Written by teachers, the chapters in this book show how writing fosters learning in math, science, English, social studies, foreign language, philosophy, psychology, and art. Following an introduction by Anne Ruggles Gere, the first chapter, "Writing to Learn: The Nurse Log Classroom," by Steve Pearse, presents a comprehensive overview…

Two studies were performed to determine the process used by young children to figure out the meaning of a new word. It was hypothesized that the children would use one of two strategies: (1) ignore the word and wait for more information, or learn only what is unambiguous about it, or (2) make a reasonable but uncertain guess, quickly setting up…

In a study of very young children's pronunciation of nouns and verbs, ten children aged 20 to 25 months were exposed to experimental nouns and verbs, which had not yet been comprehended or produced by the children. Each of the objects and actions was given an experimental name based on phonemes in the children's speech. These objects and actions…

A study investigated the relationship between high and low reading ability and the study techniques of reading, the usual method of note taking, and student-generated paragraph summaries on the six levels of cognitive learning from textual material as measured by Bloom's "Taxonomy." Subjects, 84 college students enrolled in an…

Arguing that the most widespread argument in favor of the teaching of programming concerns its possible impact on generalizable cognitive skills, this paper addresses the "how" of transfer. The outlines of a theory of the mechanisms of transfer are presented, the theory is used to examine the contrasts between certain studies that did…

Defining calibration of comprehension as the correlation between subjective assessments of knowledge gained from reading and performance on an objective test, this paper draws from literature, as well as the findings of original experiments, to examine issues related to the subject . The paper first documents the claim that poor calibration is the…

This paper suggests that research in applied linguistics in Great Britain has recently had little impact on the learning and teaching of foreign languages and that new priorities for relevant research in second language learning and teaching need to be proposed. The objective of the new research would be to ensure that language skills be available…

Inspired by the format of and discussion at the 1984 conference, the conference described in this report examined the question of how the computer might stimulate teachers' learning and under what conditions that stimulation might encourage reform. An overview briefly summarizes the presentations. Several conference themes grouped under the…

Evidence from video tapes of experts thinking aloud and using analogies in scientific problem solving is presented. Four processes appear to be important in using an analogy: (1) generating the analogy; (2) establishing confidence in the validity of the analogy relation; (3) understanding the analogous case; and (4) applying findings to the…

The self-reported errors of college and university presidents are examined and analyzed from the perspective of organizational learning. Very little is known about how presidents take on their roles, identify and assume their responsibilities, and learn about their workplaces or the difficulties they face and the mistakes they make in doing so.…

An integrative process combining language instruction with cultural education is described and discussed. The process is integrative in two ways because it relates target and native languages, cultures, and perceptions, and also relates the teaching of culture to the teaching of language. This approach incorporates eight stages; the first five are…

A sorting-recall procedure was used to investigate how long-term memory in elderly subjects is affected by categorical organization. Sixty-four young adults (average age 20 years) and retirees (average age 67) sorted 48 unrelated words into two, four, six, or eight categories prior to recall. High- and low-frequency lists were tested, a…

Social studies educators are encouraged to apply anthropological research to their understanding of classroom dynamics and the learning process. In 11 propositions, the contributions of anthropology to more effective teaching are explored. For each of these propositions, there are a number of relevant research questions to guide classroom…

A common error in children's attempts to solve verbal analogies is to respond with a word strongly associated with the third term in the analogy. This is known as associative response. A study was conducted to investigate the cognitive processes underlying this response. Subjects, 112 fifth grade students, were administered a battery of tests…

The influence of two sources of individual differences in acquiring knowledge from maps was studied: abilities and learning procedures. Twenty-five undergraduate students provided verbal protocols while attempting to learn two maps, and six effective learning procedures were identified: partitioning, imagery, memory-directed sampling, pattern…