The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a curriculum based on self-regulated strategy instruction in college developmental writing courses. Prior research that had found large effects on the writing quality for essays without sources was extended to include strategies for critical reading and note-taking, writing summary response…

Asking students to imagine the spatial arrangement of the elements in a scientific text constitutes a learning strategy intended to foster deep processing of the instructional material. Two experiments investigated the effects of mental imagery prompts on learning from scientific text. Students read a computer-based text on the human respiratory…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a curriculum for college developmental writing classes, developed in prior design research and based on self-regulated strategy instruction. Students learned strategies for planning, drafting, and revising compositions with an emphasis on using knowledge of genre organization to guide…

Cognitive strategies are important tools for children with math difficulties (MD) in learning to solve word problems. The effectiveness of strategy training, however, depends on working memory capacity (WMC). Thus, children with MD but with relatively higher WMC are more likely to benefit from strategy training, whereas children with lower WMC may…

Providing exploratory activities prior to explicit instruction can facilitate learning. However, the level of guidance provided during the exploration has largely gone unstudied. In this study, we examined the effects of 1 form of guidance, feedback, during exploratory mathematics problem solving for children with varying levels of prior domain…

Individual differences in strategy use (choice and accuracy) were analyzed. A sample of 362 Grade 6 students solved complex division problems under 2 different conditions. In the choice condition students were allowed to use either a mental or a written strategy. In the subsequent no-choice condition, they were required to use a written strategy.…

Sixty-one undergraduate students used a taxonomic instructional aid, a mnemonic aid, or their own methods to master the content of a passage describing a plant classification system and the distinguishing characteristics of the plant groups within that system. The demonstrated advantages of mnemonic strategies are discussed. (SLD)

Representational and transformational visual imagery instructions were manipulated within two passage types (name and occupation), along with no-strategy control instructions for each passage type. Transformational imagery instructions were effective on the more difficult to remember name passages. Representational imagery instructions were not…

Results with 101 undergraduates indicate that students interacting with a knowledge map perform better than students using a text, and students who are given a strategy for using the communication aid (knowledge map or text) performed better than those not given a strategy. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (SLD)

Three experiments in the framework of Activity Theory explored the relationship between the questions of 104 male and 88 female adult learners (college students) and subsequent comprehension in a tutorial learning session. Questions asked during knowledge implementation aid comprehension more than do those asked during acquisition. (SLD)

Relations among aptitude, spatial task solution strategy, and task performance were explored through mathematical models of performance latency. Different models fit different subjects on each of three task steps (encoding, synthesis, and comparison), suggesting that different subjects used different strategies for solving the same items. Aptitude…

Students tend to emphasize important information more than less important information in their lecture notes. Whether this strategy changes with lecture repetition was investigated in 3 experiments with 71 undergraduate students. Students' assessments and shifts of strategy with lecture repetition are discussed. (SLD)

Nineteen fifth and 11 sixth graders given preliminary instruction about a computer-based problem-solving game received additional problem-solving training, problem-solving and self-monitoring training, or no further training. The beneficial impact of the monitoring training is discussed as evidence of the importance of the monitoring strategy in…

Research in self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) in composition was extended by comparing 43 learning-disabled fifth and sixth grade students in 4 conditions of SRSD instruction. Posttests indicated greater improvement for SRSD conditions with and without goal setting and self-monitoring than for the practice control condition. (SLD)

Pairs of friends and pairs of classmates were observed to determine effects of existing social relationships on interactions during cooperative learning. No significant differences between observed interactions were found for 60 third and 70 seventh graders, but friends reported that they engaged in more activities outside the experimental…