Selected Resources on How Students Learn

This list is not comprehensive, but aims to provide a starting point for those seeking additional reading on this topic.

A fuller discussion of the active mind and the structured mind in learning:

Gelman, R. and M. G. Lee. 1995. Trends and Developments in Educational Psychology in the United States. New York: UNESCO.

A fuller discussion of how different representational systems are at work during learning:

Copple, C. E., I.E. Sigel, and R. Saunders. 1984. Educating the Young Thinker. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.

Interesting readings about the active processes of discovery among scientists as they engage in problem solving in their laboratories:

Dunbar, K. 1995. How scientists really reason: Scientific reasoning in real-world laboratories. In R. J. Stern and J. Davidson, eds. Mechanisms of Insight. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Dunbar, K. 1996. How scientists think: On-line creativity and conceptual change in science. In T. B. Ward, S. M. Smith, and S. Vaid, eds. Conceptual Structures and Processes: Emergence, Discovery, and Change. Washington, D.C.: APA Press.

Building on the active learning work by Gelman and Lee cited earlier in this sidebar, this paper emphasizes discovery processes in which learners engage, and suggests ways that teachers can facilitate this kind of learning:

Schauble, L. 1996. The development of scientific reasoning in knowledge-rich contexts. Developmental Psychology 32:102-119.

For further reading on teacher-student collaboration in building knowledge frameworks:

Schauble, L., R. Glaser, R. A. Duschl, S. Schulze, and J. John. 1995. Students' understanding of the objectives and procedures of the experimentation in the science classroom. Journal of the Learning Sciences 4(2):131-166.

For further reading about building a community of learners:

Brown, A. L. 1994. The advancement of learning. Educational Researcher 23(8):4-12.