Many instructors supply online lecture notes but little attention has been given to how students can make the best use of this resource. Based on observations of student difficulties with these notes, a strategy called parallel note-taking was developed for using online notes. The strategy is a hybrid of research-proven strategies for effective…

Today, academic assistance efforts are frequently geared to all students, not just the underprepared, with study skills offered in various formats. In this article, the authors describe a learning community model with the theme, "Strategic Thinking and Learning" (STL). Results of data analysis indicate that participants of the STL…

Drawing on learners' course diaries, this paper explores Chinese EFL learners' perceptions of difficulties and constraints in EFL learning and their responses to the perceived difficulties and constraints. The diary data appear to indicate that the students' learning difficulties lay mainly with their linguistic competence, but a closer scrutiny…

This report highlights the evaluation of a parent education program conducted with an urban middle school in Southern California. The program called "PASSport to Success" enables parents to learn study skills and how to better teach their children how to study in school. This evaluative report conducted a pretest and a posttest on…

Literacy is an increasingly important factor as schools focus on improving student achievement. Literacy skills in reading and writing are critical components needed for both access to the general curriculum and for successful academic achievement. A key component of reading and writing is word identification, a skill deficit for many adolescent…

The road to a college degree is often littered with potholes of self-doubt, and sometimes those are deep enough to discourage even the most ambitious students. If the transition from high school to college were easy, the average six-year graduation rate at four-year institutions in the United States would probably be higher than 63 percent. To…

A study examined the role that instructions to generate analogies can play when 56 middle-school eighth-grade and seventh-grade students learn a science textbook unit. The target concept on the unit was the cell and the key features of the concept were the cell parts and their functions. Prior to studying the unit on the cell, the students…

Designed for those students who do not know how to study effectively, this book emphasizes practical, proven ways of learning. The book explains key concepts and gives examples, followed by graded exercises to let the student build a successful study program. Students will learn how to: (1) manage time; (2) set study goals; (3) listen actively;…

A significant amount of research has revealed that many students memorize words for a test, then later forget the correct spellings. A study examined the effectiveness of two approaches to teaching spelling: the "traditional" method based on grade level speller and deductive thinking; and word study based on recent research on developmental…

This bibliography is useful to those interested in the intersection of collaborative learning concerns and enhanced citizen participation. In addition to an introduction, there are five parts: (1) general information on study circles and small group discussion (8 references); (2) the theory of collaborative learning in small groups and study…

Intended as a comprehensive collection of knowledge about managing college-level reading and study strategy programs for practitioners, administrators, and researchers, this book provides a review of the theoretical, empirical, and programmatic issues in the field. Chapter 1 ("Reading, Writing, and Academic Literacy" by Sharon L. Pugh…

Phonics teaches learners how to match the letters of the alphabet to the speech sounds they already know. At age five, children who are ready to learn to read have a vocabulary of some 5,000 words and understand far more than that when they hear them. The problem is that there are 44 sounds in English and only 26 letters in the alphabet. Phonics…

A study compared a text annotation method to underlining to ascertain whether students were more likely to learn and remember material they had read using one strategy or the other. Subjects were 67 students in 4 classes of a 7-week study skills course. One group was trained in text annotation, one in underlining, and two control groups were given…

This manual describes two methods of assessing college students' conceptual structures in the interest of student evaluation. The focus is on the mental frameworks (conceptual structures) that enable students to remember and apply facts and theories. The guide offers two methods, the "ordered-tree" and the "fill-in-the-structure." An introduction…

In order to include listening training as part of a one credit, one-year study skills course, freshmen students in the college of basic studies of the University of Hartford (Connecticut) are given 12 weeks of listening exercises. The focus of each of the 12 weeks is as follows: Week 1--interviews about studying; Week 2--identifying good and poor…