Explored the relationship between three personality traits in older adults and improvement in face-name recall after three types of intervention. Results showed improvement in recall after intervention; a correlation between the openness trait and recall with all interventions; and a correlation between the fantasy subfactor trait and recall with…

Reports on two aspects of the SIMULATE (Simulation Authoring Tools Environment) project: an account of the learning processes that are involved in learning with computer simulations, and an inventory of learner attributes. Topics discussed include ISLEs (intelligent simulation learning environments), prior knowledge, motivation, cognitive style,…

Describes the journals of five language-minority students who were asked to write their impressions and feelings concerning teachers, class content, and the methods or techniques that their teachers used. (PRA)

Two fourth grade boys with learning disabilities learned to use the Bank Street Writer III word processing and spelling checker program to edit spelling errors. Both boys learned to manage the spell-checking process and increased the spelling accuracy of their edited texts. Differences in their learning processes and the tool's limitations are…

Discusses issues and problems concerning concept development among students in elementary social studies programs. Suggests good teaching uses analogies and metaphors to facilitate learning. Recommends illustrating key concepts through myths, fables, and parables. Argues that using stories that show how things work allows students to apply the…

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.…