The central theme of this paper is that multimethod, multitrait research is essential to uncover learning beliefs and learning structures. The year-long social-ecological study clearly illustrated the efficacy of such a research process. This was a study of the elements of a kindergarten classroom environment and the beliefs that parents,…

Based on the hypothesis that the low academic achievement of Brazilian children attending government schools was directly related to a discrepancy between the children's working-class dialect and the school's dialect which is closer to upper class speech, a study was undertaken in literacy classes in one private and one public school where the…

Black students, other minorities and white students can show significant increases in achievement in biology by using a cooperative learning model. Concentrating on cooperating with group members toward a common goal is the ingredient that makes this cooperative learning model work. This study was designed to investigate the effects of cooperative…

The purpose of this study was to explore how the needs, actions, and beliefs of teacher and students interact with the constraints of the classroom and the curriculum to establish an atmosphere conducive to effective learning of physics in grade 11. An interpretive research methodology was used to investigate the students' and teachers' needs,…

A teacher's reactions to students' mathematical contributions have critical implications for shaping both teaching and learning. We present a framework for describing reacting moves that resulted from a comparative analysis between two existing frameworks; one developed by secondary teachers for parsing instructional practice and the other…

In consecutive quarters, two studies were conducted at a two-year vocational/technical college to determine how different goal structures within the learning environment could influence student expectations, achievement, and perceptions of the causes of learning outcomes. The first study investigated three goal structures (i.e., cooperative,…

The reward structure of a classroom refers to the means by which a teacher motivates students to perform school tasks. This document reports on a study in which academic achievement in competitive and reward-structured environments was examined in two high school sophomore level biology classes of equal academic ability. Each class was pretested…

Regis College (Massachusetts) has expanded student learning skills through through changes in the management program toward increasing integration of management and liberal arts disciplines and increased opportunities for cooperative and experiential learning. The program stresses making conceptual connections and part/whole relations in…

Teaching the Cell topic in junior high schools involves a host of problems. The study reported in this paper investigated the effect of various teaching methods on Israeli students' achievements, acquiring laboratory skills, and the dimensions of learning activities. The Cell topic was taught to an experimental group using the Jigsaw method and…

The verbal interaction between a laboratory school class of sixth/seventh grade students and their teacher during 18 social studies discussions was analyzed in order to identify teacher techniques relevant to student discourse and student passivity. Classroom discussions were taped, transcribed, and analyzed according to an adaptation of the…

Project THISTLE (Thinking Skills in Teaching and Learning) was developed by Montclair State College (New Jersey) faculty in collaboration with the Newark, New Jersey, public schools. The project is designed to improve the basic skills of urban college-bound high school students by working with their teachers in an integrated process of curriculum…

This research investigated the value students attached to the laboratory activities while studying physics using the learning cycle curriculum construction and teaching procedures. Among the procedures used to supply students laboratory data were video-taped demonstrations, "live" teacher demonstration, presenting data in written form…

This study assessed the effect of group size and presentation mode on acquisition of the process skill of forming and testing hypotheses and selected attitudes. Preservice elementary teachers (N=87) in five intact classes received two 1-hour sessions presented by microcomputer, 1 week apart. Half of the subjects were assigned to three-member…

Total Physical Response is a strategy for learning second languages developed by James J. Asher. The Tomatis program, developed in France by Alfred Tomatis, is a method for treating dyslexia and communication problems and is also used for teaching basic elements of foreign languages. Suggestology is a psychotherapeutic system based on yogic…

This paper reviews several studies on aptitude treatment interaction, the interaction between the learners' individual differences and methods of instruction. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between previous knowledge, including previously held misconceptions, and instructional methods. It is suggested that significant interactions…