Chemistry learning involves establishing conceptual relationships among macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic representations. Employing the notion of intertextuality to conceptualize these relationships, this study investigates how class members interactionally construct meanings of chemical representations by connecting them to real-life…

Few studies have explored the work of successful beginning teachers in diverse settings. This investigation follows one promising young, white elementary teacher through her student teaching in the inner city of Washington, D.C. and into her first year of teaching in a suburban, diverse Virginia school. Seven themes articulate her journey into…

In pursuit of quality, the learning process should be continuously improved by changing, among other things, the learning material and the way learning is facilitated. A concern for academics, teaching experience in the B.Ed. module: Personnel Management, a module offered by means of distance education at the University of South Africa, is to…

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between such factors as learning style, gender, prior experience, and successful achievement in contrasting modules taken by a cohort of thirty design and technology trainee teachers during their degree programme at a University in the North East of England. Achievement data were collected…

This paper briefly identifies a number of contemporary pressures for change which condition the way universities will behave and which provide both opportunities and threats for the future; it then goes on to consider the implications for distance education universities. Pressures on universities include such factors as the growth of other…

This study was conducted to investigate the microcomputer experience of female preservice teachers. A questionnaire developed to evaluate prior computer experiences of teacher education students enrolled in an educational technology and media course was administered during the first week of class. The sample included 40 males and 215 females.…

This guide to developing a prior learning portfolio was prepared to assist students in the Credit for Lifelong Learning Program (CLLP) at Sinclair Community College (SCC) in Dayton, Ohio, through the process of identifying college-level prior learning, matching their learning to specific courses, and articulating and documenting their learning.…

This paper reports on the results of a study investigating attitude toward computing for a large group (n=509) of students undertaking an introductory information systems course in an Australian university. Students were surveyed using a two-part questionnaire. The first section dealt with gender, previous computing experience, and level of…

To learn more about students' computer-literacy levels and attitudes about computer use, a pilot study was performed in the summer of 1993 to evaluate the computer literacy of first-year students entering the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. A survey was completed by 444 incoming students during their orientation programs. The majority had some…

The study examined selected demographic and educational characteristics of transfer students attending Mason City, Iowa's North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) and the relative effect of college attendance on student academic achievement, student satisfaction with the college experience, and the college's fulfillment of general education…

In view of the importance of recognizing and documenting the prior learning of adult students returning to higher education, a project was undertaken to research, construct a system, and write materials for use in assessing the experiential learning acquired by students seeking access to higher education. An extensive research effort was…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 5 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the influence of background knowledge on non-native students' memory for reading passages, (2) the development of a reading textbook with a teacher's manual for English as a second…

A study sought to determine the rate of retention of adult students in the University of Minnesota College Program for Individualized Learning (PIL) for the 1983-84 academic year, as well as factors that might relate to this retention rate. A review was made of the 67 applications submitted by students admitted to PIL during that year to determine…

By emphasizing the similarities between writing and speaking, writing instructors can help students generate coherent, natural sounding prose. Instructors can point out the connections between speaking and writing by (1) reading good student writing aloud, (2) having students read their work aloud in class, (3) encouraging students to develop…

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…