Examined reasoning in normal, autistic, and deaf individuals. Found that deaf individuals who grow up in hearing homes without fluent signers show selective impairments in theory of mind similar to those of autistic individuals. Results suggest that conversational differences in the language children hear accounts for distinctive patterns of…

How students develop forms for self-regulating learning is explored. It is suggested that they experiment, bootstrapping newer forms of self-regulated learning from prior forms. Obstacles are obtaining sufficient practice, remembering how learning was enacted, and reasoning about factors that affect learning. (SLD)

Argues that epistemological beliefs of community college students can impact their learning processes. Explains that epistemological beliefs interact with other knowledge structures. Reports on a study that explores the association between students' epistemological beliefs and learning processes. Suggests there are relationships between Fixed…

Three experiments involving 350 undergraduates addressed whether implicit learning is sensitive to a subject's entire range of learning or whether explicit knowledge is an important factor in the more complex learning of an artificial grammar. Results suggest that implicit learning occurs only at the simplest level of complexity. (SLD)

Describes the implementation of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) at many educational institutions across Canada. Suggests that PLA should be incorporated into every skills training and upgrading program. (JOW)

Two experiments examined how 5- and 10-year-olds revised their category representations when exposed to exemplars that were congruent or incongruent with existing knowledge. Findings indicated that judgments about feature co-occurrent within the learned category were influenced by both stereotypical beliefs and exemplar observation. Stereotypical…

Business management students who earned prior learning credit through portfolios (n=27) and 27 who completed coursework were compared. Results indicated that metacognitive skills can be developed outside the classroom to an equal or greater level. Portfolio development assisted learners in articulating tacit knowledge they acquired through…

Discusses issues surrounding experiential learning in the second language classroom. Experiential learning is defined by the inclusion of phases of reflection designed to help the learner relate current learning experience to past and future experience. (Author/VWL)

Considers the role of learning accreditation in relation to demand for quality assurance in organizational learning. Develops a four-dimensional management perspective that outlines four pathways of learning: learning needs in relation to aspirations, academic learning, learning to qualify for professional practice, and learning to sustain career…

Reviews research on the effects of world knowledge and text structure variables on reading comprehension. Concludes that text structure variables exert influence only when the subject matter is moderately unfamiliar and are redundant in reading familiar or very difficult material. Suggests knowledge and structure variables should be manipulated…

Quantitative results from a study involving 78 elementary students suggest that content-related attitudes do not significantly affect subjects' reading comprehension. However, qualitative results suggest that attitudes may affect reading comprehension in qualitatively different ways. (IAH)

This article describes a proposed model of self-directed critical thinking that comprises two interrelated and equal components: one cognitive and the other motivational. The model stresses the importance in critical thinking of the child's present store of general information. Examples illustrate the operation of the model. (IAH)

Examines how readers overcome their misconceptions about the principles of motion. Finds that students overcome misconceptions when their prior knowledge is activated, regardless of whether they read text that supports or refutes those misconceptions. Finds that students using several processing strategies have an advantage over students using…

Examined the different influences of comprehension-skill and domain-knowledge components on learning from text. Found that learning from an expanded text with explicit causal relations was related to reading comprehension skill rather than prior knowledge, whereas learning from an unexpanded text that did not spell out causes was a function of…

Describes some recent studies which establish that meaningful learning can be promoted by a certain type of questioning activity, called elaborative interrogation, that leads students to activate prior knowledge and tie it to the new information. (SR)