According to Gordon and Bridglall, the ability to learn is more of a developed human capacity than a fixed aptitude with which one is born. They argue that the emergence of academic ability is associated with exposure to specialized cultures that privilege the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that schools reward. Children who are born to and raised in these cultures tend to do well in school, while those who are not exposed to such cultures tend seldom rise to high levels of academic achievement. Through a collection of interesting essays, Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability attempts to address how we can deliberately develop academic ability in those children who are not raised under conditions that predispose them to develop high levels of academic ability.

According to Gordon and Bridglall, the ability to learn is more of a developed human capacity than a fixed aptitude with which one is born. They argue that the emergence of academic ability is associated with exposure to specialized cultures that privilege the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that schools reward. Children who are born to and raised in these cultures tend to do well in school, while those who are not exposed to such cultures tend seldom rise to high levels of academic achievement. Through a collection of interesting essays, Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability attempts to address how we can deliberately develop academic ability in those children who are not raised under conditions that predispose them to develop high levels of academic ability.

This book is about empirically tested knowledge and principles that inform the design of instructional and evaluation systems, and the use and promise of media and technology within such systems.
Historically, psychology has informed the design of instructional and evaluation systems in different ways. A behavioral perspective emphasizes the role of the environment in determining behavior--a factor external to the learner. A cognitive perspective focuses on the role of cognitive processing and constraints in determining learning--factors that are internal to the learner. This volume presents the affordances approach--which addresses how the environment and the affordances within it interact with cognitive processes to determine learning. Insights into this interaction are presented. It is the book's contention that the affordance approach represents an advancement over the behavioral and cognitive perspectives; it is an evolution within the cognitive approach--not an alternative to it.
"The Design of Instruction and Evaluation: Affordances of Using Media and Technology" is intended for education practitioners responsible for the implementation of media and technology in classrooms, for researchers and faculty, and for use as a text in courses on media and technology use in educational settings, instructional design, and psychology of learning.

This book is about empirically tested knowledge and principles that inform the design of instructional and evaluation systems, and the use and promise of media and technology within such systems.
Historically, psychology has informed the design of instructional and evaluation systems in different ways. A behavioral perspective emphasizes the role of the environment in determining behavior--a factor external to the learner. A cognitive perspective focuses on the role of cognitive processing and constraints in determining learning--factors that are internal to the learner. This volume presents the affordances approach--which addresses how the environment and the affordances within it interact with cognitive processes to determine learning. Insights into this interaction are presented. It is the book's contention that the affordance approach represents an advancement over the behavioral and cognitive perspectives; it is an evolution within the cognitive approach--not an alternative to it.
"The Design of Instruction and Evaluation: Affordances of Using Media and Technology" is intended for education practitioners responsible for the implementation of media and technology in classrooms, for researchers and faculty, and for use as a text in courses on media and technology use in educational settings, instructional design, and psychology of learning.