The introduction of computers into education raises questions such as: are computers in education effective? If they are, in what sense? What are the most effective strategies for using computers in education? How should teachers be encouraged to use them?To answer these questions a large-scale experiment (Project Comptown) was carried out in Israel, to test ways and means under real rather than laboratory conditions. This project is a research-oriented educational intervention, applying massive computerisation of schools and their 'close environment' to two localities in Israel (Arad and Ashkelon). Our starting point was the premise that computerisation of education is an inevitable process. Consequently, turning the computer into a 'cultural tool' in schools becomes a major challenge, aiming to narrow the gap between 'school culture' and 'real-world culture'. The main objectives for Project Comptown are: [l] To create a computer culture in schools: [ 2 ] To use the computer's potential for innovative teaching and learning, both inside and outside schools. To achieve these, we identified a number of principles which we considered pre-conditions for an 'appropriate' computer strategy in schools.

This article investigates the mutidimensional structure of verbal comprehension test items. Empirical evidence, based upon results of a verbal comprehension test (a subtest of the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test) administered to Israeli sixth graders, is provided to support the theory that item tasks are multivariate-multiordered composites of three faceted components: language, contextual knowledge and cognitive operation. Guttman's "Order" and "Facet" theory, as well as his Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) were used with the data. The SSA yielded a "cylindrical" structure suggesting that (a) language and cognitive-operation components represent additive "key" skills that maintain the cognitive knowledge processing skills, and (b) that a differentiation can be made between skills that are automatically applied and those that are applied through processing operations. Linear and circular properties of the cylindrical manifestation were demonstrated by the serially ordered character of the sub-matrices of the matrix of interitem correlation coefficients.

A "Generative-Predicational Model" is proposed and applied to the generation of meanings of simple mathematical word-problems. The model suggests that a fundamental property of cognition is a generative process that takes arguments and that produces results, such as events, answers and inferences. This fundamental property, called predication, generates a task-environment i.e., a problem and its corresponding problem-space i.e., its solution. More precisely, a task-environment is a predication consisting of a written mathematical problem and a writer's life experience. A problem-space is a predication consisting of a learner's problem solving schema and of the meaning that the learner generates for the text.The ease with which relations can be established between a task-environment and a problem-space depends on the problem's "coherence" and "complexity" and the learner's experiences and thought processes. Faceted definitions of task-envirortment and problem-space are used to analyze talk-aloud protocols of fifty Israeli sixth-graders tested with thirty word-problems. The empirical results support the proposed model.

This study represents an attempt to explain verbal comprehension by analyzing the multifaceted structure of the item of a sentence-completion test. Three stimulus constituents were postulated: technical, logical-semantic, and associative-contextual. Responses of 2,853 Israeli sixth graders to a sentence completion test provided the raw data for the investigation. Guttman's facet and order theories and Smallest space analysis were used to define and to test the radex and the cylindrex configurations of the item-stimulated processing procedures and skill components. The hypotheses, confirmed empirically, suggest that: (a) Item tasks are multi procedural, multi componential stimuli composites that explain cognitive and technical constituents of task responses. (b) Comprehension-successful performances, schematically portrayed by the radex and the cylindrex configurations, uniformly involve the application of analytic, associative, technical and higher level executive processing procedures and skill components. (c) Deviations from these uniformly applied procedures and skills may explain individual differences in comprehension.

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