An attitude inventory, The Reading Teacher Survey, was developed to assess the attitudes of elementary teachers toward individualizing reading instruction. The semantic differential was chosen as the form of the inventory. Since the original version reflected a change in attitudes through the use of the experimental system of individualized…

The effects of fixed-ratio and variable-ratio reinforcement classroom reading performance was investigated. Subjects were 50 boys and 50 girls from four grade-2 classrooms of one elementary school. The subjects were divided into three reading levels, above-average, average, and below-average, and were randomly assigned to (1) a no-reinforcement…

The cloze technique was used to investigate differences among subjects at different levels of reading difficulty and differences between levels of readability. In addition, differences among lexical, structural, and nth deletion cloze responses were studied. It was hypothesized that an interaction exists between type of deletion and levels of…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of written prequestioning on the reading comprehension of fifth grade students. The sample consisted of 144 fifth grade students randomly selected from six elementary schools and randomly assigned to one of two groups: half of the subjects received questions to guide their reading prior to each…

While it is appreciated that research on many of the details of early language learning is still required, one of the main themes of this paper is that solutions to the major problems of beginning reading are already known. In general, there has been a sufficiency of research, and what is now needed is action to implement the results already…

The research and development efforts cited in this paper deal with four related subsets: explicit questioning, purpose setting, implicit questioning, and social conventions related to classroom questioning behavior. The contents include "Inquiry Training as Reading Training," which discusses the importance of developing inquiry skills concurrently…

To determine the effect of oral responses on cloze test, particularly at the primary grade level and with students of below average reading ability, was the purpose of this study. A total of 135 students from second, fourth, and sixth grades were included in the study. At each grade level the students were divided into above-average, average, and…

Presented in this paper are findings from research and clinical work conducted over the past seven years that support the following conclusions: "Labels are Useless," which discusses the research in relation to using labels to identify children and concludes that the issue is not the accuracy of the labels--a label is as accurate as its definition…

The Upper Cumberland Reading Project, funded under Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, served 13 rural Tennessee counties located approximately equidistant from three major cities: Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville. The project's instructional approach was built around the basal text because of its use in all of the…

This study examined the adaptability of reading rate to passage difficulty under different conditions of task-induced processing. Sixteen experimental passages varying in subject matter and ranging from 85 to 171 words were selected from a set of 32 texts rated for comprehensibility. The eight easiest and eight hardest texts were selected. Another…

Three items are described in this paper: the individual difference variable of cognitive style, research which has implicated cognitive style and reading achievement, and beginning reading research which uses cognitive style as a dependent variable. The contents include "Cognitive Style," which discusses research related to defining cognitive…

A standardized method, called programed prose, has been developed which can be used to automatically convert prose training material into a form which forces trainees to read the material with at least a minimal level of comprehension. From the results of a series of experimental studies, it was concluded that programed prose facilitates learning…

Reviewed in this paper are some of the aspects of Australian practices and research activities in learning disabilities conducted over the past decade. Special emphasis is given to the diagnosis and treatment of children with severe reading problems. The influence of instruments such as the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities on the…

This report related the findings of the United Kindgom Reading Association's Research Subcommittee which surveyed teachers to determine the answers to three questions. Responses to the first question revealed seven main areas with which children have difficulty in learning to read: language and speech; auditory discrimination; the mastery of…

The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth analysis of vision-screening programs in relation to their efficacy, appropriateness, and feasibility for public school use. Twenty-two vision-screening programs were analyzed for reliability, validity, efficiency of identification and referral cost, and required testing time. Findings are that…