Older learners are often led into adult education by a quest for self-development and the wish to make meaning of the human experience. Adult educators should explore and appreciate the process of human development in the last stage. In old age there can be a merging of the knowledge of the body (life's stories) and of the spirit (developmental…

The idea of "Executive Mind" carries with it the notion of purposeful and effective action. Part I of this paper characterizes three complements to "Executive Mind"--"Observing Mind,""Theorizing Mind," and "Passionate Mind"--and offers historical figures exemplifying all four types. The concluding…

Awareness of the need for more effective instruction for heterogeneous groups of students has resulted in the development of the "mastery learning" model through which students are provided with the additional time necessary to achieve mastery of the content to be learned. The mastery learning model does not, however, provide a…

It is generally recognized that students' feelings about learning affect their ability to learn. One of the three strongest influencing factors on second-language learning is classroom anxiety. This paper focuses on student emotional distress in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom, and suggests that one of the primary causes of this…

Research has shown that race, social class, and gender influence teacher expectations of student performance. To investigate teacher expectations for the academic performance and future occupational status of white and Asian elementary school children, and the teacher attributions for their performance, 25 white elementary school teachers (23…

The question of whether students change in broad abilities indicative of human potential for cognitive-development, learning styles, and other generic abilities was studied at Alverno College. An additional study objective was to determine whether such change can be attributed to performance in a performance-based curriculum, rather than age,…

The studies described in this paper sought to investigate several forms of online learning and assessment methods in terms their efficacy in facilitating student learning. The studies also sought to investigate how participants rated each method. Attitudes toward computer-assisted learning were not related to performance on each of the online…

This study sought to investigate four separate issues regarding student performance in a blended learning environment in the delivery of a Psychology course to 140 University undergraduates. Firstly, to investigate the relationship between student performance on three different coursework assignments and their performance on interim online…

Determining gender learning-style preferences is necessary in assuring that principal preparation programmes are inclusive of styles that benefit both males and females. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any gender differences for students in a principal preparation programme on responses to items measuring pedagogy (science…

This study examined experienced and preservice teachers' abilities to diagnose student learning style preferences. The subjects were 15 pairs of physical education cooperating teachers and their student teachers and 5 randomly selected students from each school site. To determine student learning styles, students completed the Canfield Learning…

Sex differences on Perry's stages of epistemological development were investigated in a study of 100 freshmen (50 men and 50 women) at a large midwestern university. A semi-structured interview probed six domains related to Perry's theory, including the role of the learner, instructor, and peers in the learning situation, the question of…

Variables and conditions that influence the learning of computer-presented expository text were investigated in this study, in which on-screen underlining was used as a learning aid to increase "mindful" processing of information. The effects of three intervening variables--amount of invested mental effort (AIME), learning style, and…

This longitudinal research examines the development of literacy skills in the context of an educational microcomputer implementation conducted to evaluate word processors and LOGO as tools for cognitive enrichment. Three classes including 87 children in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada are being followed from first- through third-grade. One…

This paper attempts to connect theories of learning and theories of instruction, which often originate independently from each other, into a unified theory which gives a central place to students' self-regulation and which is based on recent research on student learning. The first of four parts analyzes the cognitive, affective, and metacognitive…

Practitioner use of learning style theory and measures can have an impact on curriculum design, instruction and assessment methods, and student guidance in the secondary school. Concern about the "operationalization" of learning style continues due to confusion concerning definitions, weakness in reliability and validity of measurements, and…