Liverpool's college-based literacy scheme offers a program that meets the needs of the non-literate adult who feels ambivalent about attending classes in a college. (MW)

Reports one student's reaction to an innovative course that presents concepts with a minimal amount of math, removes much scientific jargon, provides a historical perspective, and allows optional student involvement in research. (GS)

Two studies in southeastern Sweden examined rural children's conflicting attitudes toward environmental change in the local community. Following a yearlong curriculum in environmental studies, 14 fifth and sixth graders in Ramkvilla were presented with an imaginary scenario involving the construction of a new factory. Their small, somewhat idyllic…

There are several variables at work in any piece of writing and some combinations of these variables can cause serious problems for some students. The first area where two of these variables occur is in the notion of what a college education is. The subject matter to be learned is one variable in what education means, and the second variable is…

Proponents of writing across the curriculum are quick to clarify that writing to learn is not the same as learning to write; but as flip sides of a single coin, the two support one another. Across-the-curriculum writing finds its merit in removing students from their passivity. Cross-curricular writing activities fall into two groups--expressive…

A brief description is given of the Bellack System, which is used to analyze the content and structure of discussion. The system identifies who speaks, when they speak, and what they say. Four types of pedagogical "moves" were identified by Bellack: (1) a structuring move--beginning a new topic; (2) a soliciting move--a question; (3) a…

To determine college students' use of the mass media and the degree to which they encounter information about psychology in them, a questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 469 students enrolled in college psychology courses. The questionnaire broke the mass media down into 12 categories, such as local newspapers, general…

To assess the effectiveness of various composition evaluation methods, a study asked two freshman English classes to respond to three questionnaires on the writing of personal essays and methods of evaluation they had experienced. Responses indicated that all students had a fear of having their essays evaluated. Evaluation methods considered a…

A three-year study is testing the hypothesis that learning about American minority ethnic literature produces grief, and is assessing the effects of changing the teaching and content of the course to make the best possible use of those feelings. Classroom experience in teaching a consistently popular course in minority literature revealed unusual…

This research assessed whether, within the context of a classroom session, the pattern of questioning and discussion used by teachers is related to the pattern of student responses. Clear and comprehensible linkages between questioning and answering behaviors were found in this study. These results indicate that researchers can help resolve the…

Extending an earlier Donald Graves study by including students over seven years of age, this study identified relationships among the nature of writing tasks assigned by teachers and the written responses of elementary school students to those tasks. One class each at the third, fifth, and seventh grade levels provided eighteen sets of writing…

To find out what study skills were used by successful students at an urban commuter school whose primary degree program is business, the College Reading and Study Skills (CRSS) inventory was validated on 150 students. First the CRSS inventory was evaluated and revised slightly. The language of the statements was made positive and jargon free. The…

A comprehensive and rigorous investigation of the person-environment fit hypothesis that students achieve better in their preferred environment is described. The design of this study included four notable features. First, the student outcome domain included a comprehensive range of six affective and three cognitive outcomes. Second, classroom…