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This paper describes the reactions of graduate secondary school student teachers to an experiment which required them to evaluate specified techniques and theories of teaching and learning as part of their classroom practice. The aim of the experiment was to: (1) improve the quality of their judgments about pupils; (2) acquire variety in teaching styles; (3) increase understanding of student learning; and (4) evaluate the merits of Kolb's theory of learning and its application to teaching practice. Kolb's cycle of learning has four stages: learners are actively involved in a specific experience; they reflect on this experience from several perspectives; they draw conclusions using abstract conceptualization; and they take action as a result of the conclusions. Kolb developed a Learning Styles Inventory to determine the disposition of learners within a framework of four learning styles: convergers, divergers, assimilators, and accommodators. The student teachers devised lesson plans to take their pupils through each quadrant of the cycle and a test to assess student performance based on the learning styles. Over 50 percent of the participants said they experienced a permanent change in teaching as a result of the exercise; 56 percent said they fully intended to use the Kolb plan again; and 29 percent said they would use a Learning Styles Inventory in the future. Comments from student reports illustrate the insights which the exercise brought to the work of these student teachers. Six exhibits are attached. (Contains 17 references.) (ND)

This paper reports on a model in which graduate students were encouraged to regard their classrooms as laboratories to replicate earlier research on the use of examples in teaching concepts. The De Cecco and Crawford (1974) concept teaching model, which requires teachers to define the attributes and values of concepts and to reduce the number of attributes to be learned in complex concepts, is examined, illustrated with examples from student reports. On completion of the lesson, student teachers provided an immediate evaluation of how it affected them and what they perceived their students' responses to be. A week later they prepared a formal evaluation based on classroom data and on observations from additional readings describing alternative approaches to teaching concepts. Between 1984 and 1996, 1,111 reports were completed. While no two reports were the same, similar successes and difficulties were experienced. Topics covered include: (1) use of negative examples in learning; (2) selecting non-examples; (3) avoiding confusion; (4) effects of "noise" (information overload) on the teaching of concepts; and (5) problems in the selection of examples. Taken together, the reports and questionnaires indicate the value of the seven-stage lesson plan and affirm the results of the early research on the use of examples and non-examples in teaching concepts. (Contains 20 references.) (ND)

This monographic series volume contains two separate monographs. "The Training of Student Teachers in Discovery Methods of Instruction and Learning," (John Heywood, Sarah Heywood) discusses the polarization of discovery learning and expository teaching. It describes a unit in the applied psychology of instruction, commonly known as "the student teacher as researcher programme," which is included in a secondary teacher education course at an Irish university. Students compared two methods of teaching, expository and guided discovery or discovery, utilizing experimental methods. The evidence indicates that, while guided discovery and discovery techniques produce no better pupil test results than expository methods, they do create a better learning environment, one that is more conducive to pupil motivation. Difficulties encountered by student teachers implementing discovery techniques included devising assessment procedures and confusion and reluctance on the part of pupils. The report includes statistical breakdowns on the results of student teachers' experiments and examples of their lesson plans. "Comparing Guided Discovery and Expository Methods: Teaching the Water Cycle in Geography," (Iain Donovan) involved teaching the same geography topic, the water cycle, to two secondary classes of approximately equal ability, using guided discovery learning for one class and expository teaching for the other. Each class was given the same test after the relevant lesson to ascertain which learning strategy was more effective in achieving the common objectives. Findings indicated that low ability students benefited more from the expository lesson whereas, to a less significant degree, high ability pupils benefited more from the guided discovery lesson. The results both confirm and contradict the findings of previous research on guided discovery and expository teaching strategies, both of which are discussed. (IAH)