This article reports an experimental study on the effects of explicit teaching on 11th grade students' ability to reason causally in history. Underpinned by the model of domain learning, explicit teaching is conceptualized as multidimensional, focusing on strategies and second-order concepts to generate and verbalize causal explanations and…

A theoretical model linking boredom and academic achievement is proposed. Based on Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, the model posits that boredom and achievement reciprocally influence each other over time. Data from a longitudinal study with college students (N = 424) were used to examine the hypothesized effects. The…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention for second graders at risk for academic failure, which taught reading comprehension embedded in social studies content. The intervention included instruction about the structure of cause/effect expository text, emphasizing clue words, generic questions, graphic organizers, and close…

Existing research suggests that there is a relation between academic/cognitive deficits and externalizing behavior in young children, but the direction of this relation is unclear. The present study tested competing models of the relation between academic/cognitive functioning and behavior problems during early childhood. Participants were 221…

This study sought to improve students' comprehension of scientific graphs by adapting scaffolding techniques used to aid text comprehension. In 3 experiments involving 121 female and 88 male college students, some students were shown cognitive aids prior to viewing 4 geography graphs whereas others were not; all students were then asked to write a…

Tests theoretical and developmental models of the causal ordering between academic self-concept and academic achievement. The structural equation model for the total sample supported a reciprocal-effects model, indicating that achievement has an effect on self-concept and that academic self-concept has an effect on achievement. (Contains 33…

Compares two approaches for improving instructional text with a sample of eighth grade students (N=64). The first approach emphasized the reduction of the reader's comprehension; the other was oriented toward triggering causal inferences in the reader. Only the second procedure produced benefits on inferential learning, though both procedures had…

Using the first 4 waves of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), this piecewise 3-level (time-student-school) growth-curve model provides a portrait of students' reading growth over the first 2 years of school. On average, students make much greater reading gains in 1st grade than they do in kindergarten.…

Thirty-one male and 49 female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 1 of 8 experimental conditions to investigate whether importance could moderate mood effects on student performance attributions. Outcome importance significantly increased mood biases in perceptions of causal locus but not stability. Other moderating effects are…

Data on academic self-concept, school grades, and teacher ratings of achievement were collected from 603 students for three high school subjects in each of three years. Structural equation models show reciprocal effects for prior achievement and academic self-concept for all subjects. Effects were largest for mathematics. (SLD)

The hypothesis that gains in reading performance occurring among dyslexic children during individually paced reading are partially attributable to changes in short-term memory processing was tested with 23 elementary school students. Findings provide support for a causal role for short-term memory functioning in text processing. (SLD)

Two experiments investigated learning outcomes and comprehension processes when students learned about the heart and circulatory system using (a) text only, (b) text with simplified diagrams designed to highlight important structural relations, or (c) text with more detailed diagrams reflecting a more accurate representation. Experiment 1 found…

Causal modeling was used to examine how primary students' language ability interacted with pace and redundancy of instructional language during an expository science lesson to explain students' attention and learning. Language ability and pace, mediated by students' attention to the lesson, accounted for variance in learning outcomes. Higher…

An experiment in which 90 undergraduate students were tested on simple and complex versions of a word-span task with high and low frequency words suggests that both word knowledge and a content-free working memory play causal roles in the relationship between word span and higher level cognitive tasks. (SLD)

The history of motivational research in education is traced through the "Encyclopedia of Educational Research." Major trends are documented, including (1) the drive concept; (2) the motivation-learning distinction; (3) individual differences; and (4) the emergence of cognitive concerns and the self. Current and future trends are…