Teaching thinking skills has been characterised by the teacher-directed "embedded", "infusion" and "bolt-on" approaches, for which outcomes have been mixed. Peer tutoring in thinking skills offers a fourth way of wide applicability. This study evaluated such a method (Paired Thinking) in a high school setting. A…

We investigated variables that affect learning and satisfaction in Web-based and lecture versions of introductory psychology courses. Student characteristics, including year in college, college major, and personality characteristics, predicted performance equally well in Web-based and lecture courses. Differences among instructors predicted…

Extensive reading is an approach to teaching reading that has been utilized with English as a Second Language (ESL) learners, but not widely used in the adult literacy classroom. This article investigates whether this approach can be utilized in a classroom for adults who have difficulty with reading. A description of our implementation of…

Carolyn Anderson is a speech and language therapist who is currently working as a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde. In this article she provides an early account of her ongoing research into communication between teachers and pupils with severe and complex learning disabilities. Video recordings were made of teacher-pupil…

This paper explores what kinds of advantages and strengths the process of learning to read simultaneously in different languages and scripts might bring about. It is based on a socio-cultural view of learning and literacy and examines early literacy in three parallel literacy classes in Watford, England. It analyses the learning experiences of…

Background: The aim of the present study was to examine the literacy achievement of 10- to 12-year-old native and non-native children with intellectual disabilities (ID) living in the Netherlands. An intriguing question within this context was whether the second language learning non-native children with ID would show a double disadvantage when…

Nassaji and Geva (1999) concluded that lower level processes, particularly efficiency in phonological and orthographic processing contributed significantly to individual differences in adult ESL reading. Moreover, they reported that speed of letter naming, while not directly associated with reading comprehension, was related to linguistic…

Teachers' beliefs about science reform have an important effect on how science is taught. This article examines a kindergarten teacher's science curriculum as she seeks to implement five of Washington State's Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs) for core concepts and principles of science. The authors examine factors that affect…

Background: Children who have poor vocabulary knowledge are at risk of wider language weaknesses and reading comprehension difficulties, which will impact upon their educational achievement. The central question addressed in this paper is how best to teach new vocabulary items to these children. Aims: To investigate the effects of two different…

In this article, the author describes how she maintains student interest with the use of advanced technology. The author is currently using an assessment tool in her classroom--the Classroom Performance System (CPS)--that actually brings cheers from her students. The CPS provides an objective way to measure student understanding by using…

This article reports on the third year of a three-year longitudinal investigation into six secondary students' understanding of optics at a secondary school level. In the third year of this investigation the students, who by now were in Year 12, underwent a teaching sequence that centred on the teaching and learning of physical optics and quantum…

This study compared two approaches for teaching a history unit on the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1965) to middle school students with learning disabilities (LD) in general education settings. The curriculum was designed to make the content challenging, but accessible. The major text was the documentary, Eyes on the Prize (DeVinney, 1991).…

Graphic novels help all different types of learners. For children who are incapable of visualizing a story, the artwork helps them create context. Graphic elements also attract visually dependent readers, who then freely read the text, and help reluctant readers understand the plot of a story. Finally, graphic novels cross gender lines. In this…

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the applicability of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and the concept of dynamic assessment to the problem of assessing reading comprehension in English as a third language (L3). The study was conducted with immigrant students from Ethiopia studying at pre-academic centers in Israel. The assessment procedure…

In this article, the author discusses how to stop running out of time for writing across the curriculum and features the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory that helps low-performing schools improve writing by incorporating writing instruction across the curriculum. The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's systemic work to…