This study examined differences between 326 students enrolled in a full-day kindergarten program and 311 students in a half-day program. Data were obtained from six measures of academic achievement from the California Achievement Tests, administered in the spring. Results indicated no significant differences between the two groups on four measures…

Based on classroom experience and grounded in current research in reading, learning theory, and cognitive psychology, this book presents practical approaches to helping secondary school students develop the ability to reason with facts and concepts. The book also focuses on inference and implication. The first part of the book explains and…

Whether the shaping of test items can itself result in qualitative differences in examinees' comprehension of reading passages was studied using the Pearson-Johnson item classification system. The specific practice studied incorporated, within an item stem line, references that point the examinee to a specific location within a reading passage.…

This paper documents a presentation given on the use of English-language television cooking shows in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classrooms in Taiwan. Such shows can be ideal for classroom use, since they have a predictable structure consisting of short segments, are of interest to most students,…

A project of the Center for the Study of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, this yearbook combines the two major trends/concerns impacting the future of educational development for the next decade: knowledge and thinking. The yearbook comprises the following chapters: (1) "Toward the Thinking Curriculum: An Overview" (Lauren B.…

This study addressed the high retention percentage of college bound English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students exiting and ESL program who were retained in college developmental reading classes because of poor entrance test reading scores on the Multi-Assessment Placement Services (MAPS) exam. A computer reading program, implemented to improve…

This publication is designed to help home economics teachers reinforce basic skills in their curriculum. It contains a series of information sheets explaining basic concepts in sentence grammar, writing, mathematics, speech, and reading. Each concept is defined and illustrated with a home economics example. Step-by-step procedures are ready to…

A practicum was designed to improve reading comprehension in 50 third-graders over an 8-month period. The practicum's peripheral goal was to improve the efficient use of the microcomputer as a tool to supplement reading comprehension. The program included computer lab experiences to teach keyboarding skills, language arts software use, and the use…

Two studies explored the nature of fourth- and fifth-grade students' abilities to synthesize information from multiple sources of text. The studies examined the ways in which elementary students approached a synthesis activity that involved reading two well-organized and related nonfiction articles, and then drawing upon that information as they…

A screening instrument developed for this study measured the listening skills of 22 children in a kindergarten class. Children were found to be weak in four areas of listening: (1) auditory discrimination; (2) auditory perception; (3) following oral directions; and (4) listening comprehension. After these measures were administered, students…

An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate and compare the instructional effectiveness of six treatment packages in teaching receptive picture vocabulary to 12 mildly handicapped children (ages 3-6 years). Independent variables in the treatment packages included: least-to-most prompting, correction, group instruction, and individual…

Intended for high school literature teachers, this book reviews research in educational psychology and reading comprehension, and outlines classroom activities for direct instruction and practice of interpretive strategies. The book cites studies which reveal that if teachers distrust students' ability to interpret literature effectively, they may…

The comprehension processes of adult students solving two-step problems of comparison were studied using eye-movement experiments based on the assumption that eye fixations are synchronous with internal cognitive processes. Twenty university students each solved 24 two-step mathematical word problems of three sentences each with consistent…

This book summarizes approximately 600 reports of reading research identified between July 1, 1989 and June 30, 1990. The research studies in the book are categorized into six areas: (1) summaries of reading research; (2) teacher preparation and practice; (3) sociology of reading; (4) physiology and psychology of reading; (5) the teaching of…

The lack of systematic instruction in understanding and answering questions prompted the development of a taxonomy of 300 American history questions sampled from four current and commonly used intermediate grade level history textbooks. Each category of the classification includes a description of the information the question type provides the…