To work productively with all students, teachers need to examine four major determinants of human learning: neural equipment; learning history; learning strategies, such as imaging, paraphrasing, summarizing, and generating examples; and quality of teaching. (JDD)

In cooperative learning, students are typically assigned to heterogeneous teams. The Johns Hopkins University Elementary School Program uses four principal methods involving student team learning, including Student Teams-Achievement Divisions, Teams-Games-Tournament, Team Accelerated Instruction-Mathematics, and Cooperative Integrated Reading and…

This article identifies two approaches to teaching specific thinking skills, presents a sample lesson plan, and includes as an example a "Thinking Skills Worksheet" that outlines an approach to teaching the thinking skills of comparing and contrasting. (IAH)

Microanalysis of problem-solving activities of 10 learning-disabled and 10 normally achieving children (ages 10-12) found that, although normally achieving subjects reached more sophisticated levels of strategy use, there was no evidence that the learning-disabled subjects were inactive, passive, or maladaptive in their problem-solving attempts.…

Two experiments, each with 132 undergraduates, evaluated the effects of definition adjunct questions on concept learning. In both experiments, only unmatched application adjunct questions preceded by a definition question produced higher performance on criterion questions than did definition questions only. The effective use of definition…

Suggestions are made for overcoming these common learning problems: (1) can't stick to a task; (2) trouble organizing time and space when starting or finishing a task; (3) trouble dealing with verbal information; (4) visual and visual-motor difficulties; (5) trouble understanding spoken language; and (6) trouble memorizing. (JD)

Reviews learning strategies articles appearing in the same "Educational Leadership" issue. Most authors do not argue for teaching learning strategies apart from regular course content and present techniques (summary writing, elaboration, and graphic representation) that can be used in many different applications. In contrast, the Hunter model is…

Graphic representations help learners comprehend, summarize, and synthesize complex ideas in ways that often surpass verbal statements. This article provides visual illustrations and presents a five-step process for training students to use graphic outlining techniques. Includes 17 references. (MLH)

Discusses two cognitive models that are appropriate for the study of language acquisition: the "holodynamic" model, and the "production systems" model. (CFM)

Presents a mnemonic method for assigning the electronic configurations of atoms. (JRH)

Draws on theories of student motivation to learn and conceptual change learning in science to describe patterns of student motivation observed in sixth-grade classrooms. Highlights the value of distinguishing motivation to learn from intrinsic motivation, and of distinguishing general motivational traits from situation-specific motivational…

Provides an overview of the transition from traditional, programmed instruction to computer-assisted instruction, including concepts and history affecting instructional environments. Describes the focus of articles that follow, including methods for navigating and learning from hypermedia systems; point and query interface; story-based learning…

Thirty-three students (average age 15 years) with learning disabilities received either learning strategy instruction or traditional instruction in the completion of job applications. Results indicated the learning strategy group demonstrated statistically significant lower numbers of information omissions and information location errors and…

A 20-year veteran of alternative education discusses his work with troubled teenagers in a wilderness retreat setting. The generalized learning environment eventually became tailored to suit the needs of the individuals involved, which lead to questioning the concerns that drove those needs. The metaphorical "dragons" are thus embraced,…

The Metamemory in Adulthood Questionnaire, Memory Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, and measures of depression and health status were completed by 169 adults over 55 in Texas and Louisiana. External memory strategies (lists, notes) were used more often than internal (elaboration, rehearsal). Memory efficacy decreased significantly with age, and anxiety…