This study identified and conceptualized evidence of ideas about the nature of science to which elementary school students are exposed and the manner in which teachers provided these ideas. This was accomplished by developing a scheme for observing/analyzing classroom interaction (classroom dialogue and science activity). The scheme is…

The seven working papers in this collection set out the underlying philosophy and research methods of the Learning in Science Project. The project was established in 1979 to identify, describe, and investigate problems and difficulties in the teaching and learning of forms 1-4 science, and to explore possible solutions. The papers describe the…

Previous studies of unusually effective urban schools have focused on school characteristics considered influential in the schools' success, but few provide specific guidance for improving achievement in other schools. This study sought to describe organizational processes and arrangements within elementary schools implementing the Chicago Mastery…

The associations among cognitive automatization, abstract problem solving, and educational performance were studied using 127 fourth to ninth grade students. A number of measures of fast, automatic, and fluent performance (FAF measures) were used: writing the alphabet; reading from a word list; and mentally performing arithmetic operations. The…

The ability to correctly answer reading comprehension test items, without having read the accompanying reading passage, was compared for third grade learning disabled students and their peers from a regular classroom. In the first experiment, fourteen multiple choice items were selected from the Stanford Achievement Test. No reading passages were…

With traditional science textbooks still dominating the market, it is projected that the use of print material and related reading skills will persist as the prime method of science instruction. The need to research reading-science issues exists. This paper attempts to define the task or desired outcomes of research in reading-science dimensions.…

To investigate whether teachers asked questions during reading lessons in order to evaluate rather than teach comprehension, the discourse of 11 reading lessons was audiotaped in four elementary school classrooms. Transcripts of the lessons were analyzed to identify the function and source of teacher questions and the accuracy, cognitive level,…

Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examination in English 30 in Alberta, Canada, this test contains (1) general instructions, (2) two minor assignments consisting of literature readings about which the student must write a personal response, and (3) a major assignment requiring students to show how the authors they studied in senior…

Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examination in English 30 in Alberta, Canada, this test contains (1) general instructions, (2) two minor assignments consisting of literature readings about which the student must write a personal response, and (3) a major assignment requiring students to show how the authors they studied in senior…

Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examination in English 33 in Alberta, Canada, this test on writing contains general instructions and three sections: (1) personal response to literature, which requires a response about an aspect of literature; (2) functional writing, which requires a written response within a given situation or…

Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examination in English 33 in Alberta, Canada, this test on writing contains general instructions and three sections: (1) a personal response to literature, which requires a response about some aspect of literature; (2) functional writing, which requires a written response within a given situation…

This paper discusses the role of intelligence in language comprehension. In the study reported, an attempt is made to determine how much of the variability in English reading scores of non-native speakers of English can be predicted on the basis of intelligence alone. In the study, three measures of reading comprehension are used: a traditional…

A study was conducted that was designed to determine if experienced ESL (English as a second language) teachers, working in pairs, can reach the same judgments regarding the oral proficiency of non-native speakers of English and to determine the reliability of such judgments. In addition, the question of whether different sets of judges rate…

Information for second language teachers in Great Britain, also applicable to the situation in the United States, is presented. The material is organized as a response to the availability of second language instruction to students across all ability levels. In addition, issues related to new developments in theory-into-practice (such as the…

A study investigated whether syntactic differences between oral and written discourse interfere with the comprehension of beginning readers. Subjects were 28 second grade and 28 fifth grade students who read, orally, versions of stories identical in nature except for the structure of their syntactic patterns. One version contained structures more…