This paper describes 2 years of international telecommunications experiences between seventh grade reading classes in Florida and England. The report is presented in five sections: (1) Telecommunications and Reading Instruction--telecommunications and how it can motive students, develop their confidence, and empower them, and how…

Conjoint retention and confluency are examined as psychological and pedagogical principles for use in instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) when maps are used as facilitators. The theory of conjoint retention states that dual encoding occurs when a person hears or reads a narrative while simultaneously viewing a map containing…

A pilot adult basic education (ABE) language experience curriculum was designed and implemented with older adults in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The objectives were to improve writing skills, to increase self-esteem, and to create a historical record of the area as seen through the eyes of the average older citizen who had lived through many…

This paper presents the results of an exploratory analysis of goals, self-concept, and abilities of academically resilient and non-resilient students, and compares them with the beliefs these students have about their schooling environment. Resilient students are defined as coming from an impoverished and stressful environment, yet achieving a…

This paper estimates the relative importance of three, theoretically interrelated sets of variables on changes in students' intellectual curiosity and interest in learning for its own sake. Variables being analyzed are: (1) students' curricular experiences; (2) students' formal instructional experiences and classroom-related contacts with faculty…

This study begins with a definition of the affective domain and its importance to learning, outlining its impact both in achieving affective behaviors and in facilitating cognitive and psychomotor objectives. The study then develops a model of instructional design that incorporates the affective domain as an integral component. The model combines…

Two experiments are reported that compared incentive motivation for studying, based on a weekly quiz in a course, to a metacognitive strategy for studying, based on identifying key terms, and providing definitions and elaborations as homework. In the first experiment, with a sample of 109 students enrolled in an educational psychology class, the…

Humor can be an effective element of classroom teaching, serving to reduce tension, increase motivation, aid instruction and strengthen teacher/student relationships. A review of the literature reveals that research in this area is incomplete and inconclusive. This study surveys 5th- and 6th-grade teachers (N=50) for information on how they vary…

A practicum was designed to motivate primary students to increase the quantity and improve the quality of their writing. Publication of student works was the prime motivating factor. Other objectives were to develop in students a more positive attitude toward writing and gain the agreement of teachers that the publishing of their students' written…

This report begins with an overview of the Utah Educational Technology Initiative (ETI) that describes the state's financial commitment to educational improvement through educational technology, the ETI allocation process, the requirement that school districts and colleges of education match ETI funds with locally-generated funds or in-kind…

Music can play an important part in personality development. Music education for children encourages the capacity for creativity, improvisation, and understanding the beautiful and the good. This book traces the history of the music syllabus among teachers in the Soviet Union and discusses creative freedom and the instructor. It also presents a…

The course selected for the creative approach was History and Philosophy of Early Childhood Education, an offering in the Department of Human Development. The subjects were 58 undergraduates in 3 classes. The creative approach required innovative student team presentations on seven early childhood education programs, and offered the choice of an…

Key characteristics of adults who took the General Educational Development (GED) Tests in 1989 were compared with those of their 1980 counterparts. Findings indicated that the percentage taking the tests primarily to fulfill postsecondary educational admissions requirements increased from 29.1 to 32.8 percent. The percentage who took the tests for…

Planning an incentive program for middle school students requires thoughtful decisions including: (1) determining the specific needs of the students; (2) recognizing the reasonable scope of involvement of students, parents, Parent Teacher Association, and school personnel; (3) clarifying the purposes of the incentive program; and (4) planning…

A study analyzed teacher and student perceptions of a literature-based reading/writing curriculum for at-risk high school students. Eighteen students, (3 girls, 15 boys) ranging in age from 15 to 18 years, began English 9, a redesigned one-semester literature-based make-up course for students who failed ninth-grade English. Prior to the study, the…