This article describes initial attempts by preservice and inservice teachers enrolled in university reading courses to devise questions that encourage students to read content texts strategically. Teachers at both levels tended to confuse questions that encourage the use of comprehension strategies during reading with questions that assess…

The conceptual orientation that guides the University of Utah's field-based doctoral program in educational administration is described in this paper, with a focus on making judgments within the decision-making process. The first part explains the rationale for adopting the conceptual orientation and the second part describes the normative model…

One of a series dealing with current issues affecting language arts instruction, this paper focuses on thinking skills. The paper begins by raising two issues: whether thinking skills should be taught as part of each subject area, as a separate skill, or both, and whether English and language arts teachers have a special role in the teaching of…

Examines four groups of readers: second-language (L2) intermediate; L2 advanced; first-language (L1) Japanese; and L1 English) when they processed and recalled two passages varying in degree of causal coherence. Findings indicate that L1 readers used much of their attention for higher level processes, whereas L2 readers paid more attention to…

This study had two purposes: (a) to investigate the developmental relationship between students' uses of fractions notation and their understandings of part-whole relations; and (b) to produce an analysis of the role of fractions instruction in students' use of notation to represent parts of an area. Elementary students (n = 384) in 19 classes…

Presents a method for improving reading comprehension through direct instruction of inductive reasoning. Students gather clues to personality of characters as play progresses and from these arrive at an overall generalization concerning the complexities of the character. (SRT)

This paper explains the importance of inferencing to effective communication, discussing how it is achieved and focusing on English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) education. Part 1, "Background," examines clues provided by speakers and writers, also looking at clues and thinking processes used by listeners and readers in order for successful…

An administrator's daily life is full of decisions that often involve an "on the spot" solution. This paper discusses some of the principles involved in drawing inferences in research and decision making, and describes how a knowledge of decision-making errors can help administrators. The paper also describes a case study that…

A study tested hypotheses concerning thinking in a foreign language. Specifically, it looked at whether (1) inferencing in a foreign language relies on mental models and propositional thinking; (2) the three stages of the theory of comprehension apply to understanding foreign-language discourse; and (3) propositional thinking manifests native…

The technique individuals use to narrow the possible responses in "solicits" (demands, requests, or questions requiring a response) in and outside the classroom often helps to avoid miscommunication and can be a useful tool for classroom teachers. A narrowing exercise was completed by 35 classes of native English and English as a second language…

A review of the literature in science education shows that most students have difficulties in hypothetico-deductive reasoning. The author's objective in this study was to investigate the abilities of high school teachers and university teachers to understand the difference between the terms "hypothesis" and "prediction" in the…

A substantial amount of literature in education and psychology supports the notion that reading combined with writing enhances comprehension and recall. To investigate how various writing tasks affect thinking, a pilot study was conducted, which produced results consistent with the hypothesis that text engagement (student interaction with written…

Understanding the current conflicts and political changes in the Middle East us important for American educators if American students are to understand the dynamics of the region. To discuss these issues, FPRI held its 12th History Institute for Teachers on October 16-17, 2004. Forty teachers from 15 states attended the weekend program at the…

In order to build robust natural language processing systems that can detect and recover from miscommunication, the investigation of how people communicate and how they recover from problems in communication described in this artificial intelligence report focused on reference problems which a listener may have in determining what or whom a…

Compared the use of conditional logic in adult-adult and adult-child conversation. Results indicated that conversation patterns and inferences were similar except that children made fewer independent inferences and shifts in taxonomic level and responded more frequently to socially controlling statements than did adults. (AA)