The effects of four different instructional presentations of identical content on the achievement of 72 gifted seventh graders were evaluated. Ss were randomly assigned to four treatments, each with one replication: (1) independent study, (2) lower-order questions, (3) higher-order questions, and (4) divergent-production questions. Eight teachers…

Story length and plausibility were varied to see whether these factors significantly affect children's ability to monitor their comprehension. A total of 19 third graders and 25 sixth graders were individually read four stories in a counterbalanced order. Each story had one of the following sets of characteristics: long, low plausibility; short,…

Activities designed to improve student questioning techniques are described. For journal availability see annotation SO 504 171. (DE)

The scientific method and questionning techniques are the basis for a beginning program of descriptive research for elementary students. (JR)

The author describes a game in which students must determine by asking a small number of questions which of 24 attribute blocks has been chosen. The activity is appropriate for primary children using blocks to keep track of answers, or for older students working mentally. (SD)

This article argues for and provides suggestions for new directions in law-focused education at the elementary level. An examination of legal education, criticisms of legal education, the practice of law itself, and children's thinking about law can supply these directions. (Author/JR)

Two studies examined the effectiveness of a model designed as an instructional aid in teaching college students how to respond to potentially discriminatory employment interview questions. Subjects in the first study, 91 students enrolled in communication classes in a mid-size Wisconsin university who were told that they would be asked to respond…

Inquiry teaching forces students to actively engage in articulating theories and principles that are critical to understanding a domain. Inquiry teachers have three distinct goals: (1) to help students construct a given theory or set of principles; (2) to help students construct novel theories or principles; and (3) to teach students how to pose…

In their efforts to understand the grammar of English as a second language, students often confuse the two roles that grammatical elements play: form and function. A classroom technique for helping students distinguish between the two is to create playful analogies for specific structures, in which students must use reasoning to determine the form…

To investigate prediction as a strategy that can improve reading comprehension, 50 third grade students from Toledo, Ohio, were first divided into experimental and control groups. The 2 groups both read the same 5 basal stories for instruction, were given the same pretest passages, answered 10 comprehension questions, and then followed a 3-day…

This brief review of research examines the mail questionnaire as a research tool. Major topics reported are the advantages and disadvantages of mail surveys response rates, and questionnaire construction. Among the advantages reported are ease of distribution and tabulation, the possibility of a large sample and geographic range, low cost,…

Recent research on hypothesis testing strategies (the strategy a person uses to determine the correctness of a specific hypothesis) has produced contradictory results. The three strategies available have been labeled confirmatory, neutral, and disconfirmatory. Some research has found that a confirmatory testing style predominates, while other…

This paper examines the academic task model used in the Managing Academic Tasks study as a potentially useful approach to some enduring problems or themes of research in science education: (1) effects of questioning and presentation strategies; (2) testing; (3) the role of laboratory activities; and (4) curriculum implementation and evaluation.…

Unskilled readers can become skilled readers and learners of whole text, if they are given instruction in effective strategies and taught to monitor and check their comprehension while reading. Two strategies for comprehension monitoring are self-questioning and reciprocal teaching. Questions students can ask before reading concern the concepts…

This manual was written to empower and inform the members of community support programs in the state of Kansas. A community support group is defined as a supportive community of people which works together in partnership to help each other master the symptoms of mental illness and develop healthy and meaningful lives. The manual was designed to be…