Three studies comparing the respective roles of interlanguage universals and natural language transfer in determining learners' judgments of grammaticality used college students of French in their second, third, and fourth semesters as subjects. In the first experiment, the subjects were exposed to both grammatical and four types of ungrammatical…

Practical assistance for adult educators is offered in this four-part document, which outlines the present status of adult education, particularly with regard to courses about computers, and discusses an approach for improving the situation. Important considerations in the improvement of adult education are discussed, including the conditions of…

In the comprehension approach to second language instruction, the major procedure is to provide students with comprehensible input, which it is the students' responsibility to understand. The aim is to encourage nucleation of the target language, that is the crystallization of the rule system. Teaching procedures focus on strategies for implicit…

This research addresses the actual goals and intentions from which students plan and organize their work in a course of study. Representations can either facilitate or hinder learning and problem solutions. Several salient aspects of adult students' representational systems and how they influenced university study were examined in two studies. The…

A study was conducted to examine computer programming as a problem solving activity. Thirteen fifth grade children were selected by their teacher from an above average class to use Apple IIe microcomputers. The investigator conducted sessions of 40-50 minutes with the children in groups of two or three. Four problems, incorporating the programming…

This study examined writings of Canadian adult educators for the purpose of describing their field of inquiry. The study described the field by its four basic areas of inquiry--learner, learning, process, and environment--and by the components of each area. The methodology was divided into three phases: creation of a glossary of descriptive adult…

Arguing that a thorough understanding of time and its use in school learning may help improve the schools the author reviews the research pertaining to models of school learning, mastery learning, and the parameter of time in the learning process. (JM)

Reports research demonstrating that fourth-grade subjects could not solve a basic transverse patterning problem involving pairs of geometric forms even after 90 trials. The addition of one nonspatial dimension, however, resulted in solution. Also, the greater the number of nonspatial dimensions present, the better the learning. (Author/SDH)

The author's purpose here was to analyze some of the basic assumptions on which the present practices of open education are built and to investigate the apparent discrepancy between theory and practice. (Author/RK)

Reform of schools can be carried out only by people with a strong sense of commitment and a strong sense of humor. (JH)

A discussion of an investigation of the effectiveness of viewing three types of visual presentations over different intervals of time. (Author)

Parents and educators have expressed fears that high noise levels in open space schools may interfere with academic achievement. This investigation compared the reading comprehension of 60 fourth grade students in an open space school during periods both of quiet and of naturally occurring background noise. The reading tasks resembled normal…

Student withdrawals were compared to course completers in two variants of a contingency-managed lecture (CML) course and a personalized instruction (PI) course. Within both CML sections, withdrawals performed 10-25% worse on unit quizzes and 20-30% worse on review exams than did peers who completed the course. Within PI, withdrawals had a retake…

This document discusses means for assessing students' learning preferences, with materials drawn from the field of transformational linguistics. Two specific techniques for classroom assessment are described: (1) the use of questionnaires and, (2) essays. Applications of the techniques can lead teachers to greater awareness of student learning…