This article describes two consecutive enactments of technology-oriented teacher professional development designs, aimed at helping teachers find high-quality online learning resources and use them in designing effective problem-based learning (PBL) activities for their students. To align with current professional development prescriptions, in the…

This paper is a qualitative case study of a Korean first grade child. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of a first grade Korean child's oral language interactions with teachers, parents, peers, and community members and to examine how a child's oral language impacts his literacy learning in English. The data were…

Many studies report information overload as one of the main problems that students encounter in online learning via computer-mediated communication. This study aimed to explore the sources of online students' information overload and offer suggestions for increasing students' cognitive resources for learning. Participants were 12 graduate students…

Since prior knowledge is positively linked with reading comprehension, methods of measuring prior knowledge are important. A word association test is a useful technique for evaluating topic familiarity and enables the teacher to make decisions about how much additional information is needed for students to process a text successfully. (SRT)

Describes a study done to determine if foreign language students are at a disadvantage when their teachers assume that the students have a working knowledge of English grammar terminology, which they may never have learned. Attempts to document the extent of students' knowledge of traditional English grammar terminology. (SED)

This paper describes a study aimed at expanding research on the interactive effect of readers' prior knowledge and text coherence on learning by introducing a third variable, topic interest, which is, the readers' relatively stable affective orientation toward a topic. The hypothesis was that the inferential processes required to fill in…

A retrospective questionnaire administered to 97 women found that the more knowledgeable a girl was prior to menarche, the more adequate she perceived her preparation for menarche to have been; and the older she was at the time of menarche, the more likely she was to report a positive initial experience. (Author/PN)

Portfolio-based assessment of prior learning typically follows Western assumptions about universal, value-based knowledge. It can be strengthened by recognizing that knowledge is embedded in specific social, cultural, and historical contexts. (SK)

Younger (n=40) and older (n=40) adults received information on either familiar or unfamiliar diseases and answered questions about it. Older adults learned less regardless of familiarity or type of memory test. Both older and younger participants learned less new information about familiar diseases. (Contains 30 references.) (SK)

Aims to contextualize recognition of prior learning (RPL) as a principle and to show the implications of recent developments in education for implementing RPL in higher education in South Africa. (EV)

This fifth in a series of edited transcripts based on a conference at Utah State University compares elements in Gagne's Events of Instruction with Merrill's Component Display Theory (CDT). Topics discussed include presenting objectives to the student; prior learning; stimulus and guidance; and presentation forms. (six references) (LRW)

Argues that a loss in general literacy occurs as the potential for imagery decreases through lack of understanding of the root meanings of words. Argues that the rich stores of imagery that contribute to English vocabulary are denied to those ignorant of the linguistic contributions to the English language. (RS)

A discussion of the relationship between background knowledge and reading comprehension examines evidence that American students have insufficient world knowledge and reading ability for the demands of higher education, and suggests methods instructors can use to enrich students' prior knowledge to enhance reading comprehension. (Author/MSE)

Notes that children either actively participated by asking questions or passively participated by listening to a recast containing a familiar synonym for each target word. Finds that children with higher vocabulary knowledge acquired significantly more words than did passive participants, and children with high versus low working memory did not…

This brief article uses a weaving metaphor to address the relationship between braille and reading, with prior knowledge (the warp threads) interacting with reading content (the weft threads) by means of braille (the shuttle). Reading is seen to be an interactive process between reader, text, and the context of the reading situation. (DB)