Information acquisition and processing skills of 661 Finnish vocational education students were studied through students' writings, including an open-ended test. About 20 percent were assessed as self-directed learners, but the majority could search for and transmit information in a text. Results are discussed in light of demands of further…

Counterintuitive moments in the classroom challenge common sense and practice and can be used to help mathematics students appreciate the need to explore, reflect, and reason. Proposed are four examples involving geometry, systems of equations, and matrices as counterintuitive instances. (MDH)

Drawing on personal experience and research on gender, a college teacher explores how women's ways of knowing and experiencing have implications for instruction, specifically in an organizational behavior course. Feelings of self-doubt, novelty, terror, and alienation that accompany women into the management classroom are examined. (Author/MSE)

Investigates influences of educational set and cognitive preference of the student as independent variables on knowledge and cognitive organization outcomes in the context of other educationally significant variables. Concludes cognitive preference is an important variable contributing uniquely to achievement and cognitive organization in the…

The function of the child-centered school is to facilitate learning so that learners become the workers and teachers become collaborative learning enhancers. Four curriculum strands (self-readiness-competence-inquiry) are woven into a learning model that integrates learning styles, curriculum structure and subject-matter organization,…

Discusses potential changes in professional development programs that can lead to the establishment of new environments in mathematics classes. Proposes changes that promote reflective practice, mathematical inquiry by teachers, and participation in a mathematics community. (MDH)

Kindergarten students' (n=7) thought processes were investigated during a problem-solving task to gain insight into students' problem-solving strategies and to guide students toward a closer awareness of their own mathematical thinking. Outlines some of the processes and problems of implementing a constructivist approach by an experienced teacher.…

A mapping procedure based on the SOLO Taxonomy developmental model was used to classify the problem-solving strategies of students (n=34) in grades K-2. Only one multiplication problem was used to isolate three components of the problem-solving procedure. (MDH)

Twenty-four sixth-grade children participated in clinical interviews on ratio and proportion before receiving instruction in the domain. Student thinking was analyzed in terms of mathematical components critical to proportional reasoning. Two components, relative thinking and unitizing, were consistently related to higher levels of sophistication…

Maintains that staff guidance in early childhood and child care programs can be optimized when it functions within the guidelines of developmentally appropriate practices in regards to staff age, stage appropriateness, and individual appropriateness. Differences in individual staff temperament and cognitive styles are considered. (BB)

Describes the conceptual differences between information, instruction, and learning and relates them to hypermedia-based information systems. Locus of control is discussed; information searches in libraries are considered; and issues related to learning with hypermedia-based information systems are explained, including navigational issues,…

This interview brings out Susan Winebrenner's views on key concepts in her book on teaching gifted students in regular classrooms; the importance of appreciating diversity, utilizing flexible grouping, and allowing for varying learning styles; the administrator's role; the role of independent projects; and the special needs of gifted students. (DB)

This study examined the problem-solving strategies and systematic errors of (n=82) preservice elementary school teachers related to place value concepts and decimal representations of rational numbers. Problems were posed in the unfamiliar domain of numeration systems with bases other than base ten. (Contains 13 references.) (MKR)

Presents partial results from an ongoing Japanese study of teachers' practical thinking styles designed to clarify their practical epistemology. Five major findings of practical thinking styles are discussed, and the implications for teacher education in Japan are considered. (GLR)

Reviews literature related to learning styles and gender differences. Determines that abstract and reflection are associated traditionally with mind or masculine, whereas concrete experience and active experimentation are associated with the body or female. Calls for additional experiential activities to provide a more gender-balanced approach to…