This booklet provides an overview of stages and levels of cognitive development. Particular attention is given to language skills, the growth of understanding and memory, levels of thinking, altruism, and conscience. The importance of parents' influence on the development of their child's thinking abilities is emphasized. Nine resources that…

Helping to build a bridge between classroom lessons and the world outside the classroom door, this book suggests specific strategies for using the newspaper across the school curriculum. The introduction to the book answers the question: Why use newspapers in the reading curriculum? Chapters in the book are entitled: (1) Teaching How to Read the…

Television is widely used in Ontario (Canada) public schools and is appreciated for making teaching more effective. Yet studies on the effectiveness of television as a learning tool outside of the classroom are ambivalent: many have claimed television to have a negative effect on learning, while others show neutral or moderately positive effects.…

This paper describes learner response, as indicated by questionnaires, to a package of tape-based listening materials in French, Spanish and Italian. The learners were in "community classes" (2 hours per week) at a wide variety of levels. Their response was, in general, cautiously favorable, and indicates the general acceptability of such…

To study how the organization of information affects the way that information is interpreted, a total of 404 undergraduates in two studies (151 and 253 students, respectively) solved statistical reasoning problems based on data presented in a variety of types of graphs and tables. When assessing relative probabilities, students were equally…

An intervention program in the area of sixth grade social studies was implemented for the purpose of increasing reading comprehension levels of average ability students in a large, urban school district. Five metacognitive strategies were employed to improve understanding of the adopted textbook. The strategies included outlining, sentence…

Research on six major issues in reading is organized into charts and a bibliography. For each of the six areas (schema theory, reading strategies and processes, comprehension studies, culture and reading, methods for teaching reading, cognitive/metacognitive issues), relevant research is summarized in a chart. Each chart contains two sections, one…

A study examined three issues concerning reading comprehension: amount of instruction in comprehension strategies; cultural backgrounds of students; and transfer and self-initiated automaticity. Two methods of creating transfer--students either taught a strategy they had learned to younger classmates, or created their own strategic lessons and…

A study determined the relationship between life stress and reading comprehension test scores on the IOWA Tests of Basic Skills. Subjects, 41 middle-school students attending Lincoln School in Garwood, New Jersey, were surveyed as to the amount of life stress prevalent in their lives. In addition, the Iowa scores for reading comprehension were…

This paper examines how language is simplified for pedagogical purposes and reports on a study of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners' reactions to reading variously simplified and unsimplified texts. A total of 36 ESL learners of intermediate proficiency at the university-entrance level read, recalled, and commented on original texts and…

A study investigated the attitudes of adult university students of English as a Second Language (ESL) toward use of closed captioned television (CCTV) as an instructional tool. Students at the intermediate (n=51) and advanced (n=55) levels of ESL study in classes using CCTV were administered a questionnaire concerning their perceptions of the…

It is argued that limited-English-proficient (LEP) readers, like all readers, process print with the intent to comprehend it, and all readers bring different background knowledge that influences how they derive meaning from text. Cultural influences are extremely significant in determining background knowledge, both cognitive and social. The…

A year long lesson plan is is presented that describes an English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL)/English for Specific Purposes (ESP) reading course designed for students in Spain. The reading skills focused on in the plan are clearly those necessary for research or comprehension of technical texts. The theoretical basis of the approach is described,…

Reading and writing have traditionally been treated as separate processes, but some research on the relationship suggests that the two processes should be taught together. It is also proposed that skill in recognizing a text's main idea is a summarizing skill, demanding the cognitive and linguistic prerequisites appropriate to the text type. Good…

Aimed at entering college students whose skills are at a precollege level, this book focuses on reading comprehension and explores reading as a form of the thinking process. The primary focus of the book is on helping students grasp the main ideas and supporting details of material they are assigned to read in their college textbooks. Chapters…