The effects of text-provided aids on readers' understanding of scientific passages are discussed. Two techniques are pretraining on definitions and signaling. In the experiments, subjects read a scientific passage with either definitions pretraining, signaling, both, or neither. Results indicated these techniques helped readers build mental models…

Describes examining seventh- and eighth-grade students' writing for both function and audience as they relate to learning and conceptual development. Includes examples illustrating how audience influenced students' understanding of concepts in a science class. (HTH)

Discusses learning how to compose a film as one way children can learn the valuable lesson of how to give form to ideas and shape to thought. Presents the stages of composing a film and a sequence of filmmaking activities for introduction at progressive grade levels. (HTH)

Suggests adapted teaching strategies that can help meet the deaf students' special needs in reading. (FL)

Hypothesizes that overloading the working memory may leave no space for thought and organization such that faulty (or even no) learning takes place. Provides examples of this hypothesis and possible remedies. These remedies focus on design of laboratory manuals and equipment and on curriculum content order. (JN)

Factors that affect the development and selection of social skills training programs with severely handicapped students are reviewed. Training procedures used with this group are also discussed. The author argues that efforts to develop acceptable social behavior in these students must systematically produce maintenance and generalization of…

Discusses materials in the ERIC system concerning knowledge or schemata children have when they come to class, behaviors a teacher may observe, and suggestions teachers can keep in mind when planning creative activities that support children's meaning-making efforts. (HTH)

Describes a small scale study of children's experiences with books read aloud in nursery schools. Explores what young children learn from hearing books and stories read aloud, and shows how data from this study and a larger scale study conducted simultaneously can illuminiate thinking about early literacy. (HTH)

To bring about educational change, parents and citizens must become politically active in the school system. Parents can help their children during times of educational change by making learning fun, rewarding learning, and teaching critical thinking skills. (DF)

Relates some of the observations made of a kindergarten classroom over a two-year period in which teachers simulated as many conditions as possible with respect to a natural "learning-how-to-write" situation. (HOD)

Discusses inquiry and discovery methods in elementary school science education; emphasizes the importance of teachers knowing whether they are using the inquiry approach and to what extent. Presents a chart listing the steps involved in problem solving, indicating whether a step is teacher- or student-controlled. (BC)

Describes a new theoretical model of the learning process produced by the computer's strict reliance on procedure and its unique methods for managing data. The implications of this model for mathematics learning are illustrated through an experimental paradigm comparing the problem-solving skills of an expert and a novice. (MBR)

Notes that while gifted students have characteristics that suggest superior reading ability, not all of them become capable readers. Proposes a teaching program that is different in content, method, and pacing to help these children reach their potential. (FL)

Higher education should serve the long-term intellectual needs of the student. The only way to measure real learning is by what it does to the individual student's intellectual growth. A three-step approach to internalize, integrate, and subjectify knowledge is discussed. (MLW)

A study of elementary school students investigated the effects of immediate feedback during a spelling pretest compared to the usual delayed feedback after dictation of an entire word list. Results indicated a small degree of difference between methods. (Author/DF)