The effects of age,study time,and importance of text units on strategy use and memory for texts

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study investigated study behavior and recall of a narrative text as a function of the reader’s age, study time, and importance level of text...     

he Challenges of Teaching Good Information Processing to Learning Disabled Students

A MODEL of good information processing is sketched, describing how metacognitive knowledge influences strategy selection and use. Three factors pose particular problems for learning disabled students as they attempt to acquire metacognitive knowledge and to use study strategies productively: neurological impairments; deficiencies in general world knowledge; and negative beliefs, attitudes, and styles that limit self‐efficacy. Creating an educational atmosphere that explicitly builds conceptual (domain‐specific) knowledge and teaches positive beliefs about learning potential is essential in promoting metacognitively‐oriented instruction.     

A Reconsideration of Cognitive Load Theory

Cognitive load theory has been very influential in educational psychology during the last decade in providing guidelines for instructional design. Whereas numerous empirical studies have used it as a theoretical framework, a closer analysis reveals some fundamental conceptual problems within the theory. Various generalizations of empirical findings become questionable because the theory allows different and contradicting possibilities to explain some empirical results. The article investigates these theoretical problems by analyzing the conceptual distinctions between different kinds of cognitive load. It emphasizes that reduction of cognitive load can sometimes impair learning rather than enhancing it. Cognitive load theory is reconsidered both from the perspective of Vygotski’s concept of the zone of proximal development and from the perspective of research on implicit learning. Task performance and learning are considered as related, but nevertheless fundamentally different processes. Conclusions are drawn for the further development of the theory as well as for empirical research and instructional practice.

The Impact of Expertise on Performance: illustrations from developmental research on memory and sports 1

Research on the impact of expertise on cognitive performance mostly conducted with adult samples has yielded impressive results, documenting the outstanding role of domain knowledge for memory and problem — solving skills. In this paper, the available research on the development of expertise in children and adolescents is reviewed in order to explore the respective roles of domain knowledge and basic intellectual abilities in determining exceptional performance. Most developmental studies conducted in different fields such as memory or sport seem to validate findings obtained from adult samples in that individual differences in domain knowledge account for the lion's share of variance explained in the performance variables. However, a closer analysis of effects reveals that individual differences in aptitude cannot be ignored and seem reliable even in homogeneous (expert) samples. Thus the developmental findings do not completely support the view proposed by Ericsson and colleagues that “deliberate practice” is the only predictor of exceptional performance. Instead, “threshold” or “partial compensation” models seem more appropriate to describe the interplay between aptitude and domain knowledge in predicting peak performance

     

Lifelong learning and second-order learning objects

Current cultural, social, and economic trends challenge traditional concepts of learning and lifelong learning. This paper draws on the twofold nature of learning in a knowledge society and explores options for technological support. The concept of Second‐Order Learning Objects is introduced as a potential means to foster generative learning. Generative learning goes beyond that what is already known and extends or transforms the socially shared knowledge including its artefacts and practices. According to the notion of individual and social learning as a process of reflective action, the role of strategies and media for reflection and inquiry is stressed. This paper outlines the use of schematically represented strategies for learning and reflection and sketches important features of a pursuant modelling approach.     

Challenges to Comparative Education: Between Retrospect and Expectation

This article takes an autobiographical approach, which is applied in order to devise a panorama of Comparative Education, as it has developed during the past four decades. It identifies five "paradigms" which have been dominant in debates, inquiries and projects carried out by comparative educationists in various regions: East-West conflict (fifties and sixties); large-scale educational reforms (seventies); intercultural education in multicultural societies and gender issues (late seventies and eighties); transformation processes and post-modern "revolt" against the predominant theories of modernity (late eighties and nineties); and universalism versus cultural pluralism (nineties). The "changes' of these paradigms have been stimulated by developments and trends in the socioeconomic, political and cultural framework as well as by the continuous debates within the science. The current period seems to be primarily determined by the challenges to Comparative Education to define its response to the antagonism between universalism and cultural pluralism. Comparative studies may provide evidence for "reconciliatory" endeavour. They can, on the one hand, warn universalists of hasty "harmonisations", while, on the other hand, they can tell radical advocates of cultural pluralism that the commitment to one's ethnic, religious or national identity need and should not close the doors to the search for universal trends and generally acceptable values.     

‘Analysis of the Evolution of a Science Concept: Macromolecules'‐‐a Case Study to Introduce New Trends in German Teacher‐Training

Summaries

English

This paper describes the philosophy as well as the actual and possible utilization of a model curriculum recently developed in FR Germany. The curriculum contains two parts: one of which deals with teacher training. Here teachers are provided with information, guidelines and procedures, which are to enable them to construct an integrated curriculum—setting out from a special subject within a special discipline. The other part contains a model curriculum for use in schools. It centres around the evolution of the macromolecule concept. Both parts are determined by a philosophy which stresses the importance of the unification of aesthetic and rationalistic elements in science and science education. Generally, it reconsiders the separation between the examining subject, on one side, and nature as the object of examination, on the other side.

The actual process of dissemination and implementation is discussed along with future strategies. It is claimed that the model is confined neither to the specific German situation nor to the topic of the evolution of the specific macromolecule concept.     

Konfigurierungskonzepte für DB-basierte technische Entwurfsanwendungen

Zusammenfassung  . Schwerpunkte einer Datenbank-Unterstützung von technischen Entwurfsanwendungen sind eine geeignete Ablaufkontrolle sowie ein geeignetes Datenmodell. Letzteres mu? Versionen komplexer Objekte verwalten k?nnen. Um aus der Gesamtmenge der in einer Datenbank enthaltenen Versionen konsistente Einheiten (Mengen ‚kompatibler’ Versionen) hervorheben zu k?nnen, werden geeignete Konfigurierungskonzepte ben?tigt. Dieses Papier gibt eine Klassifikation verschiedener DB-bezogener Konfigurierungsans?tze, bewertet diese und begründet damit die Wahl, die im Rahmen des Objekt- und Versionsdatenmodells OVM hinsichtlich des zu unterstützenden Konfigurierungskonzeptes getroffen wurde. Wir werden argumentieren, da? insbesondere die Flexibilit?t, die das gew?hlte Konzept sowohl hinsichtlich der Definition von Konfigurationstypen als auch hinsichtlich des Anlegens von Konfigurationen bietet, zu einer besseren Unterstützung von technischen Entwurfsanwendungen als in bestehenden objekt-orientierten Systemen führt. Eingegangen am 14. Oktober 1996/Angenommen am 27. Oktober 1997     

Editorial

When founding the International Journal of Public Opinion Research,the editors had a vision that the journal would be both internationaland interdisciplinary, while retaining a broad interest in boththeoretical and empirical scholarly work. We included reviews,first of books and then of articles reporting on work in thefield, and then     

Personalization in the public sector: An inventory of organizational and user obstacles towards personalization of electronic services in the public sector

The public sector more and more deploys personalized e-government services. Personalization offers great opportunities to make communication more effective and efficient, to infer and predict citizens' behavior and to even influence behavior. However, some drawbacks must be considered. Important organizational barriers hinder the implementation of personalized e-government services and important user obstacles, such as access, trust, control, and privacy, have to be overcome to make fruitful use of those personalized e-government services.