Transfer of learning is defined as the ability to transfer previously learned skills into a new, similar or dissimilar situation. The transfer of learning has been a topic of debate amongst educational psychologists for decades. A variety of studies have been done to show evidence of the transfer of learning dating back to 1901. These studies have…

The purpose of this study was to compare two different methods of teaching college-level English grammar and composition, the linguistic method and the traditional method, to freshman students at a large midwestern university. English students enrolled in the introductory English grammar and composition course served as subjects. The experimental…

This study was designed to determine whether there are disparities in sex knowledge between hearing college freshmen at the University of Maryland (N=75) and Loyola College in Baltimore (N=128) and deaf college freshmen at Gallaudet University (N=38). The Sex Knowledge Inventory was administered along with the Knowledge portion of the Sex…

Forty freshmen at Dillard University (New Orleans, Louisiana) completed the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, an original criterion-referenced test of specific reading skills, and an in-class theme on an assigned topic. Results of the analysis of reading and writing skills established a high relationship between the two skill areas: the better writers…

One hundred and ninety four new first quarter freshmen at the Ohio State University went on academic probation at the end of their first quarter. A descriptive study of these students was undertaken using 78 variables from the American College Test Student (ACT) Profile. The purpose was to determine if these students could have been identified…

The purpose of this study was to obtain data on the value of role playing as a method of writing instruction. Four classes of freshman composition comprised the sample: one early and one late class as experimental, and one early and one late class as control, with no significant differences between the two at the start. Each group was taught five…

The purpose of this investigation was to measure the effect of simulation-gaming on the expository prose competence of community college remedial English composition students. Thirteen teacher volunteers were used. The design was fully crossed so that each teacher taught an equal number of the 25 experimental and 25 control course sections. The…

The three teaching techniques used in three freshmen composition classes at a community college were lecture/discussion, semantic differential, and role playing. Teachers using the lecture/discussion approach presented information especially relevant to either the author, the work, or the milieu and followed the lecture with an open discussion.…

This study reports an analysis of some aspects of the use of periodicals by freshmen at the University of North Carolina, as related to the undergraduate and other campus libraries. The study also asks whether the dispersion of citations, among periodicals cited by freshmen in bibliographies of required term papers, conforms to a general law of…

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the current practices in freshman English in Oklahoma colleges. The population in this study included all Oklahoma institutions of higher education fully accredited by the state as of July 1, 1972, and extending through June 30, 1973. Some of the findings were: three-fourths of the senior colleges and all…

Two control classes and two experimental classes of first-semester college freshmen participated in this study, which examined the effect of expressive writing on attitudes toward writing in general. Both groups were taught the same content material and wrote the same number of papers. In addition, the experimental group did expressive writing in…

This study compared three instructional approaches used in freshman composition courses: a writing-practice approach, a rhetorical technique approach, and a traditional grammar approach. An interview, classroom observations, and a questionnaire were used to analyze the instructional approaches of ten instructors. Two paragraphs on assigned topics…

This study was conducted to extend the present state of research involving independent study as a teaching and learning methodology in the 2-year community college. A stratified random sample of 241 subjects was organized into six day and two night sessions of freshman English at Prince George's Community College, Largo, Maryland. Four instructors…

The purpose of the study was to determine the regional extent of the syndrome of writing inadequacy among students in first-year college and university composition classes, to identify and categorize errors, to determine what instructors as well as students felt about first-year composition inadequacies, and to provide a profile of composition…

High school composition instruction was investigated through a questionnaire survey of 122 UCLA entering freshmen enrolled in English 1 and 157 enrolled in Remedial English. Confirming four main hypotheses, the data indicated: (1) preferences for language activities involving oral mode, informal style, expressive purpose, and formal…