Fifty-five eighth grade students in regular social studies classes participated in a study of the effects of the keyword mnemonic technique and distributed practice on learning social studies facts. The keyword mnemonic and distributed practice result in improved performance, and the effects are independent and cumulative. (SLD)

In a problem-based curriculum, students generate learning issues that are the guidelines for individual study. This study investigates the essential characteristics of learning issues and the importance they have in each year of training. Findings indicate that a useful learning issue contains a keyword that demarcates the content of a topic to be…

A survey of 126 second- and third-year dental students investigated their preparation strategies for end-quarter examinations, including strategic use of study resources, influence of course characteristics and organization, and time management. Compares students with high and low achievement and suggests different studying strategies. (MSE)

A study with 72 university students in an introductory psychology course investigated effects of individual learning, cooperative learning, cooperative learning with instruction, and nonattendance on achievement. Effect of learned resourcefulness on attendance at academic self-management workshops was also studied. Students with low…

Explores several instructional strategies and approaches for teaching charts, tables, graphs, and diagrams to social studies students. Discusses the various qualities of these visual aids and identifies specific strategies for each. Includes activities designed to teach students how to construct these representations. (MJP)

A Michigan State University group advising program designed to provide a more intrusive advising format for freshmen and sophomores on probation and reluctant to meet with advisors is described. The program has helped students better understand the skills needed to maintain academic excellence. Results of the activity suggest it has been a…

Trust and collective learning are useful features that are enabled by effective collaborative leadership of e-learning projects across higher and further education (HE/FE) institutions promoting lifelong learning. These features contribute effectively to the development of design for learning in communities of e-learning practice. For this,…

This article presents the results of a study in which university students were questioned about their high school experiences. Major findings include (1) There is a great need to improve the quality of instruction that students receive in math, science, critical thinking, and study skills; (2) Hispanic and African American students believe that…

In college-level courses, the vast majority of students read expository textbooks with a primary purpose in mind: to memorize and, hopefully, understand enough information to receive a particular grade on a course exam. Intuitively, this kind of reading is different than the kind of reading that these same students do when reading a novel while…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

There is little debate among researchers, policymakers, and educational stakeholders that reading achievement among African American students is an important issue (Strickland, 1994). While several scholars have contributed greatly to the research literature on matters pertaining to African American students and reading, additional research is…

The purpose of this article is to describe the professional development plan for an elementary school receiving federal funding through the Reading Excellence Act (REA). The Reading Excellence Act provided the school with a two-year plan for literacy improvement. During the first year of the grant, assessment-driven instruction and flexible…

This small book is designed to be an easy-to-read, practical introduction for college freshmen to the college setting. Written by a college art instructor and designed to answer many of the questions that official college publications may not answer clearly, it presents information in short, direct, one or two paragraph items. The items are…

With a view to understanding developmental education, this project studied 100 college students at Champlain-Saint Lawrence College (Quebec) to measure their motivations and perceptions of ability and to see how different types of students responded to assistance. Students with a learning orientation (LO), who viewed ability as derived principally…

This book describes FIRST (Focussed Instruction in Reading for Successful Teaching) Reading, a computer program that takes answers to 20 questions about a learner and matches this profile against profiles in the database. FIRST Reading, formerly called "Consult Reading," can recommend the most-likely-to-succeed teaching focus(es) for…