Reviews studies examining differences in moral schema development, using techniques that range from measuring implicit knowledge (such as the defining issues test) and explicit knowledge (such as with the moral judgment interview). Finds significant differences in the comprehension of moral narratives based on age/education and level of expertise.…

Presents several key findings from several recent National Center for Educational Statistics reports related national trends in education involving elementary school enrollment, poverty concentration, language minority students, student family characteristics, reading comprehension, academic achievement (math, science, geography), student access…

Ten junior high students with developmental disabilities were studied using three conditions--different listening, repeated listening, and repeated listening with immediate retells--to observe the retention and fluency of delayed retelling. Results indicated that repeated listenings of an audiotaped instruction with immediate retells correlated…

Investigated whether the pseudoword repetition difference between poor and normal readers in the Netherlands could be explained by differences in memory for verbal materials or in familiarity with the composition of verbal materials. Concludes that the pseudoword repetition of poor readers is already operative in early, perceptual states of…

Reports on the exploratory phase of a computer assisted language learning project designed to provide a package enabling students of German as a second language to develop their reading and writing skills, learn new vocabulary and syntactical structure, and enhance their competence in the production of text commentary. (Six references) (Author/CK)

Examines two prominent positions in the epistemological foundations of psychology--Piaget's causal explanatory claims and Vygotsky's interpretive understanding; contends that they need to be placed in their wider philosophical contexts. Argues that the danger of causally explaining cultural practices through which human beings construct and…

Four guidelines that make tables more effective data displays are presented. The need for these guidelines and their application are illustrated with data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). A theoretical structure is presented to help develop test items to assess students' proficiency in extracting information from…

A study investigated care staff (n=12) perceptions of the language comprehension levels of adults with learning disabilities. Differences between estimates and actual scores increased with sentence difficulty. At the highest level of difficulty, staff consistently over estimated the clients' ability, while both under and over estimation occurred…

A study analyzed the verbatim transcription of a videotaped literacy lesson in a heterogeneous middle-school urban classroom. Ways students participated in the literary discourse and teacher practices that supported students' participation are described. Findings indicate students with disabilities could acquire the discourse practices needed for…

Describes an extensive reading program conducted in three rural secondary or middle schools in Malaysia aimed at motivating the students to read extensively in English and helping them overcome their problems in understanding English texts as a means towards increasing their proficiency in the language. (Author/VWL)

Critically reviews research on effects of cartoon violence on children's moral understanding and behavior to enable early childhood educators and parents to make informed decisions about what constitutes potentially harmful television viewing. Focuses on preschoolers' limited comprehension of television content and relatively sophisticated moral…

Examines whether inference training affects skilled and less skilled comprehenders by instructing children six to nine years old in how to make inferences from and generate questions about a text. Reports that the less skilled group improved more than the skilled group of children. (CMK)

This study evaluated the relative effectiveness of three approaches to supplemental reading instruction with 96 second graders with low reading achievement. It found that the approach combining explicit word recognition and reflective reading comprehension increased phonological decoding and had the highest effect size compared to the treated…

Presents a multimedia software package for teaching Indonesian listening comprehension and culture and reports the findings of an evaluative study of learner use of the software package. Asserts that there was a clear increase in comfort and confidence levels among learners using technology and high proficiency learners showed higher awareness of…

The Passage Comprehension portion of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised/NU was administered to 63 adolescents. Protocols were rescored using the following ceiling criteria: five consecutive errors, five errors in six consecutive responses, and five errors in seven consecutive responses. A strong relationship was determined among scores…