Presents an interview with Allen Schoer, CEO of TAI Resources, regarding his definition of creativity, what stimulates individual creativity, what makes it grow, and how his experiences and ideas can be applied in any classroom for an effective learning experience. (VWC)

Describes an open learning initiative in China called the Higher Education Examinations Self-Taught Learning (HEESTL) that relies on autonomous learning, student motivation, and students' ability to seek out additional needed support to take the National Unified Higher Education Examinations. Discusses the role of state and provincial governments…

Describes steps taken to lower the defense mechanism that acted as a barrier to second language learning for a 5-year-old English-speaking Puerto Rican child. Utilized three key principles: (1) getting to know the student as an individual; (2) changing oneself to adapt to the student; and (3) giving the student a chance to experience comfort and…

Compares the effectiveness of the PORPE (predict, organize, rehearse, practice, evaluate) study strategy with the effectiveness of the annotation study strategy using narrative texts. Finds that annotation subjects significantly outperformed the PORPE subjects on the delayed test but there were no significant differences between the groups on the…

Advocates teaching critical thinking through showing students the logic of a subject. Uses one example of instruction in history that allows students to think their way through the logic of the subject rather than memorize bits and pieces of someone else's thought (never grasping its logic). (VWC)

Computation activities focusing on speed and accuracy do not provide children with the opportunity to learn or develop their own mental computation strategies. Sets out some goals and ideas for teaching mental computation and introduces a card game for helping children compute mentally. (ASK)

College students read one of two versions of a chapter of text in which target topic labels appeared either with high frequency or low frequency. These two experiments show that readers with low prior knowledge are more likely to make use of surface cues to identify elements of text. (BF)

Argues that students should continuously question the purpose of their daily classroom activities and assignments. Explains that when students are required to consider purpose, they begin to develop important intellectual skills, and to bring relevance to their critical thinking and daily life. (NB)

A self-paced reading skills program was designed to boost the reading ability of seventh- and eighth-grade students. The study correlated students' independent reading levels with science grades. Techniques included guided reading, context clues and cloze activities. Over six months, reading levels increased 1 to 5 grade levels; science grades…

Reports on a study that investigates the evolution of the idea of "good quality of life" in the context of an educative process that values firsthand experiences of nature and the engagement to think about those experiences. (Contains 28 references.) (DDR)

Discusses the analytical processes and outcomes of a doctoral study in environmental education that investigated teachers' thinking and practice regarding the contributions of geography teaching to students' environmental education. (Contains 33 references.) (DDR)

Explores high school students' collaborative efforts in solving qualitative physics problems and investigates how and whether confronting students with varying views improves problem solving skills. (Contains 22 references.) (DDR)

Explores the effects of using online notepads to take notes on problem solving and learning in a scientific domain. Describes experiments conducted at George Mason University with undergraduate students that showed positive benefits for problems solving and self-explanation when using online notepads. (Contains 50 references.) (Author/LRW)

Reports on a series of exploratory studies dealing with learning in total enterprise simulations among undergraduates. Examined the validity of simulations as learning tools; measured relationships between learning about the simulation and economic performance in the game; and explored whether some players learn more than others from the same…

Presents results from a study of teaching and learning characteristics and the role of teachers in ICT (information and communication technology) learning environments of 25 technology-rich primary and secondary schools in five European countries. Results indicate that learning environments are more pupil-centered when there is greater curriculum…