Discussions of the barriers to completion in community colleges have largely focused on student success in introductory college-level math and English courses, and rightfully so, since these courses are typically required for degrees. However, there is a much broader range of courses that also serve as "gatekeepers" in the sense that they are…

To explore whether different balances of fiction/non-fiction reading and challenge might help explain differences in reading achievement between genders, data on 45,670 pupils who independently read over 3 million books were analysed. Moderate (rather than high or low) levels of challenge were positively associated with achievement gain, but…

A rationale is presented for using humor as a French language teaching tool, and several class activities designed for different language skill levels and using humor as a central element are described. Some suggestions are offered for selecting appropriate instructional materials. (MSE)

The learning of a list of 20 Blissymbols and comparable American Sign Language signs by 121 nonhandicapped undergraduate psychology students was compared. Blissymbols were learned significantly faster than manual signs, particularly in early learning trials. Results are discussed in terms of the memory requirements of the two systems. (Author/JDD)

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a complex form completed annually by millions of postsecondary students applying for federal financial aid. Errors frequently require resubmission. It is suggested that cognitive psychology principles that help describe how people understand text and complete forms be applied to a redesigned…

Thirty-two hearing-impaired adolescents were assessed on comprehension of three anaphoric forms within conjoined sentences: repeated noun, personal pronouns, and null form. The null form anaphora in a semantically acceptable environment, in which some hearing-impaired students apply a deviant object-subject deletion rule, was significantly more…

A study evaluated the use of a "none-of-these" option on multiple-choice achievement tests in undergraduate dental education. Results indicated this option neither enhanced nor diminished examinee performance stability but did reduce the examinee's opportunity to select correct choices by means unrelated to course objectives, thereby enhancing…

As second language teaching moves away from traditional graded exercises to instruction in which communicative competence is the primary focus, exercises have become practice- and task-based, and systematic grading and diagnostic testing have disappeared. Students are sometimes being asked to perform tasks with which they would have difficulty in…

This guide for language teachers offers a developmental approach to curriculum design for second language learning. The approach suggests a progression of tasks at various difficulty levels, geared to the gradual development of language knowledge, concepts, skills, and attitudes. Ten levels of attainment, or stages of learner development, are…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether particular aspects of movement control influenced the performance of 2-year-old children on a standard developmental test, and thus influenced assessments of intellectual progress based on that test. Six cerebral-palsied (CP) children were compared with six children not suffering motor system…

This paper describes the experience of a German teacher of English as a second language (ESL) in using recreational reading as an integral part of ESL instruction and gives suggestions for materials and techniques to use in the classroom. The discussion begins with a description of foreign language instruction in the German school system and…

Each year, about one-third of college freshmen who select majors in science, mathematics, and engineering switch to other fields. Faculty may be able to reduce student attrition from quantitative majors by addressing four barriers to success: (1) pre-college preparation; (2) peer culture; (3) classroom climate; and (4) sink-or-swim instructional…

The first (exploratory) phase of the Learning in Science Project focused on science teaching/learning in the Form 1 to 4 level (ages 10 to 14) and sought to identify problems and difficulties in several areas. Provided in this paper are comments obtained during structured/unstructured interviews (from students, ex-students, teachers, headmasters,…

Essays on second language teaching focuses on how the kinds of tasks performed by the learner relate to language output. "Choosing and Using Communication Tasks for Second Language Instruction" (Teresa Pica, Ruth Kanagy, Joseph Falodun) contains a taxonomy of communication task types, based on the concepts of goal and activity,…