This study examined the interaction of acoustic-phonetic information with higher-level linguistic contextual information during the real-time speech perception process in child, young adult, and older adult listeners. Findings indicated that target word predictability influenced the timing and nature of the real-time recognition process, including…

Examines assumptions inherent in open-ended learning; describes features of open-ended learning environments; and discusses implications for research, development, and implementation of open-ended learning systems. Highlights include context and experience; learner control; higher-order cognitive skills; understanding versus knowing; orienting…

Explores age as a moderator of the relationship among gender, sex role, and coping strategies for 155 males and 281 females in 5 age groups from adolescence through old age. Age is related to type of coping and moderates the relationship between sex role orientation and coping. (SLD)

A feminist perspective is necessary for the continued vitality of social psychology. Major themes of the feminist perspective are reviewed, and some important women from early U.S. psychology are identified as founders of social psychology. In the future, the feminist perspective will function in social psychology as a systems theory. (SLD)

Researchers examined the effect of contextual variety on practice, retention, and transfer of the long and short badminton service in a college physical education class. Results indicated a practice schedule requiring students to change the plan of action from trial to trial facilitated retention and transfer of motor skills. (SM)

Attempts to integrate recent models of social systems based on age and cognitive personality research with research on adolescence. Presents a conceptual model of how adolescents set personal goals, construct cognitive strategies, and evaluate their success in an age-graded sociocultural context. Discusses future directions for research based on…

Comments on Nicolopoulou's article in this issue on the idea that play is an inherently social and cultural cognitive childhood activity. Emphasizes the importance of cultural variation of play for research and education. (BB)

Identifies personal and contextual factors that make learning from experience for teachers difficult; argues the need to learn more about how teachers learn and what is needed to foster that learning in the school context, while lending insight into the complexity of teacher reflection and teacher learning in classroom environments. (GLR)

Study surveyed South Dakota's Native American and Euro-Asian elementary teachers regarding differences in learning styles between Native American and Euro-Asian children. Analysis revealed significant differences in the way the two groups view factors contributing to lower reading achievement of Native American students. (SM)

A study evaluated the effectiveness of contextual organizers for subjects (n=276) of three cognitive styles (field dependent, field independent, and field intermediate) during computer-assisted instruction. Findings were advance organizers were more effective for field-dependent subjects; postorgainzers were more effective for field-intermediate…

Discusses the empowerment approach in health education, emphasizing the role of health educators as collaborators sensitive to each participant, group, and context. Empowerment programs do not blame the participant or the environment, but instead work collaboratively to enhance growth and change in the facilitators, participants, and environments.…

Based on the author's experience with a Rust Belt high school literacy-development project, this article discusses how teachers use process-centered innovations in language arts classrooms, the pedagogical impulses behind the innovations, and their contributions to student learning. Rather than diminishing students' learning, inquiry-based…

Teachers must learn to distinguish among performance assessments of different quality and appropriateness. Design criteria (cognitive complexity, linguistic appropriateness, content quality and coverage, and meaningfulness) are judged by examining assessment tasks and scoring rubrics. Effects criteria (transfer, generalizability, instructional…

Like medieval war games of dialectical argument, today's education model is based on idea of competition, a scholastic sorting process aimed at fixing every child's place in life. So long as access to higher education rests on standardized test scores and/or high school grades in conventional subjects, higher education institutions will subject…

Recent research suggests three major realms of experience from which visitors draw schemata that inform meaning-making at heritage sites: (1) associations with and knowledge of history; (2) experiences and behavior regarding the past in everyday life; and (3) expectations of and behavior at heritage sites. Presents three strategies for empirically…