Two questions were addressed regarding the utility of the keyword method, originally developed as an instructional technique to facilitate foreign language vocabulary acquisition: (1) the method's applicability to other common school learning tasks; and (2) students' use of the method as a self-initiated study strategy. (Author/AL)

The utility of the keyword method is assessed in three experiments where eighth-grade students were asked to learn the purported accomplishments of various individuals, as described in several short fictitious passages. The method appears to hold promise for improving students' learning of a variety of school content. (Author/AL)

Three experiments investigated the effects of note taking on "what is learned" by college undergraduates from videotaped lectures. The results suggest that note taking can result in a broader learning outcome, rather than just more learning overall, because an assimilative encoding process is encouraged. (Author/GDC)

Phonemic awareness tasks are identified: sound-to-word matching, word-to-word matching, rhyme recognition, isolation segmentation, counting sounds, blending, deletion, and substitution. Methods for teaching segmentation and blending, the most cortical tasks, are discussed. (Author/CP)

Social problem solving was taught to four groups of third and fourth graders: (1) control; (2) video modeling tapes; (3) tapes plus discussion; and (4) tapes plus role playing. Significant treatment effects were revealed on problem solving thinking, group interaction, and locus of control. (Author/GDC)