Reading and writing difficulties are markers for some forms of learning disorders, and measuring the distance between the child's performance and an expected level of attainment is a common approach to diagnosis. However, there are several problems with relying on the gap between achievement and expectation for arriving at a diagnosis, not least…

This study analyzed the effects of the implementation of the readers' workshop on students' reading levels and comprehension skills in a first-grade, mixed-ability classroom in Lebanon. The instruments used at the beginning were running records and reading continuums, and at the end of the academic year, teachers' professional notebooks and notes…

Traditional lecturing has been shown again and again to be a less effective teaching method regarding student engagement and promotion in the sciences. Studies that compare different teaching methods often face limitations because, over time, courses are either substantially changed and/or are taught by different instructors. This article presents…

This paper details results from a three-year study investigating how to help students in Singapore write vivid compositions in Mandarin, the Chinese "mother tongue". Mastery of the mother tongue by Singaporean students has become an important government priority in recent years. The strategies employed by this study included the use of…

Although instructors express concerns about social work students' writing skills, little research has been conducted. One remedy is a social work-focused writing course. This study assessed a required writing course with a sample of 49 baccalaureate students. From online pre- and posttest surveys, 2 student outcomes improved significantly:…

The ability to communicate effectively is an essential skill for graduates of Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programmes; however, as synchronous hybrid learning becomes more common, business schools may find it challenging to assess students' proficiency in this core area. An additional layer of complexity is added by the burgeoning…

This yearlong ethnographic case study investigated higher and lower track adolescents' experiences with core content-area (social studies, science, and math) writing in one urban working-class district. Teacher, student, and administrator interviews; field notes; and students' written work comprised the data set. The findings from this…

Schools and districts across the United States have adopted response to intervention (RTI) as a means for both identifying and intervening with students at risk for low achievement. The validity of RTI rests largely upon teachers making appropriate instructional decisions based on students' responses to a given practice. This study was designed to…

This study uses a quasi-experimental design to assess differences in student performance and satisfaction across online and face-to-face (F2F) classroom settings. Data were collected from 368 students enrolled in three online and three F2F sections of an introductory-level sociology course. The instructor, course materials, and assessments were…

Fourth- and fifth-grade students' motivation and engagement during classroom discussions were investigated in 2 studies. Study 1 examined students' moment-by-moment engagement during collaborative peer-managed small-group discussions in comparison to conventional teacher-managed whole-class discussions. Study 2 evaluated the long term effects of…

PIRLS is an international assessment of reading comprehension at the fourth grade that has been conducted every five years since 2001. In 2011, nationally representative samples of students in 49 countries participated in PIRLS and prePIRLS. Forty-five countries assessed fourth grade students, and some countries participated in one or more of the…

The effectiveness of two performance-based teacher education programs at Washington State University were compared. The programs were identical in content, performance objectives, and textbooks. In one program, however, the content was presented through independent study modules; the other program presented the content through regular classroom…

Adaptation of computers to instructional use in academic settings, the military, and industrial training provided the focus for this conference on computer managed instruction (CMI). Part 1 of the proceedings contains an orientation to computer managed instruction; Part 2 consists of brief descriptions of 23 CMI systems; and Part 3 is a summary of…

Many students experience difficulties learning to program. They find learning to program in the object-oriented paradigm particularly challenging. As a result, computing educators have tried a variety of instructional methods to assist beginning programmers. These include developing approaches geared specifically toward novices and experimenting…

This study compares self-instructional mastery and nonmastery treatments of a specially developed geography unit to determine if there were differences in learning, retention, and time-to-testing of high, middle, and low aptitude students. Mastery learning is an alternative which gives lower performing students the necessary additional time to…