Activities that engaged the full attention of adolescents at school were explored using the Experience Sampling Method, in which subjects were interrupted by a pager to record their experience at the moment the pager signaled. Two variables indicating optimal subjective experience and undivided attention were operationalized: interest and flow…

The paper presents a discussion of human mental processes as they relate to learning disabilities. Pathognomonic symptoms associated with disturbances to brain areas or functional systems are discussed, as well as treatment procedures. This brain behavior relationship is offered as a basis for a classification system that is seen to more clearly…

An exploration of specific deficits of learning disabled children, especially in the auditory system, is presented in this paper. Disorders of attention, perception, phonemic and visual discrimination, memory, and symbolization and conceptualization are considered. The paper develops several questions for teachers of learning disabled children to…

Cooperative education is a learning strategy that fits very well with basic laws of learning. In fact, several basic important learning processes are far better adapted to the cooperative education strategy than to methods that lean entirely on classroom instruction. For instance, cooperative education affords more opportunities for reinforcement,…

As part of a year-long sociolinguistic study of pupil and teacher perceptions of classroom discourse, this study examined the possible effects of pupil status variables on pupil attention patterns. Subjects were 164 children and their teachers in six second, third, and fourth grade classrooms in a lower socioeconomic, multiethnic elementary…

This paper considers the place of one-to-one teacher/student oral reading interactions in reading instruction. Maintaining that there is an important function for such interactions in learning to read, the paper analyzes one learning process in these interactions--attention to errors--and argues that in oral reading instruction, attention to…

This study compared infants born to narcotic addicted mothers with infants born to nonaddicted mothers and described the potential of an intervention program. Infants of five addicted women were matched with infants of five nonaddicted women on the basis of age and socioeconomic class of the mothers and on the basis of gestational ages, birth…

A pilot research study searched for appropriate methods to evaluate instructional television (ITV). The specific objectives were to find ways to measure: 1) the degree to which the media presentation's objectives were being met, and 2) the appeal of the show, as judged by viewers' attention. Five intermediate grade level educable mentally retarded…

A causal model of a cycle of student performance is proposed. Two investigations were conducted in Australia, studying individuals and classrooms. Attitudes toward, and achievement in, mathematics and science were measured. The roles of attentiveness and teachers' use of time were also studied. (GDC)

Regression analyses examined the relationships among: time spent (periods and hours per week) studying science; time allocated for science homework; time used by teacher; and time not spent in learning. The performance cycle model of achievement, aspiration, and attitude was supported at the between classrooms level. (GDC)

Examines the hypothesis that learners focus their attention on lexical instead of grammatical items when processing input for semantic information. The study measured language processing via reconstruction of propositional content and recognition of verb tense within a passage. Results indicate that lexical cues improved reconstruction of a…

Findings from fifth grade African-American, white, and Asian American students revealed that antisocial behavior and attitudes were stronger predictors of substance initiation for Asian Americans than for other groups. For whites, self-reported and teacher-rated behavior were significantly related to substance initiation. For African Americans,…

Gives guidelines to help teacher produce instructional messages that match students' abilities to understand. The behaviors presented facilitate greater acquisition of teacher talk by focusing student attention, reducing the complexity of the message, leading students to key points that maintain student attention, and aiding in future recall. (SLD)

A study examined experiences of infants and toddlers in New Zealand child care centers to determine if those experiences provided opportunities for learning in the context of shared attention. Results provided evidence of staff sensitivity and responsiveness, close child/caregiver relationships, the importance of language and shared meaning, and…

Purpose: Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of classroom noise on attention and speech perception in native Spanish-speaking second graders learning English as their second language (L2) as compared to English-only-speaking (EO) peers. Method: Study 1 measured children's on-task behavior during instructional activities with and…