A study investigated the reason for the high performance of bilingual children on a syllogistic reasoning task. Thirty-nine Puerto Rican Spanish-English bilingual children in grades 3 through 6 were asked to solve problems in both languages. Response times were recorded, and the subjects were asked to justify their answers to assess to what extent…

This manual covers study behavior and attitudes and specific study techniques for health profession students, including scheduling, comprehension, memory, and test-taking techniques. Much of the approach emphasizes self-discipline and honesty. Focus is on how students in a health professions program can make their study time more productive and…

This study examined the effects of feedback (immediate, delayed, or no feedback) and the type of control (external or internal) on computer-assisted instruction (CAI), and also considered the influence on achievement of such factors as computer anxiety, self-concept, learning style, and gender. Subjects were 336 undergraduates, the majority of…

This document is the last of three volumes of the proceedings of an international seminar which focused on student misconceptions in science and mathematics as well as teaching strategies intended to deal with those misconceptions. An introduction to the volume explains the format of the conference and the organization of the sessions. It stresses…

A survey of 50 college writing programs to ascertain what kind of training is being offered to student teachers revealed the significance of peer support and involvement and raised the following questions: (1) Can peers offer advice and support which is different from that offered by faculty and administrators? (2) Do graduate student teachers…

A college English teacher, dissatisfied with the approach used in her composition classes and with its results, turned to the Outward Bound concepts of the German physician and schoolmaster, Kurt Hahn. These concepts include a belief in the value of creating adversity in order to overcome it, a belief that important things happen to people who are…

The first working paper of the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--"Toward a Framework," outlined what was then seen (1982) as the major aim of the project and proposed a research plan that seemed capable of enabling the project to establish difficulties that teachers have teaching science, to identify difficulties children…

In order to investigate the nature of students' prior knowledge of current electricity and how they applied their knowledge to different problems, 5 middle school science teachers and 11 elementary school teachers were given a written test that required them to: (1) predict what happens to the brightness of a bulb if a change is made to the…

This paper is a summary of much of the available research on college science laboratory instruction of the past decade with a focus on the effects of specific laboratory teaching strategies upon student learning outcomes. Some tentative interpretations from a review of the literature found are: (1) inquiry or investigative approaches in college…

This research review examines the effects of instructional variables on the learning of handicapped and nonhandicapped individuals. The research review begins with an historical look at learning disabilities research. An overall analysis of the differential effects of instructional variables on learning-disabled and nonhandicapped individuals…

The Center for Teaching and Learning at Ball State University is described in this report. Designed to make continuing efforts to improve the teaching and learning process, it offers many unique programs aimed at disseminating knowledge on the subject and encouraging faculty to use the results of these activities to improve their teaching. Some of…

This paper uses a structural model with a large random sample of urban children to explain children's competence in math concepts and computation at the time they begin first grade. These two aspects of math ability respond differently to environmental resources, with math concepts much more responsive to family factors before formal schooling…

Writing and reading can be viewed as processes in which meaning is gradually constructed, and this description extends to the visual arts as well. Certain process-oriented thinking skills are inherent in both, including comprehending and composing, regenerating ideas, the application of language learning and processing. Five characteristics of…

Recent research suggests that information must be made meaningful to students before they will comprehend and remember it. However, because so much curriculum is learned in isolation, many students miss the connections between such disciplines as literature and history. One solution is to connect the teaching of history and literature to a focal…

The effectiveness of a strategy for remembering words from a word list was investigated in subjects who were high in test anxiety versus subjects who were low in test anxiety. Sixty seventh-grade volunteers from two urban junior high schools were assigned to the strategy training group or the control group. The strategy group was instructed to…