Junior high learning-disabled students (n=29) were taught U.S. states and capitals. Students scored higher on items taught mnemonically than on items taught traditionally, whether students were required to provide forward or backward information. Significant correlations were found between performance and reported mnemonic strategy usage.…

Fourteen students (ages 7-9) with reading difficulties were taught to create word-picture links for those words they find particularly difficult to recognize quickly. Students consistently learned more words when using the word association method. (DB)

A discussion of vocabulary development for intermediate and advanced students preparing for the Australian certification test for Teaching English as a Foreign Language focuses on nine areas: collocations, clines, clusters, cloze procedures, context, consultation or checking, cards, creativity, and guessing. (seven references) (LB)

Promotes the use of memory devices, also known as mnemonics, by outlining six different types that are proven ways to help students recall information. Then describes a memory device used by the author to help students recall the process of neural conduction. (PR)

Proposes that music teachers should have their students practice during those spare moments during the school day by using a pencil instead of their actual instrument. Explains that students can practice chromatic fingerings, memorize short pieces of music, or review scales. Gives instructions on how to "pencil practice." (CMK)

Critics of the Virginia Standards of Learning claim the tests do not allow teachers and students to explore their own interests. Proponents say the tests might force schools to cut out time-wasting activities (like Friday movies) and concentrate on performance. Parents worry about their kids' progress. (MLH)

Examines how the role of questions in literacy instruction has always been strong, whether requiring answers involving rote memory or the activation of higher level critical thinking processes. Presents a six-step strategy for questioning followed by a field-tested group of fifth graders' responses to each step. (SC)

Distinguished experimentally between the learner's use of independent grapheme-phoneme correspondences and determined whether in the initial year of reading instruction sublexical relations can be formed. Results could not be given alternative explanations by the developmental bypass hypothesis nor by accounts which predict exclusive use of onset…

Investigated suppression of activation and retrieval paths to information stored in long-term memory. Subjects were 94 children in grades 1, 3, and 5. Found that the ability to intentionally inhibit the maintenance and recall of irrelevant information improves over the elementary years, and children are less able than adults to withhold production…

Argues that the operating characteristics of perceiving and remembering provide a foundation for progress on detailing the processes through which knowledge is realized in real-time tasks and in detailing the processes of developmental change. Includes three examples to illustrate how forming developmental hypotheses in terms of perceiving and…

This paper examines the stereotypical view that Asian students cannot think critically. Although critical thinking is often presented as a generic skill, crucial to success at university, definitions of the concept vary widely. Critical thinking can therefore only be understood by placing it into the context in which it is used. This disadvantages…

Kanji are a component of the Japanese writing system that originated from Chinese characters. There are about ten thousand kanji in use in Japanese literature, but knowledge of only the 2000 most frequently occurring of these is needed to be functionally literate in Japanese. The present study, therefore, aimed to address two questions: (1) What…

Understanding how students make music in non-school settings can inform teaching practice in schools, making teaching more relevant to students' musical perspectives. This research study examined the musical processes of a three-member rock band, their roles within the group, and considered how they constructed musical meaning. The most salient…

Many factors influence students' reading practices. In the case of international students, home country educational practices and socio-cultural factors may pose a greater influence than for local students. This study reported here, part of a larger study, investigated the intertextual framing practices used in reading by a cohort of Thai…

This study used a multiple-baseline-across-subjects design to assess the effectiveness of a peer tutoring intervention for fluency in basic math facts. Specifically, this study assessed the rate of recall of multiplication facts throughout the intervention period and determined whether the progress was matched by improvement in actual classwork.…