The potential educational impact of the Melbourne Zoo (Australia) for recreational visitors was examined in this study using time as the major dependent variable. Specific goals included: (1) assessment of the potential cognitive and affective educational impact of zoos on recreational visitors; (2) determination of the temporal and spatial…

School board members can use board policies to set the direction for effective instructional management. Effective schools appear to have these characteristics in common: (1) strong instructional leadership by the principal, (2) a safe and orderly atmosphere, (3) high expectations of all students, (4) schoolwide emphasis on basic skills…

Teacher behaviors and activities related to varying levels of student engagement and disruption were examined in 41 elementary school classrooms. Teachers and their classes were observed for eight weeks at the beginning of the school year and from January to March to determine: (1) the relationships between management behaviors and two student…

A study investigated the effects of microcomputers on children's attention to reading tasks and the relationship between previous reading achievement and grade level on such attentional behavior. Fifty-five third and fifth graders read two stories each, one presented on a microcomputer and one presented in print. Television cartoons and rock music…

This research addressed two major issues: (1) equity as it is reflected in the access of students to educational resources; and (2) efficiency as it is reflected in the use of the resources provided for the education of children. The research, which was begun in 1979, was designed to obtain data on the use of resources and the structure of…

This "letter to teachers" suggests reasons teachers should be interested in research findings. Research findings in several areas are summarized and interpreted so that they are useful to teachers of elementary school mathematics. Among the areas that are highlighted are: (1) time allocation; (2) low achievement; (3) active teaching; (4)…

Variability of attention to task and its relation to instructional contexts for learning disabled (LD) children was investigated. Subjects were 24 mainstreamed elementary grade LD children. The children's behaviors relating to academic engagement and the situational contexts in which they occurred were observed and coded in both the regular class…

This study investigated the effects of three instructional strategies and student entry characteristics on student engagement and the acquisition of skills necessary for the construction and interpretation of line graphs. The strategies examined were an activity-based approach, a written simulation-based approach, and a combination of activity-…

A review of research on time on task and length of school day or year reveals that time is not the only variable significantly related to student achievement. Research indicates that increasing time in school will not automatically increase student achievement or raise standardized test scores. Other variables such as corrective and immediate…

Many previous studies have documented the importance of time needed for learning and time spent in learning as parameters of educational achievement. However, most of this research has not considered the different types of tasks students are asked to learn. This study examined differences in student learning rates, amount of information acquired,…

The monograph provides an integrative review on the environmental and instructional factors that appear to be most conducive to the complex, interactive, and interdependent process of learning. Ten instructional strategies empirically documented to have a critical impact on a student's ability to learn are discussed in detail. They are: (1) The…

The Michigan Department of Education with assistance from the Educational Testing Service has compiled the results of valid educational research studies on specific topics into a report to be used as a guide for developing effective schools. It is intended for use by practitioners to help bridge the gap between educational researchers and…

This paper is a preliminary report of a pilot study done at the University of Northern Colorado in 1984 using PHOENIX, a mainframe computer based education (CBE) system in a teacher education program. The study deals with the instructional tutorial and a computer based test generation system related to those tutorials. Data on the physiological…

A participant observation study of a primary grade classroom, in which three first grade students were selected as case study subjects, illustrates the range of workstyles of beginning writers. Primary grade teachers are often concerned that their students are not producing writing comparable with their capabilities, but educators' conceptions of…

The relationship of the amount of classroom time devoted to reading instruction, the number of reading related activities, and teacher instruction feedback to reading achievement at the end of kindergarten was investigated for a sample of approximately 300 children in 14 kindergarten classrooms at three schools. Based on nine rounds of full-day…