This ERIC Digest describes what primary sources are and how and why they can be used in elementary school classrooms. Primary sources are historical artifacts with which students can interact to effectively engage in active learning. Topics discussed in the Digest include: "What Are Primary Sources?"; "Why Use Primary…

A framework for designing intelligent assistance in a discovery learning environment is proposed in this paper. The process of discovery learning is analyzed and the required functions for intelligent assistance are discussed. A flexible simulator that fits any type of discovery learning is necessary. The problem solvers that perform fundamental…

Describes some of the advantages of an elementary science activity in which students discover that blowing through a straw into a bromthymol blue solution changes the color to yellow. Directions are provided for preparing the bromthymol blue solution. (JR)

Different regular-polygon-shaped candles wound with a sheet of paper are cut through obliquely. When the papers are unwound, unique patterns are revealed. Investigation of these patterns leads to the discovery of geometric concepts. (JP)

Author suggests ways in which parents and teachers can assist their children with early experience in sensory perception of the natural environment. (Author/RK)

Studies effects of verbal participation during enquiry on achievement among three differently treated groups of four eighth-grade classes each with I.Q. test, reading test, sociometric, and academiometric results taken into account. Indicated the preference of strategies involving more students, particularly more girls, in class discussion. (CC)

Findings of a series of interviews with several professors and administrators in the Swedish school system; research partially supported by the Swedish Institute. (DD)

Some second thoughts about the manager's handbooks'' developed in the great curriculum projects of the early sixties, based on two years of controlled study. (Author)

Argues that it is essential that alternative schools continually ask themselves: What is learning?'' Suggests that such schools must view the way the student values himself and his needs, the way he relates to other people, and the way he operates within the educational institution -- given the variables that will affect what a student learns at…

Discusses Piaget's and Skinner's approaches to instruction and indicates the possibility of a muddled education system through the superimposition of the new theories on the older ones. (CC)