Proposes to explore some of the origins of ideas that form the "official" music curriculum in England and suggests ways in which the impetus for development can be sustained. Believes that historical research in music education is central to illuminating the difficulties and strengths of current practice. (CMK)

A study investigated the efficacy of sound-field amplifications for four children (ages 5-7) with Down syndrome. Measures of speech perception were taken with and without the sound-field system and found that the children perceived significantly more speech in all conditions where the sound-field system was used. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Investigates effects of two advance organizers--question previewing and vocabulary preteaching--on Taiwanese college students' listening comprehension of English language videotapes. Results suggest the group exposed to a combined treatment of vocabulary preteaching and question viewing between two video viewings outperformed the groups who…

In this study, 768 English-as-a-Second-Language students at three different tertiary institutions responded to a survey about their college instructors' requirements regarding listening and speaking skills, their own difficulties in meeting those requirements, and the relative importance of seven selected academic aural/oral skills or tasks. A…

Listening comprehension involving dynamic cognitive mental processes is invisible and can only be measured by the listeners' reconstruction of the message they have heard. The form and type of response might influence the test takers' listening performance. This study examines whether the subjects' listening performance varied when the types of…

Instruction in narrative text structure on first graders' listening and reading comprehension was examined with a view to documenting strategy instruction and transfer of learning in beginning readers. Of interest was whether or not first-grade students (n=35) would, following instruction within the context of listening to stories, gain in…

The University of South Carolina School of Medicine introduced a seminar in 2003 to teach communication and listening skills to third year medical students. The students learned a structured communication format called "L-I-S-T-E-N" which they utilized to conduct a life review with an adult over age 65. The faculty evaluated this…

Physicists and physics students have been studied with respect to the variation in the ways they expound on their topic of research and a physics problem, respectively. A phenomenographic approach has been employed; six fourth-year physics students and 10 teacher-researcher physicists at various stages of their careers have been interviewed. Four…

The purpose of this research was to examine the validity of the 55-item Revised Token Test (RTT) and to compare traditional and Rasch-based scores in their ability to detect group differences and change over time. The 55-item RTT was administered to 108 left- and right-hemisphere stroke survivors, and the data were submitted to Rasch analysis.…

What C-tests actually measure has been an issue of debate for many years. In the present research, the authors examined the hypothesis that C-tests measure general language proficiency. A total of 843 participants from four independent samples took a German C-test along with the TestDaF (Test of German as a Foreign Language). Rasch measurement…

This article presents a case study where students examine an advertisement claiming that listening to classical music in an advertised CD set will enhance their cognitive skills and creativity. Students evaluate the claims and evidence cited to support them and then determine how they might independently verify the claims. The author states that…

The development of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector in the UK and the development of knowledge and skills in the ECEC workforce, involves participants not only in becoming informed about research carried out by others, but in actively being researchers. This is particularly relevant to the increasing number of those reading for…

For many years (1995-2002), the Department of English of the University of Blida witnessed low rates of academic achievement of students preparing an English Degree. An analysis of the second year students' course grades in academic years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 and data from a preliminary survey with some teachers reflected signs that the…

This study aimed to explore the effect of computer assisted language learning (CALL) on the undergraduate students' achievement on the TOEFL exam. The study was designed as quasi-experimental research. The participants in the study were 34 sophomore students in the Department of Foreign Language Education in Middle East Technical University. The…

Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) was a large-scale randomized trial of reduced class sizes in kindergarten through the third grade. Because of the scope of the experiment, it has been used in many policy discussions. For example, the California statewide class-size-reduction policy was justified, in part, by the successes of…