According to the 2000 Census, 329 different languages, including English, are spoken in the United States today. With the increasing number of immigrant and international groups, a number of topics such as language learning, language loss and maintenance, and bilingual education have started to follow an important line of investigation in the past…

Federal legislation requires that supplementary aids and services be provided to students with diagnosed disabilities to assist them in accessing the general-education curriculum. Such modifications to the curriculum may include assistive technology (AT) devices and services. AT can be any item, piece of equipment, or teacher-made product that is…

Behavioural and emotional problems occur more frequently in children with learning problems than in a cross-section of the general population, both at home and at school. While behaviour problems reportedly are a key obstructive factor impeding inclusive education, children with both behavioural and learning disabilities carry a high risk of…

Although the potential benefits of organized activity involvement during high school have been documented, little is known about what familial and individual characteristics are associated with higher levels of participation. Using structural equation modeling, this longitudinal study examined the extent to which maternal depression history (i.e.,…

This study examined whether scripts provide a basis for the categories preschool children use to structure their semantic memories and whether the use of taxonomies to structure memory becomes more common only after children enter elementary school. Subjects were 108 children in three equal groups of 18 boys and 18 girls children each of 4-, 5-,…

This article discusses practical considerations in developing tests of listening comprehension in second language learning with a particular emphasis on the choice of listening passages and assessment tasks. The listening construct is defined as the process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli. Questions should be…

Memory and information processing were studied with public school students, aged 10-15, who had educable mental handicaps (n=60), trainable mental handicaps (n=60), and no mental handicaps (n=60). Study participants completed a picture recall and relocation test, in order to determine if differences existed between the groups based on…

The Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) of the state of Washington is a family-focused program designed to help 4-year-old children from low-income families succeed in the public education system. The ECEAP is comprised of four interactive components that relate to education, parent involvement, health and nutrition, and…

To investigate social cognitive factors in early sex-role development, this study examined young children's gender-related judgments of toy appropriateness under speeded and delayed response conditions. Subjects were 55 boys and 59 girls, aged 3, 5, and 7. Ninety-two photographs of common toys were independently rated as mainly for girls, mainly…

There is a significant mismatch of student preparation for college-level reading tasks and literacy demands placed on our liberal arts college students today. Widely accepted schema theory suggests that teaching metacognition, or consciously thinking about how one thinks, is helpful. Once thinking processes are made transparent to the learner, he…

Using different approaches when viewing art is critical because it provokes the viewer to go beyond a cursory glance and the influence of the historical period, and the influence of the culture in which it was created. In this resource kit three approaches to looking at art are examined including the examination of the elements of art, the…

The factors that influence the performance of undergraduate students in introductory biology courses were studied, considering cognitive, metacognitive, and behavioral factors. From 612 participants volunteering, 52 consistent high performers and 57 consistent low performers were selected. Information was collected on their study habits,…

Adolescent struggle is about the forces which shape the self and direct the search for identity. It examines the factors which incline young people toward self-centeredness, irrationality and faulty decision-making. Section 1 of the book deals with the adolescent self and two of the most important determinants of adolescent behavior: egocentrism…

This study examined ways in which two independent variables, peer collaboration and the use of a specific tool (the TAPS interface), work together and individually to shape students' problem-solving processes. More specifically, the researchers were interested in determining how collaboration and TAPS use cause metacognitive processes to differ…

This book is designed to show teachers how to reach out to adults and adolescents with learning disabilities and employ specific strategies for helping them to compensate for the disabilities and acquire literacy skills. The ways in which specific differences in brain structure inhibit the mastery of reading, spelling, handwriting, phonics, and…