Direct instruction teaching methods have been found to promote the acquisition of literacy in developing readers. Equally important, learning strategies that allow children to construct knowledge through active participation increase their motivation for reading and writing. This action research was designed to explore the effectiveness of direct…

This paper describes a three-year study conducted among chemistry instructors (professors and teaching assistants) at a post-secondary institution. The goal was to explore the integration process of information and communication technologies (ICT) into traditional teaching. Four undergraduate chemistry courses incorporated a course website, an…

This study is a secondary analysis of six previous studies that formed part of an ongoing research program focused on examining the benefits of using writing-to-learn strategies within science classrooms. The study is an attempt to make broader generalizations than those based on individual studies, given limitations related to sample sizes,…

The author reviews research indicating that discipline specialists and novices acquire knowledge differently. He argues that teaching professionals need to help students learn how to learn within general knowledge domains. The developmental/sociocultural perspectives of Vygotsky, Bakhtin, Luria, and others, which emphasize the inter/intrapersonal,…

The idea of "slippery texts" provides a useful descriptor for materials that mutate and evolve across different media. Eight adult gamers, encountering the slippery text "American McGee's Alice," demonstrate a variety of ways in which players attempt to manage their attention as they encounter a new text with many resonances. The range of their…

This article outlines what it means to be a strategic language learner in the context of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). It looks at the possible roles for language learner strategies at their crucial intersection with language learning technology. We will first consider what language learner strategies have been represented in…

A good assessment method should be able to distinguish between deep learners and surface learners in a way so the former are rewarded while the later are punished. Using data of a survey conducted at the Institute of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, the study finds strong evidence that assignment essays serve to reward deep…

The inaugural column in the "Content Literacy" department discusses the importance of teachers' assisting students in grades 4-6 to develop content literacy skills. The discussion centers on levels of literacy and diversity issues facing teachers and then identifies three fundamental elements that should be a part of every teacher's content…

Writers carefully include critical information in the opening lines of their chapters, but students often gloss over these beginning sentences, missing information that could help them better comprehend the text. To address this concern, the authors created a strategy that prompts students to examine the opening lines of chapters, helping readers…

Over the summer months, students can lose up to 60% of the math and reading skills that they learned during the year. From special ways to say goodbye to fun activities to share with parents, this paper provides over 50 ideas to keep the learning going.

In light of the widespread recognition of the enduring challenge of enhancing the learning of all students--including a growing number of students representing diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds--there has been an explosion of literature on teaching, learning, and assessment in higher education. Notwithstanding scores of…

As the field of education moves forward in the area of assessment, researchers have yet to come to a conclusion about definitions of commonly used terms. Without a consensus on the use of fundamental terms, it is difficult to engage in meaningful discourse within the field of assessment, as well as to conduct research on and communicate about best…

Previous research on students' learning strategies has examined the relationships between either perceptions of the learning environment or personality and learning strategies. The focus of this study was on the joint relationships between the students' perceptions of the learning environment, their personality, and the learning strategies they…

This study examines the relationship between how learners of Japanese as a second language perceive the learning of "kanji" (i.e., the logographic characters shared with Chinese) and their ability to learn novel "kanji" words using morphological and contextual information. Eighty college students learning Japanese as a foreign language completed a…

This article extends a previous review of the literature (Maccini & Hughes, 1997) on mathematics interventions for secondary school students with learning disabilities (LD). A systematic review of the literature from 1995 to 2006 yielded 23 articles that met the criteria for inclusion. It was determined that a number of practices demonstrated…