Because studies have shown that classroom distractions can interfere with school activities, the effects of several kinds of interruptions on elementary school students are described and measured for their frequency of occurrence, the time required for recovery of concentration, and their influence on morale and concentration. Using a sample of 65…

Prior knowledge of the content of a passage should reduce the effort required to encode the passage, and facilitate its recall. The results of two experiments on the effects of prior knowledge upon comprehension of simple technical prose are presented. The procedure was to collect ratings of the amount of prior knowledge for individual passage…

The amount of time students are engaged in the subject matter in physical education has been found to have a high correlation with student achievement. Academic Learning Time-Physical Education Motor [ALT-PS(M)] is defined as the amount of time a student spends in physical education content doing a motor skill with a low error rate. A report is…

Summarizing recent research, this seven-chapter report gives both characteristics and examples of effective schools and lists recommendations for achieving school effectiveness. Chapter 1 cites numerous recent studies to show that, in contradiction to earlier conclusions by James S. Coleman and Christopher Jencks, schools can be effective.…

The twelve papers, articles, and reports presented in this annotated bibliography review theories and evidence on the relationship between learning time and academic achievement in elementary and secondary schools. The papers concentrate on three types of learning time: "time on task," which is the amount of time students are actually engaged in…

The article considers various learning disabilities in mathematics and suggests teaching approaches such as ways to increase instructional time and the importance of building both computation skills and concepts. (DB)

A recent study comparing Asian and American students identified three factors that contribute to superior performance of elementary school children. These are: (1) amount of class time devoted to academics and direct instruction; (2) parent support of academic activities; and (3) student effort. The study and its findings are discussed. (MT)

American students perform poorly in mathematics compared to their peers in other countries, especially Japan and China. This article examines underlying causes for these deficiencies, including American complacency (in contrast to Asian diligence) and differing educational practices and expectation levels. Includes four references. (MLH)

This article reports on the first year of a Madeline Hunter program implementation study. Thirteen teachers in two schools were observed before and after a three-month intervention to identify relationships between staff development programs, teacher implementation of the program, student engaged rates, and student achievement in reading and…

Three approaches demonstrated the usefulness of visual feedback and auditory feedback to improve the on-task behavior and academic productivity of deaf multihandicapped adolescents. The approaches feature inexpensive portable equipment that do not require lengthy teacher training. (CL)

Data from 2,100 two-parent, two-child households were analyzed to determine the relationships of demographic variables, ownership of 11 appliances, and time spent in four categories of household tasks. Little evidence was found that appliance ownership is related to less time being spent in household tasks. (Author/CT)

The relationship of minutes of reading instruction to the gains in reading performance for 3,374 elementary school children shows consistent positive findings between large- and small-group classroom instruction and reading gains. Some of the negative results for individualized instruction may be due to school assignment practices. (Author/MLF)

Observation of teacher and student behaviors in four areas (teacher cognitive, teacher management, student on-task and student off-task) revealed that teachers spent 48 percent of total classroom time in cognitive activities. (Author/CL)

The on-task behavior of a visually impaired 11 year-old increased from 49 percent to 96 percent over a nine-week period when she received tokens and social reinforcement for on-task behavior and assignment completion. (Author/CL)

Provides an overview of the research findings on the relationship between time spent on learning and student academic achievement and discusses implications of this research for improving the use of time spent on learning. (MP)