Twelve graduate students in an instructional-design course completed guided reflections on seven course components. Regression analysis of pre/posttests showed that reflection had no significant impact on performance. However, 83% felt it helped them recall, understand, and apply principles. (SK)

Examines the effect of group size in problem-based learning on the problem-solving skill, self-directedness, and technical knowledge of 72 students in a dental education program. Discusses results of pretests and posttests, students' reactions, and implications for instructional design. (Contains 34 references.) (Author/LRW)

Discusses three areas essential in reporting on school improvement plans: process, which refers to the legitimacy of procedures used to assess the improvement plan; equity, pertaining to methods that show both low- and high-achieving students benefiting from the plan; and reporting, which refers to clarity of presentation. (JDI)

Patient education programs for persons undergoing cardiac surgery related to knowledge of cardiac rehabilitation principles were conducted with either traditional (n=49) or collaborative (n=47) educational interventions. The two methods produced similar levels of knowledge, but significant differences appeared depending on whether subjects had…

Examined the impact of a teaching intervention on preschoolers' concepts of the day/night cycle. Found that most children readily accepted that the sun and earth are separate spherical objects, but fewer attributed the day/night cycle to rotation of the earth on its axis. Most were puzzled by simultaneous movements of the earth around the sun and…

College students (n=30) rated their leadership skills before and after an agricultural leadership course (pre-post); a second group of 28 rated themselves as a result of the course and as they felt prior to it (then-post). There were significant differences between the pre-post and then-post groups in self-report ratings and response shift.…

This study assessed the creative thinking abilities of high-IQ and average students on fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Seventeen high-IQ fifth and sixth graders and 20 average fifth and sixth graders were given 4 batteries of Torrance's Verbal and Figural Tests (A and B) as pretests and posttests and three Future Problem…

A four-component aiming movement was used to examine the relative effectiveness of part and whole practice. Following a pretest, participants were assigned to one of three practice groups. Participants in a "Whole" group practiced the four components together as a unit. A "No Overlap" group practiced the first two and last two components of the…

Education is criticized for producing inert knowledge and for paying too little attention to skills such as cooperating and problem solving. Powerful learning environments have the potential to overcome these educational shortcomings. The goal of this research was to find out ways in which a "learning enterprise" can best be supported (coached) in…

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of a training programme, designed to make preschool-age children's invented spelling evolve, on their phonemic awareness. The participants were 90 children who were divided into 3 experimental and 3 control groups based on the nature of their invented spelling. Children's phonemic skills were…

This study examines the effectiveness of teaching pragmatic information through the use of explicit or implicit pre-instruction, and explicit or implicit feedback, to English-speaking learners of third-semester Spanish. Results on a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest indicate that the groups that experienced explicit pre-instruction and…

This study investigates use of magic tricks to increase self-esteem and self-confidence of children with disabilities. Twenty-six children with various disabilities at both elementary and secondary levels volunteered for the study. Participants were taught various magic tricks and were given weeks of practice time to perfect their presentation…

Purpose: To investigate the effect of repeated exposure to delayed auditory feedback (DAF) during a 3-month period outside a clinical environment and with only minimal clinical guidance on speech fluency in people who stutter. Method: A pretest-post-test design was used with repeated exposure to DAF during 3 months as the independent variable.…

Georgia's technical colleges and state university system have entered into an agreement that guarantees that five courses will transfer from technical colleges to the university system colleges. The agreement requires that all students requiring development work successfully test out of developmental studies before entering college-level courses…

This study aims to translate tenets of social constructivism into practice via a scaffolded modality of learning. It is hypothesized that hermeneutical nature of passage interpretation could create "affordances", Van Lier's (2000) term, or "interactional opportunities" which are psycholinguistically and developmentally valuable…