Our work is based on the study of learning strategies used by a group of trainee teachers in a real learning situation, and how this use of strategies influences the results of the learning process. We use a diary as a tool to assess the learning strategies and compare the results obtained with those using an inventory. Our findings indicate that…

Teacher educators have suggested that mentoring has the potential to help novices learn to teach in reform-minded ways. This suggestion implies a change in the nature of mentor-novice relationships as conceptualized in the existing literature and an understanding of the complexities of mentoring relationships. Based on critical constructivist and…

Education has been in a perpetual state of reform seeking "far reaching changes in weary practices, outmoded assumptions, and long-assumed constraints." This approach must be examined to keep the same old problems from resurfacing and making reform efforts ineffective. Common suggestions for educational reform involve stricter standards,…

Self-regulated learning is defined as the ability of a child to learn independently of a teacher or parent. Self-regulated learners require knowledge of a topic, basic skills for learning, and motivation. Self-regulated learners distinguish themselves from other learners in that they are aware of themselves as learners and have an awareness of the…

Although Robert M. Gagne's work is often thought of as learning theory, his contributions can most appropriately be considered as an "instructional theory." This denotes an integrated set of principles based upon learning theory, other relevant theories, and sound replicable research, that permits one to predict the effects of specific…

Of particular interest in the realm of curriculum theories is a new (or renewed) call for "integrated curriculum." In fact, in many educational circles, it appears to be an orthodox assumption that integrating the curriculum is what educators should be about. However, well-substantiated arguments against subject matter based curriculum…

This paper contends that the public education system in the United States has generally failed non-mainstream students because it is founded upon limited educational assumptions. The public education system relies upon linear/unit-dependent knowledge acquisition skills and rejects all data that cannot be recorded or verified as numeric quantities.…

Like adult education, the field of volunteer management shows increasing movement toward professionalization. The establishment of standards--both for the profession of volunteer management and for volunteer service itself--is generating debates similar to adult educators' debates over purposes and objectives. The types of learning that occur in…

This essay explores the characteristic failure of traditional formal educational methods to teach the learner much which will remain for long in that person's memory. It discusses a physiological model of learning/remembering and compares it to some other models and metaphors of cognition. It distinguishes between learning and remembering, and…

This article asserts that young children and their teachers benefit when they learn a work style that includes successive approximations before reaching a final product. These successive attempts can be thought of as editing, and the article describes how the Reggio Emilia approach offers patterns to help children achieve this style of work. The…

This research project developed a teaching model using museums for educational purposes. The research involved educational programs for children 9 to 11 years of age at the David M. Stewart Museum, near Montreal, Quebec, which specializes in the colonial history of Canada and Quebec. The study focused on the nature of museum visits, learning…

Arguing that the evolution of intelligent tutoring systems better reflects the recent theoretical developments of cognitive science than traditional computer-based instruction (CBI), this paper describes a general model for an intelligent tutoring system and suggests ways to improve CBI using design principles derived from research in cognitive…

This paper explores the possibility of integrating cognitive theory into an established instructional development model, i.e., Gagne's nine events of instruction. Based on the third edition of Gagne's book, this paper describes the most up-to-date notions of how cognitive theory impacts on this development framework. Each of the nine events is…

Research in cognitive science that can be incorporated into the instructional design process is summarized. Instructional design shares many features common to other types of design, but its models do not support the kinds of cognitive activities necessary for successful design. Assumptions about learning provided by the descriptions of cognitive…

Social semiotics suggests that social and cultural formations, including the language and practice of science and the ways in which new generations and communities advance them, develop as an integral part of the evolution of social ecosystems. Some recent models of complex dynamic systems in physics, chemistry, and biology focus more on the…