Modern educational methods emphasize the necessity to transfer knowledge instead of data or information within the educational process. Thus it is important to the educational texts supporting the educational process contain knowledge in a particular textual representation. But it is not trivial to decide whether the particular piece of text…

This study compared two techniques for teaching middle school students to compose from expository text sources, a common but difficult academic writing task. Classroom social studies content was used. Text structure instruction (TSI), which focused on text characteristics using graphic organizers, was compared with PLAN & WRITE for Summarization…

The present study examines how changes in the amount of on-screen text will influence student learning from a multimedia instructional unit on basic concepts of coordinate geometry. The relative effectiveness of two different versions (short-text and whole-text) of the instructional unit was examined for students who differed in terms of their…

The eight articles and two commentaries of this theme issue indicate the main lines of thinking represented at a symposium on the comprehension of graphics in text. The common assumption is that graphics per se do not have a direct effect on learning results but are effective only when processed adequately. (SLD)

Suggests picture books are made more difficult for kids to predict, to make sense of, and to learn from by fitting them into the didactic framework of basals. Discusses the picture book genre. Compares the original version of "Ira Sleeps Over" to the basal version. Examines in detail how picture books are made to fit into a basal…

Connecting visual and print literacies in the classroom can bridge distances in students' experiences, because all literacies are complementary and interdependent. This article discusses this rationale for connecting students' communication experiences in and out of classrooms to foster relevant literacies needed in contemporary society. Next it…

Learning using primary literature may be a way of developing a capacity for scientific ways of thinking among students. Since reading research articles is a difficult task for novices, we examined the possible benefits of learning using primary literature versus secondary literature, particularly with respect to their influence on the creation and…