Noting that a learning-styles approach to college instruction would ideally call for a separate course on learning taught by a learning styles specialist committed to building on students' strengths rather than concentrating on their weaknesses, this paper describes how these goals can be met in a basic composition course. The first half of the…

The guide is designed to increase the effectiveness of persons who tutor learning disabled (LD) college students by providing information on LD characteristics as well as specific strategies and techniques for working with LD students. Initial sections define learning disabilities and list characteristics of LD college students in such areas as…

The testing effect is a phenomenon that may be described as follows: following the reading of a prose passage, a group of students who are given a posttest on the passage immediately or shortly afterward will later recall more of the passage on a retention test than will a similar group of students who are not given the posttest. Testing as a…

A study measured student awareness of a variety of reading and study skill elements: author attitude and bias, signal words, vocabulary, organizing to read, notetaking, mental imagery, and reading flexibility. It also established a reliability coefficient for the Survey of Study-Reading Habits instrument, a 15-item, 4-point Likert type scale…

The amount and structure of prose learning derived from vocabulary definition and graphic post-organizer construction methods of independent study tasks is examined. Undergraduate subjects (n=144) read a 2000-word passage in a 20-minute reading period. Two subject groups performed text information tasks while a third acted as a control to measure…

Study skills instruction is notably absent from the content area classrooms that are their natural home. This situation can change if reading teachers work to implement eight steps to a successful study skills program: (1) listen to teachers and students who know best which study skills should be emphasized; (2) respond by arranging inservice…

The first year of California State University's program to improve university students' critical reading of introductory texts had two objectives: to develop professors' available repertoire of strategies for guiding students' independent learning from texts and to develop students' facility in learning from texts with adjunct guide materials…

Intended for elementary school reading teachers, this booklet offers insight into the nature of comprehension and suggestions for enhancing children's comprehension skills. The first chapter discusses trends in comprehension research, and several specific points about the nature of comprehension and how it can best be taught. The second chapter…

Intended to make teachers aware of various tactics that will move students toward strategies for independent learning, this paper describes several work-study skills, which--once mastered--can be integrated into the set of tactics the life-long learner might use in his or her independent mastery of text and lecture. The first part of the paper…

Training tutors to help students with study skills and content-reading strategies, as well as to assist with course work, can broaden the role of tutors. Handouts for tutors have been developed that adapt traditional reading/study strategies for use in specific disciplines, sometimes with specific textbooks in mind. Tutors should also emphasize…

In order to teach in the content area, a teacher must accept five basic premises: (1) Reading in the content field is part of the total school program. (2) All teachers are responsible for helping students read the text in a specific subject. (3) The focus of teaching is changed from merely teaching content to how to read and understand the…

The significance of study method inventories in higher education is explored. A brief history of study skills inventories is presented along with justifications for using a study method approach. Research indicates the student most likely to be more successful than others may exhibit better study habits and adapt more easily to academic norms and…

This is a summary of a workshop on teaching second language vocabulary. The following were discussed: (1) the need to teach vocabulary in context; (2) the need for vocabulary selection; (3) active vs. passive vocabulary; (4) the presentation of meaning (including denotation, connotation, idioms, and cognates); (5) the rate of vocabulary…

Listening lessons, working in pairs, content area reinforcement, and study skills are helpful elements of a successful reading program. (JH)