This study investigated the effects of prefatory statements (advance organizers) on the listening comprehension of 310 Cliffside Park, New Jersey, fourth and fifth graders. Six null hypotheses were tested: two examining the differences in listening comprehension between students of both grade levels who used and did not use prefatory statements;…

The study determined (1) the common skills and knowledges which adult educators of the future would need to perform their jobs adequately and (2) the learning experiences most appropriate in obtaining the more important skills and knowledges. The study employed the Delphi Technique, a method of collecting and organizing data in which a convergence…

Participants in a seminar series in second language acquisition held at Harvard University discussed three papers by Dulay and Burt ("Goofing: An Indicator of Children's Second Language Learning Strategies,""Should We Teach Children Syntax?", "Natural Sequences in Child Second Language Acquisition"), and developed…

Mapping the cognitive style of individual learners is one attempt to gain more precision and accountability in solving learning problems in education. Cognitive Style Mapping is a diagnostic procedure. It is designed to determine how people derive meaning from the world around them, specifically how individuals encode, process and decode meanings.…

The two primary purposes of this book are to extend information about children's language learning and to look at existing notions of how children acquire language by considering what is meant by linguistic competence. The introductory chapter presents an account of two approaches to the study of language acquisition and outlines the author's…

Two assumptions in support of learner-controlled computer-assisted instruction (CAI) are that (1) instruction administered under learner control will be less aversive than if administered under program control, and (2) the student is sufficiently aware of his learning state to make, in most instances, his own instructional decisions. Some 130…

The program description gives basic information on the one-year social studies course focusing on anthropology, designed primarily for intermediate-grade (4-6) students but applicable to secondary students. While the long range objective is for students to contemplate the nature of man and the forces that shape his humanity, some terminal…

A proposal to formulate nomothetic theories -- general statements or scientific laws -- in a way to allow for an immediate test of individual differences is presented. The need for such a proposal is cited in recent developments in structural model building in the area of memory called information processing and in the concern to bring individual…

To determine the effects of instruction and practice in a self-instructional program that had previously proven to be effective, 52 undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. One received the entire instructional program, the second received only instructional cues and examples, the third only the practice portion, and…

The validity of certain standardized tests may be affected by the short-term memory load therein and its relation to a child's short-term memory capacity. Factors of testing which increase a test's memory load and consequently interfere with comprehension are discussed. It is hypothesized that a test which strains the short-term memory capacity of…

An overview of language instruction on the national level and specifically in Nevada during the late 1950's and the early 1960's reveals five major factors which contributed to the changing trends. The author discusses: (1) the new understanding of the nature of language, (2) changing philosophies and objectives, (3) modern foreign language and…

The COPED project linked behavioral scientists and educators in various geographical regions to school systems in the same regions for the purpose of planning and promoting change, understanding the processes by which change occurs, and evaluating types of change efforts. The enterprise evolved into four major strands: (1) the conceptual effort,…

Heart rate change was used as the index of the orienting response (OR) of 102 kindergarten children. Heart rate change was measured by recording heart rate upon the presentation of tones. 15 similar tones followed by a different, 16th tone, were used. From this data the children were divided into high, medium, or low orientors. Following the…

This study examined effects of inference quizzes on inferential thinking. A total of 213 grade 8 history students were randomly assigned to treatments within classrooms. Group R took eight weekly quizzes requiring recall of stated facts. Group I took 8 quizzes requiring students to draw inferences about interest groups. Teachers had no knowledge…

This report was designed mainly as an aid to developing staff training for field personnel engaged in social or economic development, particularly as this may relate to disadvantaged areas. In one aspect, it is a descriptive report of the findings and experiences of a pilot-training project carried out from the fall of 1967 to the fall of 1969 by…