Guided Cognition for Learning: Unsupervised Learning and the Design of Effective Homework details a new instructional design approach called Guided Cognition where homework tasks are designed to guide learners to engage in specific, observable cognitive events that are hypothesized to elicit underlying theoretical cognitive processes that result in learning. Outlining the results of twenty-six experiments completed over the course of eight years, the book tells a significant story about the generality of Guided Cognition instructional design to improve comprehension and recall by students of varying ages and ability levels.

This volume presents and discusses current research that makes the connection between cognitive theory and instructional application. Addressing two general issues, the first set of chapters specifies the relation between cognitive theory and the development and evaluation of instruction, while the second set deals with the questions involved in understanding and assessing cognitive skills. The outstanding feature of these chapters is that they all present in-depth discussions of the theoretical issues underlying instructional decisions. Many present specific implementations that provide examples of concrete applications of theory. In addition, the settings for implementing these examples span a broad range of instructional areas and environments, illustrating the generality and transferability of the application of theory to practice.

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 volume explores higher level, critical, and creative thinking, as well as reflective decision making and problem solving -- what teachers should emphasize when teaching literacy across the curriculum. Focusing on how to encourage learners to become independent thinking, learning, and communicating participants in home, school, and community environments, this book is concerned with integrated learning in a curriculum of inclusion. It emphasizes how to provide a curriculum for students where they are socially interactive, personally reflective, and academically informed.
Contributors are authorities on such topics as cognition and learning, classroom climates, knowledge bases of the curriculum, the use of technology, strategic reading and learning, imagery and analogy as a source of creative thinking, the nature of motivation, the affective domain in learning, cognitive apprenticeships, conceptual development across the disciplines, thinking through the use of literature, the impact of the media on thinking, the nature of the new classroom, developing the ability to read words, the bilingual, multicultural learner, crosscultural literacy, and reaching the special learner.
The applications of higher level thought to classroom contexts and materials are provided, so that experienced teacher educators, and psychologists are able to implement some of the abstractions that are frequently dealt with in texts on cognition. Theoretical constructs are grounded in educational experience, giving the volume a practical dimension. Finally, appropriate concerns regarding the new media, hypertext, bilingualism, and multiculturalism as they reflect variation in cognitive experience within the contexts of learning are presented.

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 volume explores higher level, critical, and creative thinking, as well as reflective decision making and problem solving -- what teachers should emphasize when teaching literacy across the curriculum. Focusing on how to encourage learners to become independent thinking, learning, and communicating participants in home, school, and community environments, this book is concerned with integrated learning in a curriculum of inclusion. It emphasizes how to provide a curriculum for students where they are socially interactive, personally reflective, and academically informed.
Contributors are authorities on such topics as cognition and learning, classroom climates, knowledge bases of the curriculum, the use of technology, strategic reading and learning, imagery and analogy as a source of creative thinking, the nature of motivation, the affective domain in learning, cognitive apprenticeships, conceptual development across the disciplines, thinking through the use of literature, the impact of the media on thinking, the nature of the new classroom, developing the ability to read words, the bilingual, multicultural learner, crosscultural literacy, and reaching the special learner.
The applications of higher level thought to classroom contexts and materials are provided, so that experienced teacher educators, and psychologists are able to implement some of the abstractions that are frequently dealt with in texts on cognition. Theoretical constructs are grounded in educational experience, giving the volume a practical dimension. Finally, appropriate concerns regarding the new media, hypertext, bilingualism, and multiculturalism as they reflect variation in cognitive experience within the contexts of learning are presented.

This volume presents and discusses current research that makes the connection between cognitive theory and instructional application. Addressing two general issues, the first set of chapters specifies the relation between cognitive theory and the development and evaluation of instruction, while the second set deals with the questions involved in understanding and assessing cognitive skills.
The outstanding feature of these chapters is that they all present in-depth discussions of the theoretical issues underlying instructional decisions. Many present specific implementations that provide examples of concrete applications of theory. In addition, the settings for implementing these examples span a broad range of instructional areas and environments, illustrating the generality and transferability of the application of theory to practice.