In order to investigate the effects of sequence and synthesis in the teaching of taxonomically-related concepts, a study was conducted in which 27 students from Syracuse University were asked to examine printed instructions dealing with kinds of sailboats and then to respond to a test based on those instructions. The synthesizing structure…

This study investigated the effects of sequence and synthesis prescriptions from the Elaboration Theory by teaching the parts of a microcomputer system based on a parts-conceptual structure. A 2x3 factorial design was used which incorporated two sequences, general-to-detailed and detailed-to-general, and three levels of synthesizer, i.e., no…

This study explores the use of the adjunct question paradigm in self-instruction and distance education materials. The subjects were 187 high school students who read text passages and answered one high level (implication or inference) or low level (verbatim or paraphrase) question. These questions were either inserted in the text or massed at the…

This study investigated the effects of different structures of a synthesizer and formats of the generality component on the application and remember levels of learning. Seventy-three undergraduates participated. Four treatment groups were formed by combining two types of structure (complete versus partial) with two types of format in generality…

Inconsistencies in the use of terminology to describe instructional treatments, confounding of discovery and expository methods with other aspects of instruction, and inconsistencies in defining independent and dependent variables within and between studies have all contributed to the lack of definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of…

Self-instructional booklets simulating computer-assisted instruction (CAI) were used to teach four basic concepts in science to first graders in three treatment groups which received different types of feedback--hints, correct answers, and right or wrong. A control group received neither instruction nor feedback. A multiple-choice test was…

Many basic skills are chains of cognitive operations. For teaching such skills, two questions have not been adequately investigated: (1) how the operations comprising the skill should be sequenced, and (2) the relationships among the operations that need to be taught. This investigation entailed four studies on different types and lengths of basic…

Focusing on the achievement and motivational effects of analogies of varying enrichment levels when used with abstract, unfamiliar, and difficult content, this study examined their effects on instruction at the recall and application levels using content consisting of both concepts and principles. The subjects were 123 eighth-grade science…

This study examined the effects of the type of adjunct questions (use-a-generality, remember-a-generality, and remember-an-instance) and the position of these questions either before the relevant text passage (pre-questions) or after it (post-questions) on the three corresponding performance levels of learning. The subjects were 74 eighth-grade…