CHALLENGE is generally perceived as a negative word synonymous with "dispute," "defy," "confrontation," and "contest." However, when resorting to dictionary definitions, CHALLENGE has unexpectedly been found to possess positive senses such as "stimulating" and "arousing competitive…

Research in chemistry education has revealed that students going through their undergraduate and graduate studies in organic chemistry have a fragmented conceptual knowledge of the subject. Rote memorization, rule-based reasoning, and heuristic strategies seem to strongly influence students' performances. There appears to be a gap between what we…

This study aims to map the cognitive structure of pre-service English language (EL) teachers about three key concepts related to approaches and methods in language teaching so as to discover their learning process and misconceptions. The study involves both qualitative and quantitative data. The researcher administrated a Word Association Test…

The authors examine two kinds of factors that affect students' motivation to engage in critical-analytic thinking. The first, which includes ability beliefs, achievement values, and achievement goal orientations, influences the "quantitative" relation between motivation and critical-analytic thinking; that is, whether students are…

The present paper argues for a shift in teacher knowledge and beliefs about the role of group work in the teaching and learning of emergent bilingual students. Using case study data from an eighth grade classroom, the authors analyze the role of collaboration in the interaction with grade-level text of emergent bilingual students. The analysis…

Through the introduction of different dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, depths and breadth dimensions, various studies attempted to examine numerous effective factors on these dimensions. The present study aimed to show the effects of different vocabulary learning styles through extensive and intensive reading programs on depth and breadth…

Vocabulary is the basis of any language learning. To many Chinese non-English majors it is difficult to memorize English words. This paper applied associative method in presenting new words to them. It is found that associative method did receive a better result both in short-term and long-term retention of English words. Compared with the…

Instructional design is an integral part of a balanced approach to teaching vocabulary instruction. This article presents several instructional procedures using research-based vocabulary strategies and explains how to design and adapt those strategies in order to reach desired learning outcomes. Emphasis is placed on research-based principles that…

Finding the match between individuals and educational treatments is the aim of both educators and the aptitude-treatment interaction research paradigm. Using the latent growth curve analysis, the present study investigates the interaction between the type of explicit instructional approaches (deductive vs. explicit-inductive) and the level of…

This mixed methods counterbalanced study compared the gain score means of two different approaches to vocabulary acquisition--Vocabulary Theater (VT) and Teacher Directed Instruction (TDI) for 8th grade students from three schools in New York. The purpose of the study was to explore the effects of a peer teaching approach on students' vocabulary…

Inspired by current issues in lexical depth and previous extensive reading (ER) investigations, this study examined the effectiveness of ER approach in lexical depth of young EFL students in Iran. In the present study, two male classes were formed. One of these two classes was randomly selected as a treatment group and another one as a control…

This study examines the lexical representation and recall of abstract words by beginning L2 learners of Spanish in the light of the predictions of the dual coding theory (Paivio 1971; Paivio and Desrochers 1980). Ninety-seven learners (forty-four males and fifty-three females) were randomly placed in the picture or non-picture group and taught…

Learning the 20 standard amino acids is an essential component of an introductory course in biochemistry. Later in the course, the students study metabolism and learn about various catabolic and anabolic pathways involving amino acids. Learning new material or concepts often is easier if one can connect the new material to what one already knows;…

A multiple probe across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction in a Paired Associates Strategy provided to nine college students with learning disabilities on their ability to identify and recall important information from textbooks. Students received instruction in the strategy in the context of an on-campus…

An incubation effect occurs when taking a break from a problem helps solvers arrive at the correct solution more often than working on it continuously. The forgetting-fixation account, a popular explanation of how incubation works, posits that a break from a problem allows the solver to forget the incorrect path to the solution and finally access…