this paper is that any educational program or technology should be evaluated on the basis of the theoretical foundations or perspectives on which it is implicitly or explicitly based. Structured in three main sections, it reviews recent literature in areas related to the many aspects that influence learning through…

Learning style is the foundation of successful teaching and teaching for thinking. The recent conceptualization of the brain as a complex system for processing and storing information can be meaningful to educators. Too many schools, however, rely on a rather mechanistic approach to learning. Future school administrators must be taught to…

The methods outlined in this guide offer teachers a variety of ways to stimulate interest, enhance concentration, increase understanding, and improve memory in their students. Chapter 1 discusses the LEARN (Learning Efficiently And Remembering Mnemonics) system, a set of strategies that help students use a variety of processing styles to a greater…

A project implemented a new tutor training model that used integrative learning strategies to teach more effectively to different intelligences and learning styles of adult learners. A 15-hour tutor training curriculum focused on designing lessons that do the following: involve several learning styles and intelligences, encourage an equal…

Efforts are being made to modify existing analytical teaching methods and curricula in mathematics to make them more holistic, to better match the learning styles of minority students. These changes have to be made by existing secondary and college mathematics faculty. Given the properties of field dependence-independence in human cognition,…

This experiment investigated: (1) relationships among locus of control, attributional style, and depression; (2) if a depressogenic attributional style could be empirically isolated; and (3) if reliable relationships existed between attribution and depression when depression was operationalized using different instruments. Subjects completed the…

Witkin's field-dependence cognitive style theory predicts that females are more likely to have a social or field-dependent cognitive style, whereas males will more often have an analytical or field-independent cognitive style. Data from 144 secondary marketing education students (62 males, 82 females) from three secondary schools in northern…

This paper gathers information on the values, cognition, and educational background of African students studying at universities in the United States. The section on values notes that Americans are task-oriented individualists, while Africans are primarily relationship-oriented collectivists. These values of sharing and relationship orientation…