An approach for increasing active student responding in special education classrooms calls for paraprofessionals to work with small groups to review and practice skills recently introduced. Through techniques such as choral responding, student response cards, timed trials, and academic games, each student in the group responds to every question.…

Practical activities are described that can develop the skills necessary to perform routine tasks in order to function effectively in a literate society. These elementary language arts curriculum activities include completing forms, making lists, writing newspaper headlines, using telephone directories, taking telephone messages, reading product…

An across-the-curriculum program was developed to teach learning, thinking, and problem-solving skills to bright middle-school underachievers. This article describes the pilot program's theoretical basis, axioms of program development, guidelines for teaching metacognitive strategies, and a framework for strategy implementation. (Author/JDD)

This paper views effective communication as an essential component of appropriate social behavior, provides definitions and conceptualizations of social skills and social competence within academic contexts, and describes social skills assessment and intervention procedures for school-age children and youth with and without disabilities.…

Ways to promote generalization of social skills of students with learning disabilities (LD) are considered. Approaches include: sequential modification, introducing naturally maintaining contingencies, training sufficient exemplars, training across settings, training loosely, using indiscriminable contingencies, programming common stimuli, and…

This article describes a six-week course for design students called "Needs Awareness and Design" which stresses the development of creative thinking skills. Brainstorming is recommended for identifying many ideas, and synectics is stressed for actual problem solving. (DB)

Two students (ages 18 and 20) with moderate mental retardation were taught to use a pocket calculator to make purchases. Progressive time delay and general case programing methods were used. Results indicated that the purchasing behaviors generalized to two untrained community sites and to untrained items and were maintained four weeks after…

Defines memory skills as techniques for increasing initial learning and long-term retention of information, and argues that good memory skills are important. Nine ways in which teachers can improve the ability of students to remember are presented. Emphasis is placed on mnemonic strategies. (SLD)

Reports results of a study assessing the effectiveness of teaching statistics with an emphasis on selection skills. Discusses how general academic ability and gender affected students' learning when the instructor emphasized selection skills. Concludes that teachers must emphasize selection skills through handouts, lectures, and examinations to…

Describes the use of short stories to promote written and oral language skill development in college-level students in an English-as-a-Second-Language writing and oral fluency class. (GLR)

A study compared the effectiveness of two methods of teaching psychomotor skills (simulation feedback and guided discovery) to 55 dental hygiene students. The students receiving simulated feedback obtained slightly higher midterm and final grades and showed less variation, suggesting this as a better method for teaching instrumentation skills.…

Asserts that teaching principles and concepts related to global time is a test of student comprehension and an instructor's teaching ability. Describes how teachers can create an International Date Line Wheel for classroom demonstration purposes. Includes 11 figures illustrating how to make and use the wheel. (CFR)

A strategy called "jigsawing" is described for promoting group work, while ensuring that individual needs of pupils with severe learning difficulties are met. A group activity is broken down into smaller components and each child or group is assigned tasks toward achievement of the overall activity aims. (PB)

Shows how a visually exciting object--a motorcycle-- motivated middle and high school students to improve their observation and drawing skills. Outlines the drawing and painting assignments and shows illustrations of the students' work. (DB)

Four children (ages 5-8) with tracheostomies were taught to self-administer a suctioning procedure via doll-centered simulations. Performance of all children improved as a function of training; skill maintenance was demonstrated during followup; and participants revealed high levels of satisfaction with outcomes. (Author/JDD)