Children's pragmatic abilities were studied focusing on "requesting" in a group of 30 language impaired children (three to nine years old). There was a predominant usage of direct forms with only a slight increase of indirect ones in the older group. (Author/SEW)

Argues that to improve a reading program, administrators need to hire teachers who know what's involved in good reading instruction. Provides a sample interview of a prospective teacher and a list of useful interview questions, all based on research into what makes reading instruction effective. (FL)

Radio recordings were made of the conversations of 30 girls just under four years of age at school with their teachers and at home with their mothers. Frequency and type of question asked by the children and frequency and type of answer given by the adults were analyzed, revealing home/school and social class differences in all measures. (MP)

Discusses a retelling performance checklist that uses elements of story grammar to help teachers assess comprehension in a meaningful way. (FL)

Examined the conversational structure of questions and answers in a performance appraisal interview between a manager and an employee. Results demonstrated that both the manager and employee used question-and-answer pairs to demonstrate their understanding of the expectancy to ask and answer questions and to provide sequential implicativeness and…

Describes the use of sample surveys in student affairs data collection. Discusses guidelines for planning, designing, and conducting research projects which employ survey methodology. Considers survey methodology, wording of questions, survey format, and sample size. (RC)

Argues that by carefully planning questioning techniques, the classroom teacher can build prereading concepts and help students make those links between their own knowledge and experience and the information contained in a text. Offers taxonomies of teacher responses and of concept development to help teachers structure classroom interaction. (FL)

Implies that instruction can help students improve in reader-based processing of text and that strategies for making schema-general questions story-specific are necessary for processing, storing, and retrieving information from complex short stories. (AEA)

Gaming activities increase a student's motivation to learn cognitive material, develop a student's sensitivity to the way media works, and improve the student's decision making skills. The game presented is based on the television program "To Tell the Truth," and centers on questions concerning arthritis. (JN)

College students read prose passages and answered either verbatim or paraphrased inserted questions while reading under review or no review conditions. On a posttest students who received paraphrased questions outperformed students who received verbatim questions. This result supported the contention that paraphrased adjunct questions could…

Presents classroom examples of basic differences that exist when teachers talk to students and in the way students talk about science when they are attempting to learn. Strategies by which teachers can analyze their own performance and that of their students are also included. (HM)

Suggests: (1) activities to enhance interest during observations of animals in the elementary science classroom; (2) possible questions to ask during these observations; and (3) sources for observing animals such as pet stores and farms, as well as bringing pets into the classroom. (DS)

Presents a graphic means of eliciting the life history of an adolescent during an initial interview. The grid summarizes chronological facts about the client, and is useful for both the social agency and the adolescent him/herself. (LAB)

The author considers the dominant paradigm in reading comprehension research inadequate, because the skills measured by comprehension tests are unlikely to represent the full range of typical reading behaviors. He describes a preliminary study using an alternative, qualitative interview methodology to analyze the reading difficulties of eight…

Twelve fifth- and sixth-grade field-dependent and field-independent teachers were observed for 96 hours in regular elementary classrooms. Statistically significant differences were obtained from 8 out of 10 instructional behaviors observed between field-dependent and field-independent teachers. (Author/SJL)