This chapter explores some of the historical underpinnings of collaborative learning and highlights the issues involved in designing collaborative approaches including roots of collaboration in education, epistemological theory, reframing the student and teacher roles, and shared inquiry as a process of reform. (MLW)

Discussion of the National Research and Education Network (NREN) highlights distance education programs that have been developed at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Topics discussed include nontraditional students; an evolving view of knowledge and learning; new communications technologies; computer communications at RIT; hearing-impaired…

Addresses one aspect of individual differences and how socially learned cues may radically influence the verbal learning tasks performed by university students taking a foreign language. The nonuniversity studies reviewed provide the backdrop for a more in-depth study on four memorization modes and how these strategies are largely dependent on…

Learning styles represent a type of aptitude-treatment interaction suggesting that a person's distinctive characteristics (aptitudes) can be matched to a specific treatment (instructional method) yielding a more effective outcome than could otherwise have been achieved. Special education research does not support categorizing youngsters or using…

Discussion of how school library media specialists can fulfill the mission stated in "Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs" focuses on responsiveness to the concerns of school administrators. Topics addressed include impacts on student learning; learner outcomes and performance objectives; measures of…

A hypothetical classroom discussion in an introductory college sociology class provides a focal point for discussion about teaching techniques and the process by which students learn. The interaction and subsequent reflections on it are described by the teacher. (MSE)

The Learning Cycle Model presented is an attempt to build an articulated sequence of instructional activities that foster in-depth understanding of a complex natural phenomenon through many direct experiences that include student-generated inquiry, involve student-generated explanation and interpretation, and enrich the developed network of ideas…

Examines teacher's use of their personal knowledge and qualities, such as trust, acceptance, tolerance, or sympathy toward the learner, as a means of helping students in teacher education develop and use their personal knowledge. The article focuses on the element of uncertainty and its effect on the teacher student relationship. (GLR)

The director of Northwestern University's Institute for the Learning Sciences describes software that creates simulated environments in which learners focus on skills rather than facts. Also addressed are learning motivation and learning style issues. (SK)

Two studies examined the relationship between a measure of metacognitive word knowledge, the KMA (knowledge monitoring ability), and performance in college. Using undergraduate grade point average in a number of academic domains as criterion measures, this research provides support for the validity of the KMA as a predictor of success in college.…

Describes the founding of an experimental school in 1936 in Laren, Holland by Maria Montessori, which began to synthesize the cultural materials based on children's capacity for hearing and absorbing language. Discusses young children's responsiveness to learning scientific names for leaf forms. Cites this experience as evidence for her theory of…

Describes three experiments with high school and college students concerning learning with ill-structured hypertext; in each study, one different kind of external learning aid (memo pads, learning time, and teaching objectives) was manipulated and examined for its effect on intentional and incidental knowledge acquisition. Findings are discussed…

A study compared the accuracy of experienced staff with a learning test in predicting the ability of 18 persons with mental retardation to learn 12 training tasks. Results found the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities test was more accurate for predicting client performance than the assessments of experienced staff. (Author/CR)

A study investigated, within a cognitive attentional framework, whether amount (single/multiple) and type (teacher-centered/learner-centered) of exposure to the same morphological information had positive effects on first-semester adult learners' second language development of morphological forms, and whether there is any differential performance…

Discusses the use of virtual reality as an educational tool. Highlights include examples of virtual reality in public schools that lead to a more active learning process, simulated environments, integrating virtual reality into any curriculum, benefits to teachers and students, and overcoming barriers to implementation. (LRW)