A study involving an elementary student with learning disabilities evaluated the effectiveness of a high-probability request sequence on compliance to a request for completion of a math assignment. High probability requests were effective in reducing the latency to compliance but only minimally affected duration of engagement. (Contains five…

Describes a study focused on the amount of time students spend on task while using Total Quality Education tools and principles in their daily academic activities. Classroom observation found that elementary students in TQE classrooms spent more time on task. Teachers should trade their traditional boss-management role for a lead-management role.…

Examines the effect of network and public television programs on children's: ability to attend to a task, time on task, and engagement in rough-and-tumble play. Sixty-two children were assigned to one of three groups that watched: (1) a public television program; (2) a network television program; and (3) no television and instead played with…

Direct observational data were collected on the behavior of 26 elementary school-age boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most prevalent inherited cause of mental retardation, during classroom academic activities. Findings indicated classroom engagement comparable to that of peers and not related to intrasubject variables such as severity of…

The evidence, regarding the influence of study time on students' perception and use of learning activities in open and distance teaching materials--a major contributor to the quality of student learning--is briefly reviewed. In addressing the problem of student workload, three key questions are considered: How much time do your students have for…

Reports on a case study of one student's pattern of engagement in an 8th grade algebra class. Argues both empirically and theoretically that none of the current theories of engagement and motivation serve to characterize the core of this student's decision about engagement: his affective assessment of mathematics. (Author/MM)

Describes a study of undergraduates that examined the potential trade-off in study efficiency and breadth of learning for hypertexts studied by selecting units from a content map. Compares study strategies and text recall with a more- and less-segmented hypertext and discusses text representations, study times, knowledge representation, and…

Describes how several business schools, fed up with students' Internet use during class time, are taking steps to force them to log off. Money spent wiring classrooms for Internet access and laptop use has encouraged distraction among students and the use of "kill switches" by professors. (EV)

Examines the performance of four developmental students in a psychology class, each of whom demonstrated a specific type of procrastination: (1) avoidance; (2) arousal; (3) fear of failure; and (4) disorganized or rebellious. States that students were alike in their tendency to postpone work, but they varied in levels of anxiety, timing of work,…

Brief multiple-stimulus-without-replacement (MSWO) preference assessments were conducted with 3 adolescent boys with emotional-behavioral disorders in the context of their public school educational program. The reinforcing effects of stimuli identified as high, medium, and low preference were then evaluated using an alternating treatments design…

It is no secret that language arts and math are the dominant features of the elementary curriculum. This is especially the case in Kindergarten through third grades. In many states, the thrust of the curriculum in the primary grades is on learning to read. After that, it is thought that students will then be able to read to learn. With that…

This study investigated the role that computer technology plays in transforming the learning process in higher education. Specifically, we looked at the relationship between computer-technology use, active learning, and perceived course effectiveness. The sample consisted of 1966 students in 81 graduate and undergraduate classes at a large, urban…

There will always be circumstances in which children do not follow adults' instructions or are unwilling to participate in certain activities. When noncompliance become recurrent, a child's functioning in home, school, and community settings can be affected. Often, these children miss out on a variety of experiences by virtue of being unengaged.…

A series of experiments introduced interruptions to the execution phase of simple Tower of London problems and found that the opportunity for preparation before the break in task reduced the time cost at resumption. Retrieval of the suspended goal was facilitated when participants were given the opportunity to encode retrieval cues during an…

Electronic performance support systems (EPSS) deliver relevant support information to users while they are performing tasks. The present study examined the effect of different types of EPSS on user performance, attitudes, system use and time on task. Employees at a manufacturing company were asked to complete a procedural software task and…