Presents the results of three studies examining children's conception of the mind itself as an independent, active entity. Findings revealed a developing ability in children to interpret and produce statements personifying the mind and provided considerable evidence of children's movement toward a conception of the mind as an active agent…

This article takes a critical look at methods used to identify learning disability (such as use of ability/achievement discrepancy formulas and medical/neurobiological diagnosis) and presents an alternative method that adds assessment of the psychological processes of memory and learning to current practices of assessing intelligence and…

Method is presented for displaying the sequential and multirelational ideation of scientific narrative elicited from respondents. The flow map provides a figural representation of the flow of information, the points in the flow where multirelational and recurrent linkages are made, and the time required to retrieve and express the information at…

Discusses how to develop effective instructional graphics for multimedia instruction. Topics include graphic symbols; how graphic symbols are processed cognitively; how multimedia graphics affect learners; how graphics can be adapted to educational products for a variety of populations, including adults and children; and a checklist for creating…

Explores a caveat for teaching language-minority students: As an educational community, teachers, teacher educators, and educational researchers need to be careful that they do not simply add to familiar patterns of instruction but rather actively seek ways to recast the cultures of schools and the social systems of classrooms to meet the needs of…

Computer technology supports independent learning, a fundamental goal in Montessori education. Language and research are also fundamental, and computer technology enables and enhances all three goals in the child's hands. A Montessori teacher gives a detailed discussion of and plan for a social studies unit designed for computer utilization in…

Several ways to extend the notion of second-language (L2) learning motivation are discussed. The motivational materials and techniques considered are well known in the fields of general, industrial, educational, and cognitive developmental psychology but have not been applied to the L2 field. (Contains 98 references.) (LB)

Reviews research on the physiology of learning, suggesting the development of a new educational model consistent with natural brain development. Considers connected learning a physiological imperative. Discusses ways of using the Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) in the classroom and the development of an NHLP curriculum unit. (27 citations)…

Writing groups, used in many English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition classrooms, pose problems for some students from collectivistic cultures such as Japan and China. Suggested reasons are the individual benefit goal, the need for feedback rather than group harmony, and strained group dynamics. (Contains 41 references.) (Author/LB)

Systematically explored how three different initial training contexts affect children's and adults' interpretation of novel action verbs. Subjects included 54 3-yearolds, 60 10-year olds, and 60 college-age adults. Findings suggest a hierarchy of verb learning strategies, especially among the youngest children. (DR)

Reviews recent research that can inform educational practice. Includes the influence of high school students' epistemological beliefs on academic performance; effects of cooperative and mastery learning on students' ability to generate higher-level questions; effects of knowledge maps on undergraduate learning; and comparison of learning by…

Analysis of language production skills of French immersion students in grades 1-6 over 3 years revealed rapid growth of oral competence in the first three years of acquisition, followed by a much slower annual rate of progress. Lexical and syntactic structures most difficult to acquire emerge in five distinct patterns. (50 references) (Author/MSE)

Investigated overextensions in comprehension and production, using the preferential-looking model, in 99 children (ages 1;9 to 2;3) who were asked to find the referent that matched the label they were given in real and anomalous trials. Results confirm that overextensions in production are not diagnostic of children's underlying semantic…

Investigated simple, appearance-predicted, and reality-predicted labelling in 36 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds. An age-related appearance-reality shift was observed in simple labelling. It is argued that younger children maintained the one-label-per-predicate pattern because of inflexible encoding; older children did so because of better understanding…

Interprets the outdoor-education learning process from viewpoint of pragmatist and cognitive conceptions of action, thinking, and knowledge as ways of structuring reality. Views outdoor education as socially organized, intentional activity aimed at student-environment interaction. Presents a model of outdoor learning involving goal-oriented…