The purpose of this study was to examine how classroom language contexts characterized by peer language skills and proportions of dual language learners (DLL) influenced English language development for DLL and non-DLL children. Participants were 2,131 children from 135 classrooms across preschool through Grade 3. Children were classified into…

The influence of elated and depressed moods on affective evaluation of sentences and efficiency in learning these sentences was explored. Results indicate that elated moods facilitate clear differentiation between pleasant and unpleasant sentences as well as remembering them, whereas depressed moods lead to indifferent evaluations. (Author/GK)

Reviews studies indicating that performance-approach goals are associated with adaptive patterns of learning but note that, in other studies, these goals have been unrelated or negatively related to the same outcomes. Argues that there is a need to consider for whom and under what circumstances performance goals are good. (Contains 93 references.)…

This study examined the effects of similarity in competence between model and observer on the effectiveness of observational learning in argumentative writing. Results are consistent with the similarity hypothesis: weak learners learn more from focusing their observations on weak models, whereas better learners learn more from focusing on good…

Perceptions of 1,615 college students of their teachers' support of student's questioning were examined in 2 experiments. Perceived support had significant and consistent relationships with student motivation and strategy use typical of self-regulated learners. It also appeared to affect the likelihood of student questioning. (SLD)

Assesses developmental changes in verbal memory from the beginning of elementary school to late adolescence on the basis of data from the Munich Longitudinal Study. Suggests that overall, individual differences in verbal memory performance develop very early in life and are relatively unaffected by differences in educational experiences. (Contains…

Models of self-regulated learning hypothesize that learners selectively match study tactics to varying tasks and diverse goals. In this study, students rated the frequency with which they applied 26 study tactics, used 20 textbook features and other resources, and adopted 30 goals for studying. Findings indicate students' reports of…

The effects of advance organizers in learning unfamiliar material from logical or randomly organized texts was investigated in two experiments. Advance organizers enhanced performance on questions requiring integration of facts from different sections of the text. Results of both studies were interpreted as support for assimilation encoding…

Evaluated the effect of listening to stories on children's vocabulary growth. Children acquired new vocabulary from listening to stories, with both frequency of exposure and teacher explanation of target words enhancing vocabulary learning. The interventions, however, were not sufficient to overcome the Matthew effect, as higher ability children…

Two models (exam and oral argument performance) to predict academic performance using ability, affective, and cognitive variables were evaluated using students in their first year of law school. Different processes appear to operate in each of the two academic tasks. The implications of the results for law school education and future research are…

Mayer and Wittrock (1996) have raised the specificity-generality issue as it applies to the teachable aspects of problem-solving transfer. Simply put, do the instructional practices that foster more efficient acquisition-learning of problem-solving strategies automatically foster more efficient problem-solving transfer? On the basis of the present…

Two approaches to apportioning variance in post-test achievement scores were compared. Comparisons were also made among different criterion measures in exploring process-product correlations. The same process variables tended to correlate with all three product measures. Relationships among student characteristics, process variables, and student…

The present study sought to investigate the outcomes of the mastery instruction approach compared to a nonmastery approach of instruction with varying amounts of feedback being given to students with regard to their responses to multiple-choice test items on mastery tests. (Author)

Controversy, an aspect of small-group interactions, was investigated in 10 mixed-ability, mixed-sex, elementary math groups through analysis of dissension episodes. Results showed that boys and higher-ability students had significantly more prevailing answers and demonstrations. (Author/LMO)

Root word vocabulary was studied in two normative samples (English-speaking, wide socioeconomic range) and in an advantaged sample. Findings suggest that greater efforts should be made to foster vocabulary acquisition in the primary years, and that a rough vocabulary curriculum sequence can be identified for the elementary years. (Author)