The I CAN (Independence, Completion, Accuracy, and Neatness) program is a motivational tool for elementary grade students with learning disabilities. Each student contracts for specific achievements in the four program areas, and parents and teachers contract for specific rewards. Daily review of goals as well as daily documentation of progress…

Argues that students will accept and even learn from homework provided that its design takes into consideration students' learning styles and study skills. Describes an effort at an all-boys high school in Brooklyn, New York, to tailor class instruction and homework to results obtained from a Learning Styles Inventory. (BCY)

Ways are outlined to help students read their textbooks and do homework exercises effectively, know when they really understand the material, pinpoint what they do not understand, and know when they need help. Suggestions are offered for incorporating student training and practice in study strategies. A sample worksheet is appended. (25…

Examines learning and teaching strategies by giving a one-hour workshop on techniques for reading technical material to undergraduate psychology students. Uses a blank information map, a set of behavioral objectives, and instructions for notetaking as study aids. Demonstrates that using information maps and behavioral objectives improves exam…

This study demonstrated that a columnar notetaking strategy was an effective way for secondary teachers to help 198 heterogeneous students abstract the main ideas, special terms, and facts from textbooks. The treatment involved a diagnostic-prescriptive approach to placing students with learning disabilities, remedial students, and nondisabled…

Offers explicit methods for the preparation, presentation, and utilization of handouts for lectures or seminars. Suggests that successful implementation of these methods can encourage students to take these handouts home, to read them, to refer to them again, and to recognize the contents when it appears later in the course of study. (JJK)

Self-questioning, summarizing, and review of lecture notes were compared as strategies for learning from lectures for 56 underprepared college students. Subjects were randomly assigned to self-questioning (19 students), summarizing (19 students), and notetaking-review (18 students) conditions. Self-questioners performed better than summarizers and…

A new method for evaluating the content representation of a test is illustrated. Item similarity ratings were obtained from three content domain experts to assess whether ratings corresponded to item groupings specified in the test blueprint. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis provided substantial information about the test's content…

Discusses college student note-taking behavior in teleclasses and describes the development and use of interactive study guides to improve note-taking accuracy. Word pictures, or graphic representations of ideas, are explained; design steps are listed; production steps are described; and applications are suggested. (two references) (LRW)

Describes and evaluates a reading/study skills program at Ferndale High School, Ferndale, Washington. Notes that the high school has changed dramatically over the four years of the program, and its reading/study skills program continues to be an integral part of this evolution. (RS)

Note-taking functions (encoding, encoding plus storage, and storage) and note-taking techniques (conventional, linear, and matrix) were studied for 96 college undergraduates. Results are explained in relation to repetition, generative processing, note completeness, and the potential of note-taking techniques to facilitate performance. (SLD)

The effectiveness of a mnemonic study strategy, the keyword method, was applied with 10 learning-disabled middle school students studying a science chapter on rocks and minerals. Posttests after the four-day implementation indicated mixed results with some content acquisition but a need for further instruction in strategy utilization. (DB)

The concept of study orchestration, a contextualized approach to study skills/habits for individuals and groups of students, is discussed as it relates to college student learning. Individual differences and characteristics are considered, particularly as they are sensitive to study context and concern intervention for students at risk…

Describes how the computer can support the study process of students variously described as "multivariate, nonlinear thinkers,""dyslexic,""learning disabled," and "purple people." Describes features of a Macintosh program called "Inspiration" that enables easy test entry and manipulation in a graphic mode, placing emphasis on the considerable…

The literature on notetaking is reviewed, including theoretical perspectives and listener- and lecturer-controlled variables influencing both the encoding function and storage functions of notetaking. Findings are applied to training secondary and postsecondary students with learning disabilities in notetaking skills. (DB)